The Song' and the Singer 12 r 



to a solitary bird song, I am one of a vast audi- 

 ence, and the singer is one of a vast choir invisible. 

 Be this as it may, surely the quality of bird song 

 is so fine it appeals to the finer sentiments of 

 our dual natures like a voice from the vanished 

 years. We are all human, and when we hear 

 Joseph Addison approving of the music of some 

 of our bird friends, the approval is some way 

 divided between the bird and ourselves; the bird 

 as a good singer and we as good listeners. I here- 

 with give an Addison letter that you may see 

 what he thought of the song and the singer. This 

 letter, written in the year 1708, by Joseph Addi- 

 son, to the young Earl of Warwick, whose mother 

 he afterward married, is full of a charm that 

 time has not dimmed. It reads as follows : 

 "My dearest Lord: 



"I can't forbear being troublesome to your 

 Lordship while I am in your neighborhood. The 

 business of this is to invite you to a concert of 

 music which I have found in a neighboring wood. 

 It begins precisely at six in the evening and con- 

 sists of a Blackbird, a Thrush, a Robin, and a 

 Bullfinch. There is a Lark that, by way of over- 

 ture, sings and mounts till she is almost out of 

 hearing, and afterward falls down leisurely and 

 drops to the ground as soon as she has ended 

 her song. The whole is concluded by a Night- 

 ingale that has a much better voice than Mrs. 



