LATER YEARS OF A PLANT. 215 



journey, because " the trees such beautiful things they 

 had never seen even in their dreams the trees kept 

 pulling them back." It is, moreover, evidently not the 

 mere mass of foliage, nor the depth and variety of color, 

 that affects our senses, but the almost imperceptible and 

 unconscious effect of all these elements together on our 

 soul. The rose does not please us merely because of its 

 tender glow and delicate hue, but because our imagina- 

 tion connects with it the idea of blooming youth, and a 

 thousand other images float around this. The landscape, 

 with its various parts and beauties, acts upon man, upon 

 his tone of mind, and thus imperceptibly upon his entire 

 inward development. How different must needs be the 

 idea of the world to him who obtained his first impres- 

 sions from the solemn, evergreen pine woods of the north, 

 overshadowing deep blue lakes and vast granite-strewn 

 plains ; and to the happier man, whose early days passed 

 under the bright leaf of the myrtle and the fragrant laurel, 

 reflecting the serene sky of the south ! Even in the same 

 land, how differently is the mind affected by the dark 

 shade of a beech-wood, the strange sight of a few scat- 

 tered pines on a lonely hill, sighing sadly in the fitful 

 gusts of wind, or of broad, green pasture-lands, where the 

 breeze rustles gently through the trembling foliage of 

 birches ! Our hearts beat gladly and joyously when fields 

 of flowers are lighted up in bright sunshine ; our spirits 

 droop when we see them look sad and forlorn on a rainy, 

 melancholy day. Peace and quiet happiness teach their 

 gentle lessons to him who dwells in fertile valleys, with 

 velvet lawns on their bottom, and the sides tufted with 



