I. 
THE LIVING INFINITE. 
We have followed the Bird in all its liberties of 
flight, and space, and light; but the Earth which 
we quitted would not quit us. The sweet melodies 
of the winged world could not prevent us from 
hearing the murmur of an infinite world of shadow 
and silence, which, wanting the speech of man, ex¬ 
presses itself, nevertheless, with eloquent force, by 
means of a myriad mute tongues. 
A universal appeal made to us simultaneously by 
all Nature, from the depths of Earth and Sea, from 
the bosom of every plant, from the very air which 
we breathe. 
The eloquent appeal of the ingenious arts of the Insect, of its 
powers of love so vividly manifested through its wings and colours, 
2 
