i INTRODUCTION 15 



on the dial, for such is the measure of his 

 song, and I want them in the same place. 

 Let me find them morning after morning, 

 the starry-white petals radiating, striving 

 upwards up to their ideal. Let me see the 

 idle shadows resting on the white dust ; let 

 me hear the humble-bees, and stay to look 

 down on the yellow dandelion disk. Let me 

 see the very thistles opening their great 

 crowns I should miss the thistles ; the reed 

 grasses hiding the moor-hen ; the bryony 

 bine, at first crudely ambitious and lifted by 

 force of youthful sap straight above the 

 hedgerow to sink of its weight presently and 

 progress with crafty tendrils ; swifts shot 

 through the air with outstretched wings like 

 crescent-headed shaftless arrows darted from 

 the clouds ; the chaffinch with a feather in 

 her bill ; all the living staircase of the spring, 

 step by step, upwards to the great gallery of 

 the summer, let me watch the same succession 

 year by year." 



After all then he did enjoy the change 

 and the succession. 



Kingsley again in his charming prose 



