Beauties of 



cause they approach me more frequently and 

 nearer when they are hungry and want food. It 

 is human nature, and evidently bird nature too. 



What a lot of human nature there is in man! 

 By which I mean man in his generic symboliza- 

 tion, " embracing woman," and how often is the 

 fact ignored. It (human nature) explains and ac- 

 counts for much that is misunderstood, and legis- 

 lators, political, social, and domestic, should al- 

 ways keep it uppermost in their minds, as they 

 themselves also do not fail to demonstrate its in- 

 fluence. Man is human, and above all a human 

 animal, not rational, as we like to describe him, 

 but " rationis capax " ; that is to say, capable of 

 acting on reason in favorable circumstances. His 

 sentiment is at best but partially controlled and 

 modified by reason, and where sentiment is 

 strong, reason is swept away and the faculty of its 

 exercise temporarily ceases to exist. 



The robins, moreover, in spite of this inter- 

 polation on man, gave substantial evidence of 

 disinterested sociability by building their nests 

 in summer, when they asked and expected noth- 

 ing, close to the house where I almost brushed 



5 



