ON THE MANUSCRIPTS OF GOD 



an interesting duplicate in the German be- 

 lief that elves pass through the holes of trees, 

 and that certain ailments, especially of hand 

 and foot, may be cured by contact with these 

 holes. Legends like these, and still more all 

 the tree-begotten inspirations of poetry, 

 make it clear that the myth-makers and 

 poets need trees and forests as a nesting- 

 place for their fancies quite as much as the 

 birds and squirrels need them for their own 

 dainty dwellings. 



Yet with all the rich dream-stuff which 

 may be harvested from the forest or any 

 single tree of it, comparatively little has been 

 reaped for literature thus far, and most of 

 that little has been garnered by the poets of 

 America. This statement is made in serene 

 certainty of the dissent of those who have 

 made no comparative study of the subject 

 and of those who cannot detect literary merit 

 unless it wears a foreign label. The writer, 

 however, is willing to be convinced of error 

 if any one can match, by a foreign author 

 on the same theme, Bryant's "Forest 

 Hymn," Emerson's "Wood Notes," as well 



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