The Masnavi, passage 201

The genus Kalmia includes six known species, five of which are natives of eastern North America and one a native of Cuba. They are all beautiful shrubs, varying in height from a few inches to several feet.

The Masnavi, passage 71

One naturally asks: “What is Evolution?” “Continuous change according to certain fixed laws,” is a reply which may have some value, although it is quite insufficient. A technical definition, given by Mr. Spencer, is as follows:

The Masnavi, passage 158

In our cold temperate zone spring means chiefly the changing of the trees from their naked winter condition to the beautiful green leafy appearance of early summer. When stripped of their foliage, trees present to the observant eye a great variety of form. The tall, slender poplar can easily be distinguished from the spreading elm as far as it is seen; as, also, can the rough-barked hickory, with its clinging strips of bark, from the smooth beech.

The Masnavi, passage 73

Evolution is not another word for Development, and Mr. Spencer has carefully distinguished the one from the other; but the details are too technical for notice in this paper. Evolution may be regarded as “a general term for the history of the steps by which any living being has acquired the morphological and physiological characters which distinguish it.” Development is “the process of differentiation by which the primitively similar parts of a living body become more and more unlike one another.” Both definitions are Huxley’s.

The Masnavi, passage 86

Concerning Natural Selection, sometimes called Darwinism, the late Professor Huxley said (quotation from Darwin’s “Life”): “I venture to affirm that so far as all my knowledge goes, all the ingenuity and all the learning of the hostile critics have not enabled them to adduce a single fact of which it can be said this is irreconcilable with the Darwinian theory.”

The Masnavi, passage 247

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The Masnavi, passage 195

Ah, quite alone these April days It blossoms to evoke my praise; And hyacinthine scents are shed To bless and cheer me, hither led.

The Masnavi, passage 70

The philosophies of the ancients were all of them founded upon limited observation; they were merely speculative fancy-pictures evolved from the author’s own consciousness. Modern science, however, is of quite a different character. It has relegated certain fundamental propositions to a region called “the Unknowable” (this means at present unknowable), and it permits everybody to explain these propositions by means of any hypotheses which may occur to him. In other words, modern science does not deal with such phenomena as are at the present day outside the range of the human intellect; and I venture to warn the reader that speculation concerning matters upon which we have as yet no scientific data is waste of time. Modern science is founded upon investigation and observation, and the evidence is always weighed as carefully and as impartially as are the statements of witnesses in a law court.

The Masnavi, passage 11

Audubon’s Oriole, the male of which we illustrate, has a very limited range, including the “valley of the Lower Rio Grande in Texas and southward in Mexico to Oaxaca.” It is more common in central and eastern Mexico than in any other part of its range. In the summer, it only frequents the denser forests of its Texas home, but during the winter months it will approach the inhabited regions.

The Masnavi, passage 167

Year after year beheld the silent toil That spread his lustrous coil; Still, as the spiral grew, He left the past year’s dwelling for the new, Stole with soft step his shining archway through, Built up its idle door, Stretched in his last-found home, and knew the old no more.

The Masnavi, passage 145

THE AMERICAN ELK OR WAPITI. (_Cervus canadensis._)

The Masnavi, passage 85

“I need offer no argument for Evolution, since to doubt evolution is to doubt science, and science is only another name for the truth.” Professor Marsh meant, of course, not that evolution is to be taken “on trust,” but that it has been so thoroughly proved that new arguments in support of it are unnecessary.

The Masnavi, passage 18

Sauntering hither on listless wings, Careless vagabond of the sea, Little thou heedest the surf that sings, The bar that thunders, the shale that rings,— Give me to keep thy company.

The Masnavi, passage 138

That night, to Jim’s distress, a cold rainfall set in. “My sheeps will all be dwounded,” he wailed! “I meant to make a ’bwella over them!”

The Masnavi, passage 198

How worthy of its meek renown! Delightful gem for beauty’s crown. O’er it with joy can poet brood; It breathes of God in solitude. —George Bancroft Griffith.

