THE STUDY OF NATURE. 63 



influence over my destiny has always been great, was its scene, its 

 occasion, just as, thirty years before, it had lit for me, through Vico, 

 the first spark of the historic fire. 



Beloved and beneficent nurse ! Because I had for one moment 

 shared her sorrows, suffered, dreamed with her, she bestowed on me a 

 priceless gift, worth more than all the diamonds of Golconda. What 

 gift ? A profound sympathy of spirit, a fruitful interchange of the 

 most intimate ideas, a perfect home-harmony in the thought of Nature. 



We arrived at this goal by two paths : I, by my love of the City, 

 by the effort of completing it through an association of self with all 

 other beings ; my wife, by religious feeling and by her filial reverence 

 for the fatherhood of God. 



Henceforth we were able, every evening, to enjoy a mutual feast. 



I have already explained how this work, unknown to ourselves, 

 grew rich, was rendered fruitful, was impelled forward, by our modest 

 auxiliaries. They have almost always dictated it. 



Our Parisian flowers prepared what our birds of Nantes accom- 

 plished. A certain nightingale of which I speak at the close of the 

 book crowned the work. 



These divers impressions blended and melted together, on our return 

 to France, and especially here, in the presence of the ocean. At the 

 promontory of La Heve, under the venerable elms which overshadow 

 it, this revelation completed itself. The gulls, gannets, and guillemots 

 of the coast, the small birds of the groves, could say nothing which 

 was not understood. All things found an echo in our hearts, like so 

 many internal voices. 



The Pharos, the huge cliff, from three to four hundred feet in 

 height,* which from so lofty an elevation overlooks the vast embouchure 

 of the Seine, the Calvados, and the ocean, was the customary goal of 

 our promenades, and our resting-point. We usually climbed to it by 

 a deep covered road, full of freshness and shadow, which suddenly 

 opened upon this immense lighthouse. Sometimes we ascended the 



* There are two lights, of which the more elevated is 39G feet above the sea-level. 

 Translator. 



