io The Poets and Nature. 



remarkable how all the poets agree about Nile mud produc- 

 ing misshapen and monstrous forms. Pope is by no means 

 alone in his "half-formed insects on the bank of Nile." 



But, poetically speaking, " insects " " the mixing 

 myriads of the setting beam " differ from reptiles and 

 vermin in this, that they are pitiably ephemeral. They are 

 "a daily race" 



" Swarming in the noontide bower, 

 Rise into being and exist an hour." Danvin. 



They live such a short time that the poets generously excuse 

 them, as " beings of a summer's day." This condescension, 

 I think, is hardly called for. Thomson, for instance, is 

 good enough to say that " the ceaseless hum " in the woods 

 at noon is "not undelightful." He will not say outright 

 that it is delightful, but to show what a large-hearted poet 

 he is, how impressionable to the sounds of wild nature, vows 

 half apologetically that, speaking for himself he will not 

 be answerable for other tastes and does not wish to force 

 his own upon his readers he does really, upon his honour, 

 and all joking apart, find something almost agreeable in the 

 humming of bees in summer woodlands ! What a generous 

 admission ! How such a confession draws the hearts of all 

 lovers of nature to the poet ! But let us hear him again : 



" Nor shall the muse disdain 

 To let the little noisy summer race 

 Live in her lay, and flutter through her song." 



What a beautiful condescension have we here ! How ex- 

 quisitely tender ! He, Thomson do not laugh at him, 

 ladies and gentlemen ; it is his gentle nature makes him do 

 it will positively, and of his own accord, mention in his 

 beautiful poems such vermin as grasshoppers and butterflies. 

 " The muse," forsooth ! 



