ON THE MANUSCRIPTS OF GOD 



From all such manicured and strait- jack- 

 eted specimens the true nature-lover turns 

 away, and seeks instead the "sweet disorder" 

 which, in a tree's attire, as in a woman's, doth 

 more bewitch than when "art is too precise in 

 every part," if one may adapt Herrick's 

 lines to the occasion. A tree is occasionally 

 seen which has been trained into such drab 

 conventionality that a man might feel 

 obliged to wear a dress-suit when calling 

 upon her, or else apologize for his negligee. 

 Left to themselves and their own tangled 

 charms, trees riot in all manner of fascinat- 

 ing vagaries and wilful whims, even carry- 

 ing their individuality into eccentricity, as 

 one sees it in the rheumatic contortions of the 

 apple-tree, the serpentine trunk of the weep- 

 ing sophora, the angelica-tree, or devil's 

 walking-stick, and the form and dropsical 

 bark of the elephant-wood, with the bare 

 twigs of its branches covered with a multi- 

 tude of beautiful red blossoms. Trees with 

 tumors and hunchbacks may also be seen by 

 anyone who will follow any country road 

 long enough. On the same highway to the 



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