The Masnavi, passage 61

Few birds exhibit a more happy disposition. They seem always to be perfectly satisfied with their surroundings. One writer, quietly watching them, gathered in the trees about him, says that “The wind whistled loudly through the branches above, but these lively fellows began a serenade so joyous and full of gleeful abandon that I lingered long to hear them. In singing they opened the bill widely and the throat swelled with melody. Their notes are rich, varied and energetic. They are almost constantly in motion, chasing each other or flying from perch to perch, singing merrily most of the time.”

The Masnavi, passage 191

The Trailing Arbutus (Epigaea repens) belongs to the Heath family or Ericaceæ and constitutes the only species of the genus. Like the partridge berry which is often associated with it in pine woods and sandy soils, it is still in a state of transition, although it has been developing for centuries. As a rule, plants have the stamens and pistils in the same blossom or part in one and part in another. The Mayflower, however, does not carry out this arrangement. Either the anthers or the stigmas are abortive or partially so, or in other words, the perfect stigmas are usually associated with abortive anthers and vice versa. In this manner, nature has wisely provided for cross fertilization which is accomplished largely by insects, as the structure of the plant is not adapted to wind fertilization. The chosen agents for this process are honey bees, and a few early moths and butterflies, to which the nectar is served by this beautiful Hebe of the spring and who carry the pollen from one flower to another.

The Masnavi, passage 16

The number of eggs vary from two to five and “sets of one or two eggs of this Oriole, with two or three cowbird’s eggs, seem to be most frequently found, some of the first named eggs being thrown out to make room.” The eggs are ovate in form and the general color varies from white with a bluish cast to white with a grayish cast and in some instances a purple shade predominates. The markings vary greatly both in color and form. They may be either thread-like, in streaks or in blotches. In color they may be various shades of either brown, purple or lavender.

The Masnavi, passage 125

Mrs. Farnum did not look as pleased as the rest.

The Masnavi, passage 117

“I’d help you if it wasn’t for those horrid spiders,” said Lora. “I’m afraid as death of them ever since I read about a baby dying from a spider-bite.”

The Masnavi, passage 215

The word hop (German, Hopfen) is of very uncertain origin. According to some authorities it is traceable to the old English, hoppan, in reference to the habit of the plant in climbing over hedges and fences. Humulus is said to refer to its habit of creeping over the soil. Lupulus (diminutive of lupus, wolf) is said to refer to the pernicious and destructive influence the hop plant has upon plants which it uses as a support, especially the willows. Plinius named it Lupus salictarius, that is, the willow wolf or willow destroyer.

The Masnavi, passage 155

The Wapiti is graceful and proud in its bearing and very light in its movements. This is especially true of the male, which may be described as an animal of “noble carriage.” When moving from place to place it walks rapidly and runs with remarkable swiftness.

The Masnavi, passage 84

Who are the supporters of the doctrine of Evolution? Practically the whole scientific world. The late Professor Marsh, the distinguished palaeontologist, when president of the American Association for the Advance of Science in 1878, said:

The Masnavi, passage 98

This Scoter is an American species and is only an accidental visitor to European coasts. Its range includes the “coasts and larger inland waters of northern North America; in winter, south to Florida, to the Ohio River and to San Quentin Bay, Lower California.”

The Masnavi, passage 80

As I have already said, Darwin neither invented nor discovered the doctrine of Evolution. But he placed it upon a firm foundation by the discovery of the two great factors to which I have referred, and, by incessant observation and indomitable energy, he demonstrated the truth of them beyond any reasonable doubt.

The Masnavi, passage 5

Now tendrils curl and earth bursts forth anew— Now shepherds pipe and fleecy flocks are gay— Now sailors sail, and Bacchus gets his due— Now wild birds chirp and bees their toil pursue— Sing, poet, thou—and sing thy best for May! —William M. Hardinge, “Spring.”

