But "by the light of the J\£oon he beholdeth God's creatures of the 

 great calm; their beauty and- their happiness, and he blesseth then 

 in his heart," The spell begins to break,, and 



"The self-same moment I could pray; 

 And from my neck so free 

 The Albatross fell off, and sank 



Like lead into the sea" — i just the experience of Christian but 

 with a different burdenl And when he had been dnly shriven"tnroughout 

 his future life an agony constraineth him to travel from land to land" 

 to teach the gentle doctrine, not without need i:i our own day, that 



"He pray eth well, who lov eth well 

 Both man and bird and beast. 

 He prayeth best, who lovest best 

 All things both great and small." 



Finally, here is a fact worth remembering, especially if you are inter- 

 ested in early editions. The first printing of the Riue was made privately 

 for the author; and the edition commonly accepted as f;.rst is not, as a matter 

 of fact, actually the first - even if you are fort una tL and rich enough to 

 acquire a copy on any of the rare occasions when it is offered for sale, be- 

 cause, bearing the same date, is a smaller but infinitf ly scarcer 12mo, an 

 example of which, I understand, is not in the library r-f the British Ifuseum 

 nor in most of the famous collections of English poetry, but just where it 

 ought to be — in the home of the albatross himself. 



When we were in Wellington, N.Z., it v/as my privijage to be shown over 

 the marvellous Alex. Turhbull collection, willed to the Dominion by the owner, 

 who spent a large fortune and a lifetime in gathering i&. Here is to be seen, 

 among hundreds of rare bindings and still rarer manuscripts and books, every 

 publication directly or indirectly bearing on Australasia and most of 

 Polynesia. The log of the "Discovery" is there, so is the only known copy 

 of the first print made in Hew Zealand - the Catechism in the Kaori language, 

 and here is to be seen the first edition, privately printed for the author 

 of Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Fariner, 



Another bird I longed to see in the South Seas was Phaethon rubri caudu s, 

 the Red-tailed Tropic-bird , largest of the species. He derives his name 

 from the bright crimson-red of his elongated and very attenuated retrices . 



His mandibles are also red, and, when full-grown, his white plumage is 

 tinted a deep roseate hue — altogether a beautiful bird. I wrote from 

 South America of my experiences with the Yellow-billed Tropic-bird 

 (P. f lavirostri ) , (called "long-tails" in Bermuda) and I was on tiptoe to see 

 his relative flying about the southern ocean, Moreover, I hoped to see a 

 young bird, with the black, arrow-head markings on its back. I also wondered 

 whether those barbarians who shoot this lovely creature for the bright red 

 feathers of his tail, (let us not forget those part i cipites cri minis who wear 

 then) are still at their nefarious work. 



-12- 



