Ill 

 GHOST MOTH EVENINGS 



" The desire of the moth for the star, 

 Of the night for the morrow ; 

 The devotion to something afar 

 From the sphere of our sorrow." 



SHELLEY. 



I FIND the difficulty at midsummer is not to avoid 

 repeating one's observations of living things, and of 

 sky, sea, and landscapes ; rather, it is so hard to fix the 

 thought and eye on the same things in successive Junes. 

 No risk, indeed, of going over old ground in detail at 

 this season ! The subject-matter of Nature is so inex- 

 haustible, the time so tantalizingly little in which to 

 examine and enjoy it, that the tendency is to turn here 

 and there, to press on always to a fresh thing each 

 June, instead of concentrating on what we attended 

 to this time last year. Out of the great treasuries of 

 these wild-rose days, treasuries of song, scent, colour, 

 and life manifested in most exquisite forms, we are 

 always tempted to choose some new thing. But 

 there are certain June episodes that, once noticed, 



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