The Masnavi, passage 76

When the earth was in the condition to which Huxley referred, the constantly decreasing heat, and the recurrence of the seasons produced, by slow degrees, changes in the congenital character of the forms of life. Every individual varied somewhat from its predecessors, and those forms which possessed variations most suitable to the environment were the ones which eventually survived. The transition from the protophyta, the lowest class of vegetable life, to the protozoa, the lowest class of animal life, must have been a very simple matter in the condition in which the earth then was. Indeed, today the difference between the lowest microscopic animals and the lowest microscopic plants is by no means clearly defined.

The Masnavi, passage 90

The idea of a species is based upon structural resemblances between individuals, and the degree of importance attached to these depends upon the mind of the particular observer.

The Masnavi, passage 190

Whether or not this fanciful story relates the real origin of the Trailing Arbutus, Ground Laurel or Mayflower, as it is variously called in different sections of the country, the fact remains that it follows closely in the footsteps of spring, often pushing up its dainty blossoms through the leaves and snow. It is always known as the Mayflower throughout New England and the old story of its being Flora’s first offering to the ocean-tossed pilgrims as they landed at Plymouth, in appreciation of which they named it the Mayflower in memory of their vessel, has endeared the beautiful plant to every New England heart and has caused it to be placed in Cupid’s keeping, along with the Scotch blue bell, the German corn flower and the Swiss edelweiss.

The Masnavi, passage 248

--Silently corrected a few palpable typos.

The Masnavi, passage 157

The writer has had many varied experiences with wild animals, but none of them impressed him so strongly as the episode of the mouse-mother in the wheat stubble.

The Masnavi, passage 25

But these days were far off. It was summer, and a crystal brook slipped from level to level, singing its sweet water-song, and bringing cool water to bathe the feet of the oak which the Dryad loved and decked with green garlands. The orioles loved it, flashing here and there with rich red gold or flame-like orange on breast and wings and soft, velvety black on head and shoulders, splendidly beautiful as some tropic flower, they chose the end of an oak bough to hang their pensile nest. The male oriole shone in the sun, but his mate glowed with a duller hue, an orange veiled with gray, and mottled and spotted or splashed with white and fuscous and black, as a brooding creature should be that sits all day long amid the play of fleeting light and shade upon constant color. But both were beautiful in their strong and darting flight, and their labors of love.

The Masnavi, passage 166

Its webs of living gauze no more unfurl! Wrecked is the ship of pearl! And every chambered cell, Where its dim dreaming life was wont to dwell, As the frail tenant shaped his growing shell, Before thee lies revealed,— Its irised ceiling rent, its sunless crypt unsealed!

The Masnavi, passage 108

The Farnum’s back-yard was something disagreeable. Still it didn’t matter much, thought the children, as long as the front yard was nicely kept and there was a high fence all around the back. Besides, Mr. Farnum was away from home traveling all the week; Mrs. Farnum was so busy that she hardly ever saw the disreputable yard, and the children, Rob, Lora and Baby Jim, liked best to play away from home.

The Masnavi, passage 133

“Perhaps,” answered Mr. Farnum. “Now, children, I have something nice to tell you. I have hired a man to come and help us improve the back-yard. He will cut the weeds and trim up the trees and bushes, and we can plan the walks and flower-beds for next spring.”

The Masnavi, passage 107

This ocean duck feeds “on small mollusks and fishes, for which it dives almost constantly, both in the sandy bays and amidst the tumbling surf, sometimes fishing at the depth of several fathoms and floating buoyantly among the surf of the raging billows, where it seems as unconcerned as if it were on the most tranquil waters.”

The Masnavi, passage 88

According to the view of the anti-evolutionists, most of whom are not scientific men, descendants of a common ancestor must belong to the same species. Nevertheless, the late Mr. Romanes has shown that the rabbits of Porto Santo, an island in the Atlantic, about twenty-five miles from Madeira, descended from the European stock of nearly 500 years ago, will no longer breed with their continental cousins.

