218 ASSOCIATE IMAGERY. 



with sylvan accompaniments, such as the ploughboy's whistle 

 " o'er the lea," and the gurgle of pebbly brooks, red in the 

 glowing sunset. 



When and wheresoever a bee may happen to flit, humming 

 past us, be it even near an apiary in the Adelphi, or a balcony 

 hive at Hammersmith, is one not borne at once upon her 

 musical wings to the side of some heathy hill? and does one 

 not forthwith hear in concert the bleating of flocks, the burst- 

 ing of ripened furze-pods, and the blithe carol of the rising 

 skylark? or, our thoughts taking a turn more homely, we 

 listen in fancy to the sound of tinkling cymbal played by re- 

 joicing housewife to celebrate and accompany the aerial march 

 of a departing swarm. 



Thus sweet and infinitely varied is the concert of concord- 

 ant sounds, all of the allegro character, which may be assem- 

 bled for the pleasing of the mental ear, even by the simple 

 and single, and passing strains of the above and other insects 

 which make melody in their mirth ; and then how numerous 

 are the correspondent images glowing, smiling, dancing, 

 waving, glittering, which are wont at their bidding to be 

 conjured up before the mental eye ! Glowing embers 

 smiling flowers dancing leaves waving cornfields glit- 

 tering waters all intermingled in a haze of merry motion 

 an imaged dance of life got up within " the chamber of the 

 mind," at the stirring of, sometimes, but a note of Nature's 

 living music. 



