Robert Bridges Quote

Birds are of all animals the nearest to men for that they take delight in both music and dance, and gracefully schooling leisure to enliven life, wer the earlier artists: moreover in their airy flight (which in its swiftness symboleth man's soaring thought) they hav no rival but man, and easily surpass in their free voyaging his most desperate daring, altho' he hath fed and sped his ocean-ships with fire.