THROUGH THE YEAR 217 



There is friction when the swan takes the air : 

 but the gull winds and screws and unscrews its way 

 through the air without seeming to meet the least 

 opposition. 



I doubt not the mechanism of flight is identical 

 in swan and gull, as in eagle and in tiny goldcrest 

 or humming-bird, but it is hard to realise this whilst 

 the eye is arguing the other way. 



THE SPOILING OF LIGHT 



More light is but another way of saying more life. 

 It is this which chiefly accounts for the pleasure we 

 find in the lengthening day of February or early 

 March. The source of this spring is deep and 

 untainted. It is the same with plants and all forms of 

 life save those that flourish in the blind hours of dusk 

 and dark. How to get our fill of light should be one of 

 the supreme questions. One idea is, that we should 

 by Act of Parliament play at the hour being earlier 

 than it is really is. By turning on the hands an hour 

 or so at chosen times of the year we are to act up 

 to the command of " Let there be light ; and there 

 was light." It seems odd to carry out an elemental 

 law by trifling with a timepiece. But anyhow, it 

 is idle to do this unless we are ready to act up to the 

 spirit of the next clause that of dividing the light 

 from the darkness. What good end is served by a 

 man rising earlier if he only rise to whole days of 

 darkness ? No one who spends his life between the 

 absolute country and London can fail to know that 

 darkness and light through a great part of the year 



