WOOD-PATHS. 



THERE is no person who is not sensitive to the beauty 

 of a natural wood. All men feel the comfort of its 

 shade and protection, the freshness of its perfumed gales, 

 the quiet of its seclusion, and its many pleasant accom- 

 paniments of birds, fruits, and flowers. We do not learn 

 by tuition to appreciate these objects ; they are adapted 

 not only to our native wants, but they are the real cause 

 of many of the poetic thoughts and images that abound 

 in all literature. We feel, while rambling under these 

 lofty trees, and over this carpet of leaves and mosses, 

 that nothing which art has accomplished will compare 

 with the primitive works of nature. There is no archi- 

 tecture so sublime as that of a forest ; there are no gardens 

 like the little paradises to be found here, wherever accident 

 has left a dell or a dingle open to the sun ; there is no 

 music like that of its solitary birds ; no worship so sin- 

 cere as in these temples ; no cloistered solitude so sweet 

 as under these shadowy boughs. 



Yet how much greater are the charms of a natural 

 wood if it be intersected by wood-paths ! When a farmer 

 makes a passage for his wagon through a forest, he oper- 

 ates without artistic design, and his work harmonizes with 

 nature. He thinks only of facilitating progress through 

 his territory ; for though he may be alive to all pleasant 

 rural sights and sounds, he cannot pause from his labors 

 to do anything for mere embellishment. He is governed 

 only by his ideas of utility and convenience. Yet the 

 works of decorative art are tame and prosaic by the side 



