Marsh. 231 



in the reeds and the nightingale in the tree, the sole per- 

 formers to the night which has now really come. 



And here, dear reader, we will say good-night, under the 

 scented hawthorn bush, with the nightingale still pouring 

 forth its song, and the night-jar's weird cry still ringing in 

 our ears, happy if we have learned during our walks to- 

 gether that 



" No bud is opened in the spring, 

 No banner of a leaf unfurled, 

 That does not wake, in thy response, 

 Some hidden meanings of the world ; " 



thankful if we have learned to agree with the poet tha*; 

 " Happy is he who lives to understand, 

 Not human nature only, but explores 

 All natures to the end that he may find 

 The law that governs each ; and where begins 

 The union, the partition where, that makes 

 Kind and degree among all visible beings ; 

 The constitutions, powers and faculties, 

 Which they inherit cannot step beyond 

 And cinnot fall beneath ; that do assign 

 To every class its station and its office, 

 Through all the mighty commonwealth of thing?, 

 Up from the creeping plant to sovereign man. 

 Such converse, if directed by a meek, 

 Sincere, and humble spirit, teaches love : 

 For knowledge is delight ; and such delight 

 Breeds love ; yet suited as it rather is 

 To thought and to the climbing intellect, 

 It teaches less to love than to adore ; 

 If that be not, indeed, the highest love ! " 



