52 AN ANCIENT OAK. 



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 devotes an unemployed hour, 



" No calling left, no duty broke," 



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

 in ef 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 bet- 

 tered us for our change to a new and more perfect 

 order of being. 



We yet possess two forest trees, beautiful and 

 unmutilated ! An oak in Shellard's lane has escaped 

 the woodman's axe, 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 produc- 

 tions of the kind that we have accounts of, and per- 

 haps by many would be passed by unnoticed ; yet 

 it is deserving of some regard, from the vegetable 

 powers that have existed, and still continue in its 

 trunk. The bole, at some very distant period, by 



