Collected works > Edinburgh edition, 1894-98 - Works of Robert Louis Stevenson > Volume 11, 1895 - Miscellanies, Volume III

PAN'S PIPES
trees in pairing-time ? What means the sound of
the rain falling far and wide upon the leafy forest ?
To what tune does the fisherman whistle, as he hauls
in his net at morning, and the bright fish are heaped
inside the boat ? These are all airs upon Pan's pipe ;
he it was who gave them breath in the exultation
of his heart, and gleefully modulated their outflow
with his lips and fingers. The coarse mirth of
herdsmen, shaking the dells with laughter and strik-
ing out high echoes from the rock ; the tune of
moving feet in the lamplit city, or on the smooth
ballroom floor ; the hooves of many horses, beating
the wide pastures in alarm ; the song of hurrying
rivers ; the colour of clear skies ; and smiles and the
live touch of hands ; and the voice of things, and
their significant look, and the renovating influence
they breathe forth — these are his joyful measures,
to which the whole earth treads in choral harmony.
To this music the young lambs bound as to a tabor,
and the London shop-girl skips rudely in the dance.
For it puts a spirit of gladness in all hearts ; and to
look on the happy side of nature is common, in their
hours, to all created things. Some are vocal under
a good influence, are pleasing whenever they are
pleased, and hand on their happiness to others, as a
child who, looking upon lovely things, looks lovely.
Some leap to the strains with unapt foot, and make
a halting figure in the universal dance. And some,
like sour spectators at the play, receive the music
into their hearts with an unmoved countenance, and
walk like strangers through the general rejoicing.
i86