148 THE BEECH. 



around. Look where you will, Nature is in a state of deep 

 repose, if not of suspended animation : there is as little 

 semblance of growing life as in the cloisters of a cathedral. 

 The ground is bare of everything save withered leaves and 

 dead twigs and wrinkled husks ; every herb, if any ever 

 grew here, has hidden itself under the brown covering of 

 the earth, as if afraid to show signs of life in that universal 

 solitude. As far as the eye can reach, on all sides extends 

 an irregular succession of lofty fluted columns, which seem 

 to have been chiselled to their existing proportions ; for 

 nowhere is there to be detected a single rugged trunk 

 indicative of expansive growth, nor one to which the man- 

 tling Ivy imparts a borrowed semblance of vitality: the 

 very lichens which chequer their smooth barks seem to be 

 monumental, rather than endowed with life. Overhead 

 the long wavy boughs are intersecting each other at every 

 possible angle, but all stark and rigid. The wiry twigs, 

 which form a network over the whole, are apparently 

 striving to escape from the solemn influence which reigns 

 below. Yet there is no gloom here, for the sun, as if aware 

 that this is the only season at which his rays can penetrate 

 these recesses, makes up in brightness for what he wants 

 of heat. And, if we look a little more closely, we shall 

 discover that, though Nature is asleep, her vital functions 

 have only withdrawn themselves from sight ; mysterious 

 operations are still going on, of which, though we cannot 

 now comprehend them, we shall in a few months have no 

 difficulty in discovering the results. Examine one of the 

 long and sharp buds with which every branch is so plenti- 

 fully furnished, and, although we may be unable to account 

 for the apparent suspension of life in deciduous 1 trees, or 

 to discover what operations are being carried on in the 

 silent laboratory of Nature, we shall have no difficulty in 

 discovering that the providence of God is watching over 

 every bud, and doing for it whatever is necessary, in order 



1 Deciduous trees are those which shed their leaves at the ap- 

 proach of winter. 



