xiv INTRODUCTION 



all peace, in spite of the monstrous open -jawed 

 alligator in the foreground of the picture, who must 

 be smiling, I take it, in an alligatorish way at a fat 

 swan near by. 



Just as strong to the story-writer is the tempta- 

 tion to blacken the shadows of the picture — to 

 make all life a tragedy. Here on my table lies a 

 child's nature-book every chapter of which ends in 

 death — nothing but struggle to escape for a brief 

 time the bloody jaws of the bigger beast — or of the 

 superior beast, man. 



Neither extreme is true of nature. Struggle and 

 death go on, but, except where man interferes, a very ' 

 even balance is maintained, peace prevails over fear, 

 joy lasts longer than pain, and life continues to mul- 

 tiply and replenish the earth. " The level of wild 

 life," to quote my words from " The Face of the 

 Fields," " of the soul of all nature is a great serenity. 

 It is seldom lowered, but often raised to a higher 

 level, intenser, faster, more exultant." 



This is a divinely beautiful world, a marvelously 

 interesting world, the best conceivable sort of a 

 world to live in, notwithstanding its gypsy moths, 

 tornadoes, and germs, its laws of gravity, and of 

 cause and effect ; and my purpose in this series of 

 nature books is to help my readers to come by this 

 belief. A clear understanding of the laws of the 

 Universe will be necessary for such a belief in the 

 end, and with the understanding a profound faith 



