118 BEHIND THE KYE. 



So it is, undoubtedly, with other people. 

 My fellow-travelers, who hear me discours- 

 ing enthusiastically of vireos and warblers, 

 thrushes and wrens, whilst they see never a 

 bird, unless it be now and then an English 

 sparrow or a robin, talk sometimes as if the 

 difference between us were one of eyesight. 

 They might as well lay it to the window- 

 glass of our respective houses. It is not 

 the eye that sees, but the man behind the 

 eye. 



As to the comparative advantages and 

 disadvantages of such a division of interests 

 as I have been describing, there may be 

 room for two opinions. If distinction be 

 all that the student hungers for, perhaps he 

 cannot limit himself too strictly ; but for 

 myself, I think I should soon tire of my own 

 society if I were only one man, a botanist 

 or a chemist, an artist, or even a poet. I 

 should soon tire of myself, I say ; but I 

 might have said, with equal truth, that I 

 should soon tire of nature; for if I were 

 only one man, I should see only one aspect 

 of the natural world. This may explain 

 why it is that some persons must be forever 

 moving from place to place. If they travel 



