CHAPTER VI 



PROFESSIONAL MUSICIANS 



*Tis always morning somewhere; and above 

 The awakening continents, from shore to shore, 

 Somewhere the birds are singing evermore. 



Longfellow. 



OF all the brilliant endowments of birds, there 

 is none so much appreciated by man as their 

 wonderful art of music. The song birds are the 

 poets of the feathered tribe ; they are the bards and 

 troubadours of the world, for their songs are suited 

 to the passing moods and occasions, and are de- 

 termined thereby. The songs of the birds, being 

 improvised to express the peculiar emotion of the 

 moment, possess a spontaneity that human musi- 

 cians often strive in vain to acquire. 



The formal songs of man, perfect in art as many 

 of them are, still lack that charm that nature 

 brings a wonderful essence of spiritual effect. 

 For, to express all that the heart feels, to exhaust 

 the possibilities of a thought or emotion, to leave 

 nothing to the imagination of the hearer, is to of- 



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