THE EAGLE AND THE CANARY 207 



much sadder affair than the ordinary man; the 

 reason being that his aspirations are so much 

 loftier than those of other minds, the difference 

 between his ideal and reality must be correspond- 

 ingly greater in his case. This was obvious — al- 

 most a truism; but the illustration by means of 

 which he brought it home to his hearers was cer- 

 tainly born of poetic imagination. The life of 

 the ordinary person he likened to that of the 

 canary in its cage. And here, dropping his lofty 

 didactic manner, and — if I may coin a word — 

 smalling his deep, sonorous voice, to a thin reedy 

 treble, in imitation of the tenuous fringilline pipe, 

 he went on with lively language, rapid utter- 

 ance, and suitable brisk movements and gestures, 

 to describe the little lemon-coloured housekeeper 

 in her gilded cage. Oh, he cried, what a bright, 

 busy bustling life is hers, with so many things to 

 occupy her time! how briskly she hops from 

 perch to perch, then to the floor, and back from 

 floor to perch again! how often she drops down 

 to taste the seed in her box, or scatter it about 

 her in a little shower ! how curiously, and turning 

 her bright eyes critically this way and that, she 

 listens to every new sound and regards every ob- 



