A Mirror of Life, 



stood on this bank and watched and listened, rapt with 

 the magic beauty of the scene, the moonlight silvering 

 the tips of the trees, and the pond reflecting a softer 

 and more poetic image of all the leafy world around it. 

 Ah ! the moonlight is a wonderful painter ! and with 

 some effects outrivals the sun, as Rembrandt, with his 

 deep shadows, got more powerful expression very often 

 than Rubens with all his high lights. 



And the varying tints and tones on the water by 

 day, so ceaselessly changing, are like images of 

 changeful human life. Not the slightest cloud passes 

 but, in the sunshine, mirrors itself here, sometimes 

 soft, fleecy, smitten with golden fire, or gray and 

 quiet and one-coloured, gliding slowly on ; then, again, 

 on a dark day, the water is dull, sombre, greenish, and 

 obscure ; and when again a breeze ripples it, all seems 

 to move in secret rhythmic harmony, water, foliage, and 

 wind making a music so subtle that it is impossible to 

 discriminate and to attribute to each element the effects 

 due properly to it. 



We have some - \ / 



. . . JK^>^ 

 pretty visitors in 



the shape of but- 

 terflies, who find 

 dainty bits on the 

 growths round the 

 pond, the red ad- 

 miral, the swallow- 

 -tail, sometimes a 



. Ill BL 1 Ih-KM.V. 



peacock or clouded 



yellow, and the giant cabbage butterfly among the rest. 

 One or two moths sometimes come this way, and 

 will frequently bump against your head in the even- 

 ings if you are quiet enough, and then suddenly recover 



