50 



enjoyment? Does it send mere automatically, without anima- 

 tion or sensibility of any kind, its crown to the sunny sky, or 

 drinks joyless the pearly dew 1 ? Do you think it closes its 

 flowers but mechanically, or unfolds them again to imbibe 

 light and genial warmth, absolutely without gladness or plea- 

 sure of any kind? What is vitality, and what mortal will 

 measure the share of delight enjoyed by any organism ! Why 

 should even the life of a plant be expended cruelly and waste- 

 fully, especially if, perhaps, this very plant stood already in 

 youthful elegance, while yet the diprotodon (a wombat of 

 the size of a buffalo) was roaming over the forest ridges 

 encircling Port Phillip Bay when those forest ridges on the 

 very place of this city were still clothed in their full natal 

 garb. Do not assume that I lean to transmutation doctrines ; 

 or that to my understanding there is an uninterrupted transit 

 from the thoughts which inspire the mind to the faculties of 

 animals and to the vitality of plants ! Yet that individual 

 life, whatever it may be, which we often so thoughtlessly and 

 so ruthlessly destroy, but which we never can restore, should 

 be respected. Is it not as if the sinking tree was speaking 

 imploringly to us, and when falling wished to convey to us its 

 sadness and its grief ? Like the nomadic wanderer of the 

 Australian soil passed away before us, so I fear most of the 

 traces of our beautiful and evergreen forests will be lost ere 

 long. 



. . . " It is a goodly sight to see 



What heaven has done for this delicious land ; 

 What flowers of fragrance blush on every tree, 



What glad'ning prospects o'er the hills expand ! 



But man would mar them with an impious hand." 



BYRON. 



Beyond the plainly utilitarian purposes of our forests (some 

 of which I endeavoured briefly to explain), and beyond all the 

 important functions which the woods have to perform in the 

 great economy of nature, they possess still other claims on our 

 consideration, such as ought to evoke some feeling of piety 

 towards them. It was in the forests where the poetic mind 

 of Schiller, during his early boyhood,* first of all awoke to its 

 deep love for nature; where his strong sense for noble recti- 

 tude was formed; where he framed his ideals of all that is 

 elevated and great. This influence of nature we see reflected 

 in other lofty minds; it leads true genius on its luminous 



* Sketch of the Life of Schiller, by Sir Edw. Bulwer Lytton, p. 2. 



