^Esthetic and Moral Reasons 119 



And my sweet night bird tuned your poets ' shells 



To lull sad lovers in languorous asphodels; 



Yet all my influence 



Shone dimmer than my beauty : my bright plumes 



Lured you to squander them, till, in the fumes 



Of greed, your heart forgot to cherish me, 



And sold me unto death and slavery." 



And much of this symbolism and not a little 

 of the superstition with it, has been handed down 

 to us and is part of our every-day life and con- 

 versation. For example, the dove is the emblem 

 of gentleness and peace ; the eagle of war and 

 aggressive power; the nightingale of song; the 

 owl of wisdom; the vulture of greed, and the 

 raven of darkness and disaster. Nor are we 

 entirely dependent on the ancients for such 

 symbols; we are beginning to adopt new ones. 

 Our chickadee has become the symbol of friend- 

 liness, our robin of cheerfulness, and our blue- 

 bird of happiness. And it will pay us to learn, 

 as many have already learned, that the happiness 

 which comes with the bluebird in the spring, 

 may be made to last through the rest of the year 

 by sympathetic association with the other birds 

 in their season. 



In decorative art, especially in Oriental deco- 

 rative art, birds have a very important place. 

 For example, the artists of Japan seem never to 



