II 
BIRD-SONGS 
SUSPECT it requires a special gift of grace to 
enable one to hear the bird-songs; some new 
power must be added to the ear, or some obstruction 
removed. There are not only scales upon our eyes 
so that we do not see, there are scales upon our ears 
so that we do not hear. -A city woman who had 
spent much of her time in the country once asked 
a well-known ornithologist to take her where she 
could hear the bluebird. “What, never heard the 
bluebird!” said he. “I have not,” said the woman. 
“Then you will never hear it,” said the bird-lover; 
never hear it with that inward ear that gives beauty 
and meaning to the note. He could probably have 
taken her in a few minutes where she could have 
heard the call or warble of the bluebird; but it would 
have fallen upon unresponsive ears — upon ears 
that were not sensitized by love for the birds or 
associations with them. Bird-songs are not music, 
properly speaking, but only suggestions of music. 
A great many people whose attention would be 
quickly arrested by the same volume of sound made 
by a musical instrument or by artificial means never 
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