164 , The Forest Trees of Wiltshire. 
wooded district? Where can a right-minded man receive more 
instruction than while being so occupied; or where can his heart 
his feelings, his soul be so elevated, so overflowing with thankful- 
ness, gratitude and love towards an all-wise Creator? Every 
object around tends to purify the mind, and to raise the thoughts 
from ‘Nature up to Nature’s God.” The moss, the wild flower, 
the fern at his feet; the shrubs and underwood around; and the 
majestic trees, some with wide umbrageous tops: some with tall, 
straight, smooth trunks leading the eye to the Heaven above, to 
which they so significantly point,—all speak in language too plain 
not to be understood, of that OmniscIENCE and OMNIPOTENCE which 
have placed him in what, but for an undutiful and ungrateful 
disregard of his MaKsr’s commands, might be, and always have 
been, a perfect Paradise here below. And more than that, which 
opens to his mind’s eye that celestial Paradise, in comparison with 
which, all, even the most beautiful in this earthly sphere, pales 
and fades away into utter insignificance. Dull indeed, must be his 
feelings, dead his soul, who can make Nature in her loveliest, as in 
her grandest garb, his frequent and cherished companion, and not 
join with Nature in that adoration which she so surely pays to his 
and her Creator! Who is there who cannot, or rather, who can- 
not Sut join his voice in prayer or praise, with those sounds which 
ever greet his ears from insect and from bird; or from rustling 
leaves and the winds sighing through the waving boughs? Thus 
beautifully, in words, has one of our old poets clothed the idea :— 
‘¢ Walk with thy fellow-creatures; note the hush 
And whispers ’mongst them: there’s not e’en a spring 
Or leafe but hath his morning-hymn ; each bush 
And oak doth know ‘I Am,’ Canst thou not sing?” 

