274 EDUCATION. 
The swallow, as Sir Humphrey Davy observes, cheers the sense of sight as much as the 
nightingale does the sense of hearing. He is the glad prophet of the year, the 
harbinger of its brightest season, and lives a life of free enjoyment amongst the loveliest 
forms of nature. 
There is something peculiarly beautiful in his rapid, steady, well-balanced flight,— 
“ Which, ere a double pulse can beat, 
Is here and there with motion fleet, 
As Ariel’s wing could scarce exceed ; 
And, full of vigour as of speed, 
Forestalls the dayspring’s earliest gleam, 
Nor fails with evening’s latest beam.” 
To all nations he is welcome, and by all the poets has been celebrated with fond eulogium 
—Translator.| 
