298 OCTOBER. 



shades of trees poets have composed verses which 

 have animated men to heroic and glorious actions. 

 Here orators have made their panegyrics, historians 

 their grave relations ; and the profound philosophers 

 have loved to pass their lives in repose and con- 

 templation." 



Who has walked in woods, that has not felt them 

 become to him as superb temples, filling him with a 

 desire 



To contemplate and worship Him whose mind 



Stirs in the stilly night-like solitude, 



Or breathes in whispers, on the gentle wind, 



Through vast cathedral groves, and leaves a calm behind. 



MILLHOUSE. 



And what author, ancient or modern, has not ex- 

 pressed his sense of their beauty, by employing them 

 as figures of whatever is rich, flourishing, and 

 pleasant 1 In spring when they are in the delicacy 

 of their pride, in summer when they are shadowy 

 and aromatic, in the last splendour of autumn, or 

 when winter robs them of their foliage, but brings to 

 light what summer has concealed, the underwork 

 and tracery of their branches in each and all, are 

 trees and woods inspiring and delightful. 



It is in this month, however, that woods may be 

 pronounced most beautiful. Towards the end of it, 

 what is called the fading of the leaf, but what might 

 more fitly be termed the kindling or tinting of the 

 leaf, presents a magnificent spectacle. Every species 

 of tree, so beautifully varied in its general character 



