24 THE BIOLOGY OF THE SEASONS 



with white blossom, which we almost mistook for sno\v 

 still unmelted. We saw the hedger strip the hawthorn 

 till it was pitiful in its nakedness ; we see it now covered 

 with bursting buds, and it will soon be the time of May- 

 blossom. From amid the withered leaves the wood- 

 anemones are rocking like foam-balls on a wreck-strewn 

 sea ; and from the ditches, just the other day black, empty, 

 and uninviting in the extreme, the marsh marigolds have 

 raised their golden cups their King-cups to be filled with 

 sunshine. We wished the birds farewell in Autumn as 

 they passed overhead to lands that keep the sun, and 

 now they are gathering around us again, and every swift's 

 scream seems a promise, not a threat. Every lark in the 

 meadow voices forth a promise. The butterflies seemed to 

 fade away with the withering flowers, but their successors 

 are flitting by. The shore-pools and the ponds seemed 

 but a little while ago empty of life, or thickly frozen over 

 sullen at all events but now, each is beginning to be 

 like a busy city. For as surely as the old things pass away, 

 so all things are made new. From what seemed a sealed 

 tomb, life has arisen indeed. 



But, if we can express the second Spring thought, it 

 will be seen that there is a deeper sense in which these are 

 the days of new things. It is, we see, the time of marrying, 

 pairing, and mating. 



" For the old god Pan hath taken a wife, 

 And the whole world shares their mirth. 

 And all things that be of their company 

 Are reft of rue and assoiled from strife 

 By the one great breath of the joy of life 

 That passes round the earth." 



It is the time of giving birth to new lives. It is the time 

 when new lives, begun long since, indeed begin to be. In 

 all these young lives there is what is new ; no one of them 

 is quite like its parents, but each carries with it the promise 