The Masnavi, passage 245

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The Masnavi, passage 13

It is said that this beautiful bird is frequently called upon to become the foster parents of the offspring of some of those birds that have neither the inclination to build their own nests or to raise their own families. The ingenious nests of the orioles seem to be especially attractive to these tramp birds which possess parasitic tastes.

The Masnavi, passage 237

N Nautilus and Other Cephalopods, The [Illustration] (Frank Collins Baker), 222 Nautilus, The Chambered [Poem] (Oliver Wendell Holmes), 221 Nests, Some Notable (Elizabeth Reed Brownell), 149

The Masnavi, passage 146

Centuries ago, before Columbus sailed the unknown seas which divided him from the New World of his dreams and ambitions, before the birth of De Soto, that adventurer whose discoveries and conquests were to unfold to the Old World the mysteries and fascinations of the new land, through the virgin forest and over the broad plains as yet unknown to the white race, roamed many animals which were widely distributed throughout North America.

The Masnavi, passage 28

Happy is the Dryad that dwells in an oak where the orioles build and sing!

The Masnavi, passage 65

The nest of the Rusty Blackbird is large and substantially constructed. It is generally placed in cone-bearing trees and is seldom more than ten feet from the ground. As a rule, trees growing in swampy and rather inaccessible places are selected. The base of the nest “is principally composed of sphagnum moss and earth, forming a firm, hard platform on which the nest proper is built. This is thickly covered on the outside with small tamarack and spruce twigs, mixed with a few blades of grass, pieces of fern and long green moss, especially at the base. The inner cup is thickly and neatly lined with fine bright green grass.” These blackbirds are not quarrelsome and are devoted parents, both sexes assisting in the care of the young, which are able to leave the nest in about fifteen or sixteen days. Our illustration shows the fall and winter plumage of the male. During the breeding season the plumage is a glossy bluish black.

The Masnavi, passage 216

Beside the countries above named hops is also cultivated in Brazil and other South American countries, Australia and India. There are several cultivated varieties. According to most authorities it is not supposed to be indigenous to North America, but Millspaugh expresses it as his opinion that it is indigenous northward and westward, growing in alluvial soil, blossoming in July and fruiting in September.

The Masnavi, passage 96

THE SURF SCOTER. (_Oidemia perspicillata._)

The Masnavi, passage 217

The plants are planted in rows and the rapidly growing branches trained upon poles stuck into the soil. Three or four male plants (with staminate flowers) are grown in an acre patch to supply the necessary pollen. Some authorities state, however, that the female plants develop enough staminate flowers to effect pollination. It is extensively cultivated in England, Germany and France. Also in New England, New York, Michigan, and in fact nearly every State in the Union.

The Masnavi, passage 21

Lazily rocking on ocean’s breast, Something in common, old friend, have we; Thou on the shingle seek’st thy nest, I to the waters look for rest,— I on the shore, and thou on the sea. —Bret Harte.

The Masnavi, passage 222

Hops contains an etherial oil, resin and tannic acid. The oil and the resin are important constituents in the manufacture of beer. The young shoots contain asparagin, etherial oil, resin and sugar.

The Masnavi, passage 249

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The Masnavi, passage 69

Charles Darwin was born in 1809, on the same day as Lincoln, but, long before Darwin’s time, evolution had become a recognized force in science. Kant, who lived from 1724 to 1804, and Laplace (1749-1827) had worked out the development of the sun and the planets from white-hot gas. Lyell (1797-1875) had worked out the evolution of the earth’s surface to its present condition; and Lamarck (1744-1829) had shown that there is evidence of the descent of all animals, as well as all plants, from a few ancestors by gradual modification. Again, Herbert Spencer, during Darwin’s lifetime, began to work out the growth of mind from the most simple beginnings to the highest development of human thought.