172 NATURAL HISTORY READER. 



down the great black-walnut for my diversion, chattering 

 like monkeys. Can I sign his death- warrant who has toler- 

 ated me about his grounds so long ? Not I. Let them 

 steal and welcome. I am sure I should, had I the same 

 bringing up and the same temptation . As for the birds, I 

 do not believe there is one of them but does more good 

 than harm ; and of how many featherless bipeds can this 

 be said ? T D „ T „ 



James Jxusseu Lowed. 



THE SONG OF BIRDS. 



1. In" proportion as we have been trained to be agree- 

 ably affected by the outward forms of nature and the 

 sounds that proceed from the animate and inanimate 

 world, are we capable of being made happy without resort- 

 ing to expensive and vulgar recreations. It ought, there- 

 fore, to be one of the chief points in the education of 

 youth, while teaching them the still more important of- 

 fices of humanity, to cultivate and enliven their suscepti- 

 bility to the charms of natural objects. Then would the 

 aspects of nature, continually changing with the progress 

 of the seasons and the sounds that enliven their march, sat- 

 isfy, in a great measure, that craving for agreeable sensa- 

 tions which leads mankind away from humble and health- 

 ful pursuits to those of a more artificial and exciting life. 

 The value of such pleasures consists not so much in 

 their cheapness as in their favorable moral influences, 

 which improve the heart, while they lead the mind to ob- 

 servations that pleasantly exercise and develop, without 

 tasking its powers. The quiet emotions, half musical and 

 half poetical, which are awakened by listening to the song 

 of birds, belong to this class of refined enjoyments. 



2. But the music of birds, though agreeable to all, con- 

 veys positive and durable pleasure only to those who have 



