38 A Walk from 



factions. In several of our sabbath hymns there is 

 poetical reference to the lark and its song. For in- 

 stance, that favorite psalm of gratitude for returning 

 Spring opens with these lines : 



" The winter is over and gone, 



" The thrush whistles sweet on the spray, 



" The turtle breathes forth her soft moan, 



" The lark mounts on high and warbles away." 



Now not one American man, woman, or child in a 

 thousand ever heard or saw an English lark, and how 

 is he, she, or it to sing the last line of the foregoing 

 verse with the spirit and understanding due to an 

 exercise of devotion ? The American lark never mounts 

 higher than the top of a meadow elm, on which it see- 

 saws, and screams, or quacks, till it is tired ; then draws 

 a bee-line for another tree, or a fence-post, never even 

 undulating on the voyage. It may be said, truly 

 enough, that the hymn was written in England. Still, 

 if sung in America from generation to generation, we 

 ought to have the English lark with us, for our children 

 to see and hear, lest they may be tempted to believe 

 that other and more serious similes in our sabbath 

 hymns are founde4 on fancy instead of fact. 



Nor would it be straining the point, nor be dealing 

 in poetical fancies, if we should predicate upon the in- 

 troduction of the English lark into American society a 

 supplementary influence much needed to unify and 



