NOTES FROM MY OLD DIARY. 



' ' What atom forms of insect life appear ! 

 And who can follow Nature's pencil here ? 

 Their wings with azure, green and purple gloss'd, 

 Studded with colored eyes, with gems embossed ; 

 Inlaid with pearl, and marked with various stains ' 

 Of lovely crimson, through their dusky veins.'' 



— Anna Letitia Barbauld. 



On looking over my old diary of a far-off date, 1839, I 

 find notes of many things that struck me in the first 

 years of my sojourn in my forest home — objects that then 

 were new and interesting to me, but which now I seldom 

 or never see. 



There is a change in the country : many of the plants 

 and birds and wild creatures, common once, have dis- 

 appeared entirely before the march of civilization. As 

 the woods which shelter them are cleared away, they 

 retire to the lonely forest haunts still left, where they 

 may remain unmolested and unseen till again driven 

 back by the advance of man upon the scene. 



