144 FLOWER-FIELDS OF ALPINE SWITZERLAND 



the most conceited. He is for ever thanking his 

 stars he is not as others are ; and this enables 

 him to misplace a vast amount of pity. I warrant 

 the poor, dumb, grunting pig is perfectly happy — 

 far happier than the most glib of human orators ; 

 and far more to the point. Poor, dumb animals ? 

 Why, what a poor, talkative creature is man I 

 And how unmindful of his own proverb about 

 " little pitchers " 1 



Eyes are not everything, ears are not everything, 

 tongues are not everything. Neither are eyes, ears, 

 and tongues together everything. There is sight 

 without eyes, hearing without ears, and speech with- 

 out tongues. Science can prove it, when Science 

 chooses. For there is sense behind our senses — 

 sense as unerring as any declared by our senses. 

 I have, indeed, a shrewd suspicion that we may 

 be poor beside the ant ; and I have a somewhat 

 uncomfortable feeling that in some ways we may 

 be paupers beside poor, blind Colchicum autumnale. 



Have you ever stayed for autumn in the Alps ? 

 Have you seen the Bilberry glowing among the 

 stolid Rhododendron ; the Eglantine and Berberis 

 bowing beneath the weight of their fiery fruit ; 

 the long-tailed and the crested titmouse hunting 



