THE PINE. 49 



cern the welfare and the happiness of his race. The 

 test of tmcommon sense is that it can throw light 

 upon the things that belong to " common " sense ; 

 and the test of the true poet is that he can enter 

 into the practical, illustrate it, make it more de- 

 lightful in our eyes and to our daily experience ; 

 that he can marry, in a word, the ideal to the 

 familiar and prosaic. If he do not do this, he is 

 only a sentimentalist, and the world does not re- 

 quire him, nor profit by his presence in it. Take 

 for instance the thoughts that arrest the mind as to 

 the utility of these wonderful trees. The profusion 

 of their growth, and their stateliness, as set forth in 

 the pine-wood ; their duration also, and the serenity 

 of their lives, all seem fitting counterparts of their 

 inexpressible value to man. Timber of the most 

 admirable description, as deal and cedar; resins in 

 a score of kinds, translucent and inflammable ; with 

 many other useful articles of human need, are sup- 

 plied by their different species, and in some cases, 

 are the last that we should expect from conifers. 

 Creasote, that assuages the pain of an aching tooth, 

 is derived from a conifer; so is that exquisite 

 balsam in which the microscopist preserves his 

 curiosities, giving them a shrine such as monarch 

 never possessed. Canada-balsam, the substance 

 used for this purpose by microscopists, represents in 

 their hands the resin of those ancient conifers which 

 we now know under the name of amber. For 



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