IMPRESSIONIST SKETCH 109 



and seasonal sleep, by which fatigued nerve-cells are 

 recuperated before they have gone too far. 



Representing a higher grade of activity than that of 

 the bees, is the parental industry of the birds, for it is 

 to a larger degree intelligent. We do not refer to the 

 building of nests, which we regard as an activity of Spring 

 (often continued into Summer), and as instinctive in greater 

 part ; we are thinking rather of the untiring activity 

 which so many exhibit in protecting, feeding, and finally 

 educating their young. The songsters are quieter than 

 they were, the wild lyrics have given place to more measured 

 psalms of life, partly, of course, because the ecstasy of 

 passion is over for the season, partly, perhaps, because the 

 birds have found keeping house a much more serious 

 business than falling in love and getting married. It is 

 such a familiar fact, that we are apt to miss the beauty 

 of it the manner in which the love of mates broadens 

 into the love of offspring. Every one knows that the 

 two parent birds will work themselves thin in caring for 

 their young. We are not warranted in supposing that the 

 birds think of their sacrifice, any more than of the welfare 

 of the species, they do not control their conduct in 

 reference to an ideal ; they are not moral, poor things, 

 but is there not something wonderful in it, something, 

 as Socrates said, moving to tears, and yet consoling in our 

 relations one with another ? 



But it must be noticed that the intensity of life, which 

 seems to us so characteristic of Summer, is by no means 

 unrelieved. Every one familiar with the country has 

 noticed that in days of intense heat the whole aspect of 

 Nature occasionally suggests sleepiness, especially about 

 noon. A few clouds hang motionless in a lofty blue sky, 

 the air is tremulous over the hot earth, the birds are all 

 hushed in the woods, the leaves droop after extreme 



