12 MUSINGS OF AN OLD TREE. 



tion after generation rise up and pass away " like the baseless fabric of 

 a vision." The Indian stripling has swung among my branches ; the 

 early settler has often gathered his family around my trunk ; the wan- 

 dering traveller has sought repose and shelter in my shade ; the robin 

 has nestled among my boughs; armies have been marshalled around me; 

 the patriot has found in me a hiding place in war, and the statesman a 

 quiet retreat in peace ; the lover has breathed his warm vows in my ear; 

 the poet has sung to me his ditty; the bright-eyed girls have danced 

 their May-day sports around me, and the romping boys have deafened 

 rae with their noisy fun; the worm has feasted in my flesh, and man has 

 been healed by my bark ; — but tlie Indian boy, the robin, the poet, the 

 lover, the army, the worm, and the man, have all gone — one by one, they 

 have all gone. One after another they have been succeeded by their kind 

 — they, too, have gone ; generation after generation has come and gone, 

 and I am left alone. I have seen the Demon War striding over the land in 

 all his terror ; I have seen the Pestilence " stalking abroad" in her awful 

 might, laying men in the dust — but I have seen others rise up in their 

 places, and follow them to the tomb. Yon lovely mansion is reared up- 

 on the ruins of a little church that I saw a handful of men build one 

 hundred years ago. I knew that rich man's father, he was an industri- 

 ous wood-chopper. I knew that good clergyman's mother — she prayed 

 often for him, under my shelter, when all was still around. I knew that 

 ragged lad's ancestors to the third and fourth generation, they were 

 drunkards, and debauchees and evil livers ; their sins have been visited 

 upon his head. 



More than seventy thousand times have I seen night succeed to day, 

 and day drive away night. More than seventy millions of leaves and 

 buds have I put forth and shaken to the ground. Not one iota of earth 

 lies near me now that did when first I saw the ground. I have seen a 

 human bone laid on every inch of soil as far as my eye can reach, and 

 when the last trump shall sound, every clod around me shall be instinct 

 with life. 



I have heard the simple tradition of the Indian about " the Great 

 Spirit" and " the Good Home ;" I have seen the holy Missionary bring 

 the better tidings of the Bible ; I have seen these good tidings perverted 

 and corrupted in these evil times. 



I have watched the rule of Fashion, and seen the misery and slavery 

 of her subjects — a sad and terrible tyranny more implacable and capri- 

 cious than Nero's. I have seen all this, and more, and gathered from it 

 this one truth : the spirit of nature is change — no succeeding men, or 

 things, or generations, are like those which preceded them. I have seen 



