XXX PREFACE. 



The gloomy pine, the poplar blue, 



The yellow beech, the sable yew, 



The slender fir that taper grows, 



The sturdy oak with broad-spread boughs." 



DYER'S Grongar Hill. 



" Here rise no cliffs the vale to shade, 

 But, skirting every sunny glade, 

 'In fair variety of green, 

 The woodland lends its sylvan screen. 

 Hoary, yet haughty, frowns the oak, 

 Its boughs by weight of ages broke ; 

 And towers erect in sable spire 

 The pine-tree, scathed by lightning fire ; 

 The drooping ash and birch between 

 Hang their fair tresses o'er the green ; 

 And all beneath at random grow 

 Each coppice dwarf of varied show ; 

 Or round the stems profusely twin'd, 

 Fling summer odours on the wind." 



Prior represents Solomon seeking knowledge of 

 the learned, at once confessing his ignorance on 

 subjects he is supposed to understand, and ex- 

 pressing his desire to be informed : 



" The vegetable world, each plant and tree, 

 Its seed, its name, its nature, its degree, 

 I am allowed, as Fame reports, to know, 

 From the fair cedar on the craggy brow 

 Of Lebanon, nodding supremely tall, 

 To creeping moss, and hyssop on the wall : 

 Yet, just and conscious to myself, I find 

 A thousand doubts oppose the searching mind. 



