A CONFERENCE BETWIXT 



Nay more, the very birds of the air, those that be not 

 Hawks, are both so many and so useful and pleasant to man- 

 kind, that I must not let them pass without some observations : 

 they both feed and refresh him; feed him with their choice 

 bodies, and refresh him with their heavenly voices. I will not 

 undertake to mention the several kinds of fowl by which this 

 is done ; and his curious palate pleased by day, and which with 

 their very excrements afford him a soft lodging at night. These 

 I will pass by, but not those little nimble musicians of the air, 

 that warble forth their curious ditties, with which nature hath 

 furnished them to the shame of art. 



As first the Lark, when she means to rejoice, to cheer 

 herself and those that hear her, she then quits the earth, and 

 sings as she ascends higher into the air, and having ended her 

 heavenly employment, grows then mute and sad to think she 

 must descend to the dull earth, which she would not touch but 

 for necessity. 



How do the Black-bird and Thrassel with their melodious 

 voices, bid welcome to the cheerful Spring, and in their fixed 

 months warble forth such ditties as no art or instrument can 

 reach to? 



Nay, the smaller birds also do the like in their particular 

 seasons, as namely the Leverock, the Titlark, the little Linnet, 

 and the honest Robin, that loves mankind both alive and dead. 



But the Nightingale, another of my airy creatures, breathes 

 such sweet loud music out of her little instrumental throat, that 

 it might make mankind to think miracles are not ceased. He 

 that at midnight, when the very labourer sleeps securely, should 

 hear, as I have very often, the clear airs, the sweet descants, 

 the natural rising and falling, the doubling and redoubling of 

 her voice, might well be lifted above earth, and say, Lord, what 

 music hast thou provided for the Saints in Heaven, when thou 

 affordest bad men such music on Earth! 



And this makes me the less to wonder at the many Aviaries 

 in Italy, or at the great charge of Varro his Aviary, the ruins of 

 which are yet to be seen in Rome, and is still so famous there, 

 that it is reckoned for one of those notables which men of 

 foreign nations either record, or lay up in their memories when 

 they return from travel. 

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