BIRDS IN A VILLAGE 131 



so fresh and so pure was the clear young voice, which 

 had no earthly trouble in it, and no passion, and was 

 in this like the melody of the birds of which I had 

 lately heard so much ; and with it all that tender- 

 ness and depth which is not theirs, but is human 

 only and of the soul. 



It struck me as a singular coincidence — ^and to 

 a mind of so primitive a type as the writer's there 

 is more in the fact than the word implies — that, just 

 as I had quitted London, to seek for just such a 

 spot as I so speedily found, with the passionately 

 exclaimed words of a young London girl ringing 

 in my ears, so now I went back with this village 

 girl's melody sounding and following me no less 

 clearly and insistently. For it was not merely remem- 

 bered, as we remember most things, but vividly and 

 often reproduced, together with the various melodies 

 of the birds I had listened to ; a greater and principal 

 voice in that choir, yet in no wise lessening their 

 first value, nor ever out of harmony with them. 



