ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 833 



And then, in the deep -woody depths, the singer incessantly moves 

 from place to place, now drawing near, and now receding ; hence arise 

 those distant effects which induce a delightful reverie, and that delicate 

 cadence which thrills the heart. 



Under our roof his song would be ever the same ; but on the 

 pinions of the wind the music is divine, it penetrates and ravishes 

 the soul. 



Page 241. The robin hastens, singing, to enjoy his share of the 

 warmth. I find this admirable passage in " The Conquest of England 

 by the Normans " (by Augustin Thierry). The chief of the barbarous 

 Saxons assembles his priests and wise men to ascertain if they will 

 become Christians. One of them speaks as follows : 



" Thou mayst remember, king, a thing which sometimes happens, 

 when thou art seated at table with thy captains and men-at-arms, in 

 the winter season, and when a fire is kindled and the hall well 

 warmed, while there are wind and rain and snow without. There 

 comes a little bird, which traverses the room on fluttering wing, 

 entering by one door and flying out at another : the moment of its 



passage is full of sweetness for it, it feels neither the rain nor the 

 storm ; but this interval is brief, the bird vanishes in the twinkling 

 of an eye, and from winter passes away into winter. Such seems to 

 me the life of man upon this earth, and its limited duration, compared 

 with the length of the time which precedes and follows it." 



