52 THE PINE. 



these vegetable Anakim, for they are giants as 

 well as primaevals, and no one who glanced at it 

 could doubt for a moment that the tree must have 

 been alive in the days of the Caesars. We have 

 nothing like such longevity exhibited in any coni- 

 fers in England, though there are examples of yews 

 in this country computed to be more than 2000 years 

 old ; but it is quite enough for the reflective man to 

 stand in a forest of such trees as the Scotch fir, and 

 consider what a dynasty he confronts. The vener- 

 able in nature is always commanding; but when 

 age stretches back to the days of the Coliseum, it 

 becomes almost above believing. Never, perhaps, 

 does the brevity of human existence affect us so 

 powerfully as when contrasted with these seemingly 

 immortal trees. Generations come and go, but they 

 continue unchanged. Schleiden, the celebrated 

 German botanist, and some disciples of his in Eng- 

 land, compare these vegetable Nestors to the planet 

 on which we dwell, teaching that the trunk of 

 the tree is the analogue of the surface of the earth, 

 while the foliage represents the successive tides of 

 population. Nor is there anything in the com- 

 parison that philosophy would object to. The indi- 

 vidual contents of the world are in every instance 

 miniatures, after their own fashion and in their own 

 way, of the magnificent total of nature. Every one 

 of them is imperium in imperio a kingdom within 

 a kingdom, presenting all the parts, principles, and 



