CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 303 



The wide old wood from his majestic rest, 



Summoning from the innumerable boughs 

 The strange deep melodies that haunt his breast." 



Without further preface, we will introduce the fair writer to our 

 readers, in the following just remarks on trees in general : — 



" Trees are full of moral associations , regarded under which impression, 

 they possess even ' something than beauty dearer.' Many of them are rich 

 in historic interest, and chronicle events of national importance; others con- 

 fine themselves to a more limited range of observation, and recalling the 

 memory of some renowned individual, lead us beneath their shade to ' hold 

 converse with the mighty dead.' But where this pecular charm is wanting, 

 imagination bodies forth scenes and stories of its own creating, and ' gives 

 to airy nothing a local habitation and a name.' An aged tree points to the 

 past — a sapling to the future ; and whilst the mind is exercised in these 

 remote contemplations, we feel the force of Dr. Johnson's well-known ob- 

 servation : — ' Whatever withdraws us from the power of our senses — what- 

 ever makes the past, the distant, or the future predominate over the present 

 — advances us m the dignity of thinking beings." 



In working out her plan, she has freely levied contributions from 

 other writers on trees, and assimilated many choice allusions of the 

 poets to the subject under treatment. Something is, in this way, 

 provided to suit every taste. Ample as are these quotations and 

 the legends which they sometimes introduce, we could have wished, 

 when speaking of the Aspen and the superstitions indulged in by 

 rude nations as to the origin of its perpetual motion, she had no- 

 ticed that prevalent in the north of Europe, viz., when Christ en- 

 tered Jerusalem amid hosannas, every tree bowed its head but the 

 stately and haughty poplar, which was, therefore, condemned to 

 shake and tremble till the second coming of its Lord. This super- 

 stition has been adopted in a poem by Aehlenslager, which was ably 

 translated in The Foreigii Literary Review several years ago. 



However willing we may be to indulge in extended quotation, 

 our limits compel us to take the following on the Scotch Fir, not 

 for its superiority over other passages, but for its shortness : — 



But a higher and more honourable distinction belongs to the tribe in the 

 frequent allusions made to it in Holy Writ ; the Fir, along with the Cedar, 

 was used for the planks and beams in the erection of the glorious temple of 

 Solomon. And in many passages it is also associated with that noble tree in 

 conveying images of pros])erity and sublimity. From the sonorous quality 

 of its wood, it is chosen, almost before any other, for musical instruments. 

 Even in the early ages its adaptation to such uses was recognized ; for we read 

 when David brought up the ark from the house of Abinadab, he ' and all the 

 house of Israel played before the Lord on all manner of instruments made 

 of Fir-wood ; even on harps, and on psalteries, and on timbrels, and on cor- 

 nets, and on cymbals.' It is still used in our days for similar purposes; and 

 in a fanciful view, there is a strange but beautiful anomaly in this braver of 

 the temjiest administering to the devotional and tender emotions of the 

 heart." 



" Thy throne a rock ! thy canopy the skies ! 

 And, circled in the mountain's dark embrace, 



