BIOLOGY 

 LIBRARY 



PROEM 



1DO not want change : I want the same old and 

 loved things, the same wild-flowers, the same 

 trees and soft ash-green ; the turtle-doves, the 

 blackbirds, the coloured yellowhammer sing, sing, 

 singing so long as there is light to cast a shadow 

 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 pet- 

 als radiating, striving upwards 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 rich dandelion disc. 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 own 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. 



M699160 





