208 



HARMONIES OF THE TEMPERATE ZONE. 



Indestructible vigour of the climates of the West ? Why doth this 

 oak live through a thousand years ? Because it is ever young. 



It is the oak which chronicles the commencement of spring. For 

 us the emotion of the new life does not begin when all nature clothes 

 itself in the uniform verdure of the meaner vegetation. It commences 

 only when we see the oak, from the woody foliage of the past, which it 

 still retains, gathering its fresh leaves ; when the elm, permitting itself 



to be outstripped by inferior trees, tints with a light green the severe 

 delicacy of its airy branches, clearly defined against the skj^ 



Then, then. Nature speaks to aU — her potent voice troubles even 

 the soul of sages. And why not ? Is she not holy ? And tliis sur- 

 prising awakening, which has stirred life everywhere^ — from the hard 

 dumb heart of the oaks, even to their lofty crest, where the bird pours 

 out its irladness — is it not, as it were, a return of God ? 



