204 TREES IN NATURE, MYTH & ART 



where the snakes wriggle among the roots, 

 holds up his cross-hiked sword for protection 

 against evil, and murmurs, ''In manus tuas 

 DomineV How different is this from Robert 

 Louis Stevenson, lying out among the trees 

 at night, with only his donkey, Modestine, for a 

 companion. "What seems a kind of temporal 

 death," he says, ''to people choked between 

 walls and curtains, is only a light and living 

 slumber to the man who sleeps a-field. All 

 night long he can hear nature breathing deeply 

 and freely; even as she takes her rest, she 

 turns and smiles ; and there is one stirring 

 hour unknown to those who dwell in houses, 

 when a wakeful influence goes abroad over 

 the sleeping hemisphere, and all the world are 

 on their feet. It is then that the cock first 

 crows, not this time to announce the dawn, but 

 like a cheerful watchman speeding the course 

 of night. Cattle awake on the meadows ; 

 sheep break their fast on dewy hill-sides, and 

 change to a new lair among the ferns ; and 

 houseless men, who have lain down with the 

 fowls, open their dim eyes and behold the 

 beauty of the night." This is the attitude to- 

 wards nature, the feeling for its beauty, and its 



