II 



BILLS OF BIRDS 



The prospectus, or advertisement, of a certain 

 American typewriting machine commences by in- 

 forming the public that " The typewriter is 



founded on an idea." When I saw this phrase I 

 secured it for my collection, for I felt that, without 

 jest, it contained the kernel of a true philosophy of 

 Nature. The forms, the phainomena, of Nature are 

 innumerable, multifarious, interwoven, and infinitely 

 perplexing, and you may spend a happy life in un- 

 ravelling their relations and devising their evolu- 

 tions ; but until you have looked through them 

 and seen the ideas that are behind them you are a 

 mere materialist and a blind worker. The soul of 

 Nature is hid from you. 



What is the bill of a bird and what does it mean ? 

 I do not refer to the bill of a hawk, or a heron, or 

 an owl, or an ostrich, but to that which is the 

 abstract of all these and a thousand more. I hold, 

 regardless of anatomy and physiology, that a bird 

 is a higher being than a beast. No beast soars and 

 sings to its sweetheart ; no beast remains in lifelong 



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