Birds, Insects, Man and Woman 1 1 1 



there is revival of native and intimate sympathies. 

 The great oaks, so noble a feature of our sur 

 rounding country, are past their period of blos 

 soming, and no longer delight earth with those 

 exquisite variations of colour in the young foliage 

 of these monarchs of the forest, so great a matter 

 of wonder, showing us how consistent is strength 

 with beauty. Tis no slight matter that a rugged, 

 robust oak should blossom in graceful tasseling 

 and leaf in exceeding delicacy of pink and buff 

 and cream tints, making the woodland a parterre 

 of rare and fine harmonies, with the maples be 

 hind in their clear, translucent greens, and the 

 somber pines, just lightened by the new bright 

 growth, like thrusts of kindling sunshine. Now 

 beneath these shades the solemn quietude of an 

 infinite, primitive, remote age is gathering, an 

 age when man was not, and when forests rose in 

 majesty and lived their long lives, and the aged 

 fell and their physical decay nourished their suc 

 cessors. That far gone time renews itself to one 

 who enters these sacred precincts in sympathy 

 with Nature. Here yet the sense of essential 

 life resides, and temporary and conditional living 

 recedes. The spirit of the universe does not 

 desert the forest shades. The ceaseless hurry of 

 our semi-civilization is left behind, and the health 

 ful recovery of repose succeeds. 



