The Newtown bee., 1895-02-22
A BRIEF REVIEW OF SHARP EYES.

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 A BRIEF REVIEW OF SHARP EYES. "Sharp Eyes, by W. Hamilton Gib- son, is one of those exquisite books that cost you only S5. Its artistic value is worth Sl0 any lover of "the perfect ar- tist." The authors interest when boy in everything wonderful in nature has cuiminated in placing him among the foremost authorities of the day in orni- thology, etymology, botany, .syntax and prosedy."
 No author surpasses him in fancy and that delightful poetry of description which pervades every page of ''Sharp Eyes," We remember the author as the ''handsomest boy in Sandy Hook," the Bug Gibson" who picked up newts and wasps with impunity. He says in ''Sharp Eyes" that it was the "White faced wasps without stings" he handled. Any man or woman whose hands are harden ed by daily toll can take with impunity the veritable stinger into their hanis! But keep your fingers close and when the skin is broken look outl
 In his interesting lecture in Newtown he remarked ''that there was no danger of botany becoming an epidemic!'' True, too true! We had once in tour family''a girl who became. like Gibson, a constant student in the wonders of flowers. She enquired at the first art store" in New Haven for "herbarium paper," (the stu dents of Yale patronized this store,) the clerk said to this unsophisticatedc country girl, "Herbarium paper? I will ask the boss," The ''boss" said, 'Herbarium pa- per? don't think we have it. Perhaps the art store below may have what you are erquiring for!" And when this same country girl enquired for ''Sharp Eyes, in Bridgeport, she was answered, Hay for it .''
 Such is fame. Milton's Paradise Lost' lay and mouldered on the bookstore shelves for many decades. But when we with "blind eyes" ignore the intelligence of life around us and think ourselves as "Gods" we can see with 'Sharp Eyes" that the ''little dots of animal life" are as intelligent in their life as we are in ours! As Gibson says, "In masonry, in perfect art in constructing means of defense and attack man has often initiated those in- sects and animals that we looked upon as beneath contempt" do not here record exact words but the idea.
 Take his pictures of the honey bee, the ichneumon fly and the basket carriers at work. Don't they say to man, how in- significS nt you are! The basket carrier begins with an arch, soon turns a sum- nersault with his arch and builds a bas- ket about himselfl With the microscope ''we see Ourselves as others see us," not grvat te sha little life we often disturb.
 but tyrants like Dionysius; conquerors like Tamerlanei pr Gray has gwen the
 world the most complete work on botany
 since Linnious; Gibson the most playful and enchanting work on ornithology and etymology and botany. One feels as if he would like to take his hand and wan der at noon or midnight to see "the life of flowers and insects"
 We see in his ''Sharp Eyes" that God
 takes the same pains, the same care of the ''little dots Of life" as he does of man, the elephant and the giraffe. The horse dies that the 'bot fly" may be perpetual ed; the germs of grip are cared for at the sacrifice of man; typhoid germs, all dis ease germs are governed by the same ab- solute laws as those which run the irnu- merable worlds through spaeei Man should be filled with "wondei, love and praise;" but he is often no more in con- sonance with his surroundings than pig
 in g new pen.
 We wonder if our esteemed s'native of Newtown" ever saw in Woodbury river
 and the Housatonic the frequent piles of
 stones in May and June made by the
 .'horned dace" to protect their spawn. We often wondered at these piles of stones as large at times as bushel bas-
 ket and in size from bullets egg to a
 hazel nut, what they were for. One day
 while casting for trout we saw dozen or more dace about this bright pile of stones We saw one approach with ''cheeks dis
 tended" like achipmunk's B filled with rye.
 We saw him or her put out of his mouth
 stone upon the pilel This was theil way of protecting their eggs. The black bass, the roach and many other fish make
 .beds" and stay in them to defend tho "seeds" of their posterity.
 The honey bee, with his art in building has been an architect and model for man for s'endless ages" Look at the perfeci boxes, tubes and cans as pictured ir "Sharp Eyes" His comb of cylinder; was model of construction, without
 waste space long before man found the secretI
 The female glow worm only emits the
 light. This is an invitation for a beau The common lightning bug does the same. Pope says:
 "who taught the spider to parallels design, ? As sure as DeMoiure, without rule or line." t In Nature we see the universal care ol : the Almighty for all his created works : laws as imperative in little things as il n the government of suns and planets ? GG. W. Bradley.
 ]. A gentleman of this county who hal 7, suduor,apr rau,ortod fr, fin,