42 AN ANCIENT OAK. 



grasses of the field ; but to pass them by in utter disre- 

 gard, is to neglect a large portion of rational pleasure 

 open to our view, which may edify and employ many a 

 passing hour, and by easy gradations will often become 

 the source whence flow contemplations of the highest 

 orders. Young minds cannot, I should conceive, be too 

 strongly impressed with the simple wonders of creation 

 by which they are surrounded : in the race of life they 

 may be passed by, the occupation of existence may not 

 admit attention to them, or the unceasing cares of the 

 world may smother early attainments but they can 

 never be injurious w r ill give a bias to a reasoning mind, 

 and tend, in some after-thoughtful, sobered hour, to 

 comfort and to soothe. The little insights that we have 

 obtained into nature's works are many of them the off- 

 spring of scientific research ; and partial and uncertain 

 as our labors are, yet a brief gleam will occasionally 

 lighten the darksome path of the humble inquirer, and 

 give him a momentary glimpse of hidden truths : let 

 not then the idle and the ignorant scoff at him who de- 

 votes an unemployed hour, 



" No calling left, no duty broke," 



to investigate a moss, a fungus, a beetle, or a shell, in 

 " ways of pleasantness, and in paths of peace." They 

 are all the formation of Supreme Intelligence, for a wise 

 and a worthy end, and may lead us by gentle gradations 

 to a faint conception of the powers of infinite wisdom. 

 They have calmed and amused some of us worms and 

 reptiles, and possibly bettered us for our change to a 

 new and more perfect order of being. 



We yet possess two forest trees, beautiful and unmu- 

 tilated ! An oak in Shellard's lane has escaped the wood- 

 man's ax, the hedger's bill: it stands on the side of 

 the waste, and has long afforded shade and shelter to 

 an adjoining farm-house. These circumstances, and not 

 being valuable as a timber tree, may have contributed 

 to its preservation : its hamadryad is left alone in the 

 land to mourn her lost companions. This tree is not 

 mentioned as being at all comparable with the gigantic 

 productions of the kind that we have accounts of, and 



