The Nightingale

This fairy tale will acquaint the little reader with the contrast of what’s natural and artificial, what occurs in nature, and what is made by man, and how the beauty of the former can be superior to the latter.

This is conveyed through a mechanical bird and a real nightingale. The abilities of the artificial bird consist in resembling the sound of an organ barrel and playing a melodic tune, but it is the living sound of the nightingale that saves the emperor and fends off death when he is at his most difficult hour, all the while the mechanical clockwork of the artificial bird remains silent.