A SHARP LOOKOUT 



to I (unwisely perhaps) sought to smelt this 

 gold of the poets in the naturalist's pot, to 

 see what alloy of error I could detect in it. 

 Were the poems true to their last word ? 

 They were not, and much subsequent in- 

 vestigation has only confirmed my first 

 analysis. The general truth is on my side, 

 and the specific fact, if such exists in this 

 case, on the side of the poets. It is possible 

 that there may be a fragrant yellow violet, 

 as an exceptional occurrence, like that of 

 the sweet - scented, arrow - leaved species 

 above referred to, and that in some locality 

 it may have bloomed before the hepatica ; 

 also that Lowell may have seen a belated 

 dandelion or two in June, amid the clover 

 and the buttercups ; but, if so, they were 

 the exception, and not the rule, — the speci- 

 fic or accidental fact, and not the general 

 truth. 



Dogmatism about nature, or about any- 

 thing else, very often turns out to be an un- 

 grateful cur that bites the hand that reared 

 it. I speak from experience. I was once 

 quite certain that the honey-bee did not 

 work upon the blossoms of the trailing 

 arbutus, but while walking in the woods 

 one April day I came upon a spot of arbutus 



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