xiv INTRODUCTION 



all peace, in spite of the monstrous open -jawed 

 alligator in the foreground of the picture, who must 

 be smiling, I take it, in an alligatorish way at a fat 

 swan near by. 



Just as strong to the story-writer is the tempta- 

 tion to blacken the shadows of the picture to 

 make all life a tragedy. Here on my table lies a 

 child's nature-book every chapter of which ends in 

 death nothing but struggle to escape for a brief 

 time the bloody jaws of the bigger beast or of the 

 superior beast, man. 



Neither extreme is true of nature. Struggle and 

 death go on, but, except where man interferes, a very 

 even balance is maintained, peace prevails over fear, 

 joy lasts longer than pain, and life continues to mul- 

 tiply and replenish the earth. " The level of wild 

 life," to quote my words from " The Face of the 

 Fields," " of the soul of all nature is a great serenity. 

 It is seldom lowered, but often raised to a higher 

 level, intenser, faster, more exultant." 



This is a divinely beautiful world, a marvelously 

 interesting world, the best conceivable sort of a 

 world to live in, notwithstanding its gypsy moths, 

 tornadoes, and germs, its laws of gravity, and of 

 cause and effect ; and my purpose in this series of 

 nature books is to help my readers to come by this 

 belief. A clear understanding of the laws of the 

 Universe will be necessary for such a belief in the 

 end, and with the understanding a profound faith 



