“The love of parents, hath a deep still source,
And falleth like a flood upon their child.
Sometimes the child is grateful, then his love
Comes like the spray returning.”
In Thomson’s “Spring,” the same sentiment, containing the reason of
this provision of nature, is beautifully explained. Having described
the bird’s nest, and the mother stealing from the barn a straw, ’till
“_soft and warm the habitation grew_,” and having described the little
birds in their nest,--
“Oh what passions then,
What melting sentiments of kindly care
Do the new parents’ seize; away they fly
Affectionate, and undesiring bear
The most delicious morsel to their young,
Which equally distributed, again
The search begins.”