calm like a god, one may thrill with love and admiration for Nature
without resigning sense of superiority over all other of her works or
abating one jot of justifiable pride.

Even in tropical Queensland there is a sense of revivification during the
last half of August and first of September, and the soul of man responds
thereto, as do plants and birds, in lawful manner. Perhaps it is that the
alien dweller in lands of the sun, when he frisks mentally and physically
at this sprightly season, is merely obeying an imperative characteristic
bred into him during untold generations when the winter was cruelly real
and spring a joyful release from cold and distress. The cause may be
slight, but there is none to doubt the actual awakening, for it is
persuasive and irresistible.

The lemon-trees are discarding the burden of superfluous fruit with
almost immoderate haste, for the gentle flowers must have their day.
Pomeloes have put forth new growth a yard long in less than a fortnight,
and are preparing a bridal array of blooms such as will make birds and
butterflies frantic with admiration and perfume the scene for the compass
of a mile. The buff-and-yellow sprays of the mango attract millions of
humming insects, great and small. Most of the orchids are in full flower,
the coral-trees glow, the castanospermum is full of bud, loose bunches of
white fruit decorate the creeping palms, and the sunflower-tree is
blotched with gold in masses. The birds make declaration of attachment
for the season.

Great trees, amorous birds, frail insects, perceive the subtle influence
of the season, and shall not coarse-fibred man rejoice, though there be
little or nothing to which he may point as special evidence of
inspiration? He may feel the indefinable without comprehending any