DAWS IN THE WEST COUNTRY 87 



as musical, save and except always the braying 

 of an ass. The notes of all our birds and fowls 

 please me, without one exception. I should not 

 indeed think of keeping a goose in a cage that I 

 might hang him up in the parlour for the sake of 

 his melody, but a goose upon a common, or in a 

 farmyard, is no bad performer ; and as to insects, 

 if the black beetle, and beetles indeed of all hues, 

 wiU keep out of my way, 1 have no objection to 

 any of the rest ; on the contrary, in whatever 

 key they sing, from the gnat's fine treble to the 

 bass of the bumble-bee, I admire all. Seriously, 

 however, it strikes me as a very observable 

 instance of providential kindness to men, that 

 such an exact accord has been contrived between 

 his ear and the sounds with which, at least in 

 a rural situation, it is almost every moment 

 visited." 



Who has not felt the truth of this saying, 

 that all natural sounds heard in their proper 

 surroundings are pleasing ; that even those which 

 we call harsh do not distress, jarring or grating 

 on our nerves, like artificial noises ! The 

 braying of the donkey was to Cowper the one 

 exception in animal life ; but he never heard it in 



