513 



Mount Holyoke, at Northampton, presents a scene of still higher beauty 

 and grandeur and interest. Here too the elms in the village and on the 

 meadows are seen in their unrivalled majesty and pride. Both these 

 views owed much of their beauty to the preservation of a single species 

 of trees, the American elm. 



Mr. E. said that there were a thousand beautiful views in all parts of 

 Massachusetts — a thousand spots where it would seem delightful to 

 spend a life — a thousand spots where he almost envied those who had 

 the luxury of living — of seeing the sun rise and set — and the heavens 

 always above and the green earth always around them. 



We have a beautiful State ; it was much better, it was a glorious 

 State. He honored old Massachusetts ; he gloried in being a citizen 

 of this State. He honored her for the stand she had, from the begin- 

 ning, taken in regard to the education of her sons; for being the first 

 to declare that they should all be educated. He blessed her for her 

 example in this matter ; an example which others had not been slow to 

 follow — an example whose value it would be impossible to over-esti- 

 mate. He honored her for what she had done for those causes which 

 were the highest distinction, the truest glory of man ; for what she had 

 done in the great cause of civil and religious liberty — in the holy cause 

 of charity. He honored a people whose energy and industry and skill 

 are such that they have more to show for a year's exertions than the 

 same number of men any where else ; and who, while they were so la- 

 boring, and so successfully, were still so far from being absorbed in 

 the love of money, that they freely did more and paid more for the 

 education of their children, for institutions of charity and for the cause 

 of science, than the same number of people elsewhere under heaven. 

 These were things to be proud of; — and when he travelled among such 

 people — he desired to see them dwelling, as they deserved to dwell, in 

 the pleasantest habitations. 



Now there was many a spot which might easily be made much more 

 beautiful. For houses and farms, there was no element of beauty so 

 important and none so controlable as that produced by trees. 



A sinorle tree ! what a charm it gives to a farmer's house ! It was 

 something for the imagination to dwell upon : it was something that the 

 owner mifrht look upon and point out to his children, as something better 

 than could be estimated by money. What effect might not a single oak 

 or birch with its golden tassels or an elm have, in awakening the sense of 

 the beautiful, upon a child who was just learning to look upon the beau- 

 tiful creation ! 



65 



