290 BIRDS AND MAN 



Happy the nature-lover who, in spite of fame, is 

 allowed to rest, as White rests, pressed upon by no 

 ponderous stone ; the sweet influences of sun and 

 rain are not kept from him ; even the sound of the 

 wild bird's cry may penetrate to his narrow apart- 

 ment to gladden his dust ! 



Perhaps there is some truth in the notion that 

 when a man dies he does not wholly die ; that is to 

 say, the earthly yet intelligent part of him, which, 

 being of the earth, cannot ascend ; that a residuum 

 of life remains, like a perfume left by some long- 

 vanished, fragrant object ; or it may be an emanation 

 from the body at death, which exists thereafter 

 diffused and mixed with the elements, perhaps un- 

 conscious and yet responsive, or capable of being 

 vivified into consciousness and emotions of pleasure 

 by a keenly sympathetic presence. At Selborne 

 this did not seem mere fantasy. Strolling about the 

 village, loitering in the park-like garden of the 

 Wakes, or exploring the Hanger ; or when I sat on 

 the bench under the churchyard yew, or went softly 

 through the grass to look again at those two letters 

 graved on the headstone, there was a continual 

 sense of an unseen presence near me. It was like 

 the sensation a man sometimes has when lying still 

 with closed eyes of some one moving softly to his 



