The Birds’ Calendar, 
The builder Oak, sole king of forests all ; 
The Aspen, good for staves ; the Cypress, funeral ; 
The Laurel, meed of mighty conquerors 
And poets sage ; the Fir, that weepeth still ; 
The Willow, worn of hopeless paramours ; 
The Yew, obedient to the bender’s will ; 
The Birch, for shafts ; the Sallow, for the mill ; 
The Myrrh, sweet bleeding in the bitter wound ; 
The warlike Beech ; the Ash, for nothing ill ; 
The fruitful Oliye, and the Plantane round ; 
The carver Holm; the Maple, seldom inward sound.” 
Each has its individuality, but personality 
seems most pronounced in the ‘sole king of 
forests all,’’ and justifies the phrase, the spzrit 
of the Oak. 
When one sees a mighty tree uprooted or 
cut down, it seems impossible not to feel that 
suddenly some force has been abstracted from 
nature—annihilated ; but perhaps this is a mis- 
taken notion. Certain natural forces have 
been proved to be so essentially alike as to be 
convertible the one into the other, and heat 
ceases to be heat only to reappear in some 
other mode of power. If this be true of the 
inferior forces, it is reasonable to suppose the 
same holds good of the immensely superior 
vital force of plants and animals; and if there 
be no such thing as the extinction of those 
292 
