ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. 839 
from the conditions of our prosaic existence, we must for a moment 
abandon earth, and become a sense apart. We get a glimpse of some- 
thing inferior and superior, of something on this side and on that, the 
limbs of the animal life on the borders of the life of the angels. In 
proportion as we assume this sense, we lose the temptation of degrad- 
ing the winged life—that strange, delicate, mighty dream of God—to 
the vulgarities of earth. 
To-day even, in a place infinitely unpoetic, neglected, squalid, and 
obscure, among the black mud of Paris, and in the dank darkness of 
an apartment scarcely better than a cavern, I saw, and I heard chirping, 
in a subdued voice, a little creature which seemed not to belong to 
this low world. It was a warbler, and one of a common species—not 
the blackcap, which is prized so highly for his song. This one was 
not then singing ; she chattered to herself, just a few notes, as mono- 
tonous as her situation. For winter, shadow, captivity, all were 
around her. The captive of a rough, rude man, of a speculator in 
birds, she heard on every side sounds which silenced her song; 
powerful voices were above her head, a mocking-bird among them, 
which rang out every moment their brilliant clarions. Generally, 
she would be condemned to silence. She was accustomed, one could 
perceive, to sing in a low tone. But in this limited flight, this 
habitual resignation and half lamentation, might be detected a charm- 
ing delicacy, a more than feminine softness (morbidezza). Add to 
this the unique grace of her bosom and her motions, of her modest 
red and white attire, which sparkled, however, with a bright sheeny 
reflex. 
I recalled to my mind the pictures in which Ingres and Delacroix 
have shown us the captives of Algiers or the East, and exactly depicted 
the dull resignation, the indifference, the weariness of their mono- 
tonous lives, and also the decline (must we say the extinction ?) of 
the inner fire. 
But, alas! it was wholly different here. The flame burned in all 
its strength. She was more and less than a woman. No comparison 
was of any use. Inferior by right of her animal nature, by her 
