II 



BIRD-SONGS 



I 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 



