49 THE POWER OF EARLY IMPRESSIONS.

formed to enable me to estimate the dufercnce be-
tween the azure tints of the sky and the emerald
hue of the bright foliage,-I felt that an intimacy
with them, not consisting of friendship merely,
but bordering on frenzy, must accompany my
steps through life; and now, more than ever, I am
persuaded of the power of those early impressions.
They laid such hold upon me that, when removed
from the woods, the prairies, and the brooks, or shut
up from the view of the wide Atlantic, I experienced
none of those pleasures most congenial to my mind.
None but aérial companions suited my fancy. No
roof seemed so secure to me as that formed of
the dense folhage under which the feathered tribes
were seen to resort, or the caves and fissures of the
massy rocks to which the dark-winged cormorant
and the curlew retired to rest, or to protect them-
selves from the fury of the tempest... . A vivid
pleasure shone on those days of my early youth,
attended with a calmness of feeling, that seldom
tailed to rivet my attention for hours, while I gazed
in ecstasy upon the pearly and shining eggs, ag they
lay embedded in the softest down, or among dried
leaves and twigs, or were exposed upon the burning
sand or weather-beaten rocks of our Atlantic shores.
I was taught to look upon them as flowers yet in
the bud. I watched their opening to see how
nature had provided each different species with