ch, and the metallic
clinking of two or three sorts of titmice. But above the tree-tops,
rising, hovering, sinking, the woodlark is fluting tender and low. Above
the pastures outside the skylark sings--as he alone can sing; and close
by from the hollies rings out the blackbird's tenor--rollicking,
audacious, humorous, all but articulate. From the tree above him rises
the treble of the thrush, pure as the song of angels; more pure, perhaps,
in tone, though neither so varied nor so rich as the song of the
nightingale. And there, in the next holly, is the nightingale himself;
now croaking like a frog, now talking aside to his wife, and now bursting
out into that song, or cycle of songs, in which if any man find sorrow,
he himself surely finds none. . . . In Nature there is nothing
melancholy.

_Prose Idylls_. 1866.

Notes of Character. June 18.

Without softness, without repose, and therefore without dignity.

_MS._

Our Blessed Dead. June 19.

Why should not those who are gone be actually nearer us, not farther from
us, in the heavenly world, praying for us, and it may be influencing and
guiding us in a hundred ways of which we, in our prison-house of
mortality, cannot dream? Yes! Do not be afraid to believe that he whom
you have lost is near you, and you near him, and both of you near God,
who died on the cross for you.

_Letters and Memories_. 1871.

Silent Influence. June 20.

Violence is not strength, noisiness is not earnestness. Noise is a sign
of want of faith, and violence is a sign of weakness.

By quiet, modest, silent, private influence we shall win. "Neither
strive nor cry nor let your voice be heard in the streets," was good
advice of old, and is still. I have seen many a movement succeed by it.
I have seen many a movement tried by the other method of striving and
crying and making a noise in the streets, but I have never seen one
succeed thereby, and never shall.

_Letters and Memories_. 1870.

Chivalry. June 21.

Some say that the age of chivalry is past. The age of chivalry is never
past as long as there is a wrong left unredressed on earth, and a man or
woman left to say, "I will redress that wrong, or spend my life in the
attempt." The age of chivalry is never past as long as men have faith
enough in God to say, "God will help me to redress that wrong; or if not
me, surely He will help those that come after me. For His eternal will
is to overco