2 AUTUMN AND WINTER 



dirty form ' come out clear plates of sapphire mail ' a 

 dragon fly is born. A robin feeds on the breakfast table. 

 Little red bees emerge from wormlike earth-heaps all over 

 the garden. Gossamers fall from heaven. An earwig 

 unfolds his wings. Hares take sanctuary with men, or a 



'A ROBIN FEEDS ON THE BREAKFAST TABLE' 



rabbit crouches at your foot. To the curious there is no 

 end of curiosities. One should go about like Melampus : 



' With love exceeding a simple love of the things 



That glide in grasses and rubble of woody wreck ; 

 Or change their perch on a beat of quivering wings 



From branch to branch, only restful to pipe and peck ; 

 Or, bristled, curl at a touch their snouts in a ball ; 



Or cast their web between bramble and thorny hook ; 

 The good physician Melampus, loving them all, 



Among them walked, as a scholar who reads a book.' 



This intense and particular delight in the course of the seasons 

 is an English quality above all other qualities. It has been 

 so asserted by a great German historian, and he is right. 

 It was true when Gilbert White began to make Selborne 

 famous ; but the quality grows stronger year by year. 

 Hampshire, Norfolk and Yorkshire were always compact 

 of naturalists, caught into the particular affection for nature 



