THE STUDY OF NATURE, 53 
influence over my destiny has always been great, was its scene, its 
occasion, just as, thirty years before, it had lit for me, through Vico, 
the first spark of the historic fire. 
Beloved and beneficent nurse! Because I had for one moment 
shared her sorrows, suffered, dreamed with her, she bestowed on me a 
priceless gift, worth more than all the diamonds of Golconda. What 
gift?) A profound sympathy of spirit, a fruitful interchange of the 
most intimate ideas, a perfect home-harmony in the thought of Nature. 
We arrived at this goal by two paths: I, by my love of the City, 
by the effort of completing it through an association of self with all 
other beings; my wife, by religious feeling and by her filial reverence 
for the fatherhood of God. 
Henceforth we were able, every evening, to enjoy a mutual feast. 
I have already explained how this work, unknown to ourselves, 
grew rich, was rendered fruitful, was impelled forward, by our modest 
auxiliaries. They have almost always dictated it. 
Our Parisian flowers prepared what our birds of Nantes accom- 
plished. A certain nightingale of which I speak at the close of the 
book crowned the work. 
These divers impressions blended and melted together, on our return 
to France, and especially here, in the presence of the ocean. At the 
promontory of La Heéve, under the venerable elms which overshadow 
it, this revelation completed itself. The gulls, gannets, and guillemots 
of the coast, the small birds of the groves, could say nothing which 
was not understood. All things found an echo in our hearts, like so 
many internal voices. 
The Pharos, the huge cliff, from three to four hundred feet in 
height,* which from so lofty an elevation overlooks the vast embouchure 
of the Seine, the Calvados, and the ocean, was the customary goal of 
our promenades, and our resting-point. We usually climbed to it by 
a deep covered road, full of freshness and shadow, which suddenly 
opened upon this immense lighthouse. Sometimes we ascended the 
* There are two lights, of which the more elevated is 396 feet above the sea-level._— 
Translator. 
