94 THE ART OF SEEING. 



round it twenty times, perhaps, in an hour, and on such a day 

 as this, or yesterday, might look about you for the "Life in 

 Death" of which we have been talking, and see no signs of it, 

 except in the ever-greens and crocuses and snow-drops, and 

 hear no sound of it, except in the voices of the thrush and 

 robin from among the leafless branches ; but he who would 

 become cognizant of surrounding Insect life, veiled as it now 

 is, under the apparent death of winter, must try to provide 

 himself with spectacles none of your barnacles of crystal or 

 glass, but a pair of invisible perceptors, acquired by habits of 

 careful observation. It has been aptly said, that the " memory 

 dwells in the heart;" and it might be observed with equal 

 justice, that every other faculty, and even every sense, has its 

 seat in the heart also. How quick of sight and quick of ear 

 are the dullest of us all, to objects of such a sort as have once 

 gained a hold upon our Wcing, and what is it but our apathy 

 of heart towards Nature and its Mighty Author, which with 

 reference to so much that belongs to them, causes us to be for 

 ever verifying the assertion of one intelligent observer,* that 

 " the art of seeing is but rarely practised." ; .n 



Well, now to our garden. Let us look around, and here 

 on this bounding hedge we discern, by help of the spectacles 

 in question, a something rarely enough seen, although exposed 

 to our view almost everywhere on every winter's day. Amidst 

 the intricate branches of the bare hawthorn, stretches forth 



* Bonnet. 



