GRAY WINGS 



241 



life for a bird, condemned to solitude and storm 

 and strife, marked for an unresting wanderer 

 up and down 



" the fearful hollows of the barren sea! ' 



And yet, as with the octopus, are we quite sure 

 that we have the petrel's point of view? Is he 

 a lonely exile, an Ahasuerus of the sea? Is 

 there no pleasure in existence for him ? Surely 

 nature never planned such perfect development 

 without meaning to turn loneliness into so- 

 ciety, hardships into pleasures, and exertion 

 into joy. What is the storm to the well-lapped 

 plumage, the seething wave to the finely webbed 

 foot, or the winter gale to the masterful wing ? 

 Merely the playthings of existence, some of the 

 stubborn circumstances from which are wrung 

 the joy of living. 



The flight of the petrel, the incessant throb 

 of his wings through so many opposing ele- 

 ments, his untiring spirit and determination to 

 live and be happy even on a bournelcss ocean, 

 is there not in these a now-familiar lesson for 

 us? Are they not once more indicative, even 

 typical, of the persistence of life and the in- 

 sistence that the species shall not perish? Al- 

 ways where the conditions are so unfavorable 

 that extinction would seem the only result at- 



The soli- 

 tary life. 



Joy in 

 adversity. 



The -per- 

 sistence of 

 life. 



