1004.] KSSAY. 59 



api)('ar aii'aiii. I'^i'dtn tlic l)<'<;'iiiiiiii,i>; tlicrc scmmiis to luivo boon 

 ail iiiliiiiatc coiiiicctioii hclwccn I fees and man. Trees are 

 spoken of as liH)U<2;h man conld not live without them, as thon^li 

 divine hen(>fieenee had given them to us as coni))anions for 

 life, and as emblems of all that is beautiful in inia<j;ei'y, exc(dlent 

 in character or hopeful in destiny. 



Our trees, from the openino; bud to th(> golden harvest, from 

 the layinp; off of their autumnal livery, and during their winter's 

 shroud — waiting a r(>surreetion to a new and superior life — 

 are all eloquent {)reachers, proclaiming to our inmost soul, 

 "The hand that made us is divine." 



(lod gave us trees adorned with ijiimitable beauty, pleasant 

 to the sight and good for food. He gave us also natural and 

 instinctive love for them. 



Witness the love of Abraham, desii'ing to have all the trees 

 in the field; of Rousseau, longing to be laid under his own 

 selected trees; of Temple, directing that his heart should 1)6 

 buried beneatji the trees of his own planting; of Washington, 

 returning to the cherished groves of " Mt. Vernon " ; of Webster, 

 reclining in life and sleeping in death beneath the umbrageous 

 elms of Marshfield; of Marshall P. Wilder, who said, "When 

 delicious fruits and fragrant flowers shall no longer cherish 

 and cheer me consign my dust to mother earth, and for a head- 

 stone plant a tree!" Of the lamented Downing, father of 

 American Pomology, whose genius lives in trees which adorn 

 many a lovely landscape, many a beautiful garden and many 

 a fruitful orchard in our own dear land. 



From the day when God gave our father in Eden trees 

 "pleasant to our sight and good for food," down to Solomon, 

 who said, "I made me gardens and orchards, and I planted 

 in them of all kinds of fruits," and through the successive 

 generations of men, the cultivation of trees and plants have 

 l)een the criterion of. taste and refinement! No object of 

 attachment is more naturally allied to the instincts of the soul. 

 And truly did Emerson remark, "He who knows the most, 

 and what sweets and virtues are in the groimd, and how to 

 come at these enchantments, is the rich and royal man." And 



