100 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS. 



found wondrous trees, some filled with fruit and bearing 

 sweet incense. Of one of these he says : 



'' Even as a fir tapers upward from bough to bough, 



So downardly did that 



I think in order that no one it might climb ; 



The while among the verdant leaves 



Mine eyes I riveted as he is wont to do 



Who spends the day in watching little birds " 



When Eneas wished to descend to the realms of 

 Pluto to consult his father Anchises, the Sybil directed 

 him to propitiate Proserpine by the gift of a golden 

 branch cut from a tree in a grove sacred to Diana and 

 Apollo. 



Arriving at the Elysian fields after passing the Plu- 

 tonian region of darkness and desolation, he saw multi- 

 tudes of the blessed reclining in the shade of wide 

 spreading trees, and the hillsides and the plains were 

 adorned with beautiful groves, in which Greeks and 

 Trojans pursued their games. Not only the golden 

 streets and a river of life make beautiful the New Jeru- 

 salem, but we read in Pevelations, " In the midst of the 

 street of it, and on either side of the river was .the tree 

 of life which bore twelve manner of fruits and yielded 

 her fruit every month ; and the leaves of the tree were 

 for the healing of the nation." 



This reverential and tender regard for trees has been 

 implanted in the minds of all imaginative people, ancient 

 and modern, sacred and profane ; the pure pleasure 

 derived from their contemplation is peculiarly a part of 

 the poet's dower. 



