t'n p^glie i^arfe. 179 



there is no trace even of the branch on which they grew ; 

 rough bark has grown most probably over it, and moss 

 and tufted lichens have taken root in the interstices. 

 Still, life lingers in the worn-out trees, and proofs are not 

 wanting, that its secret and mighty power is yet working, 

 though death preponderates. The passer-by sees with as- 

 tonishment, young green leaves in the interstices of the 

 quarried bark ; he sees them, but can hardly believe that 

 the shapeless thing which stands before him has life hidden 

 where all seems to denote death ; that her sweet force is 

 equally available in the fun-owed oak, as among the young 

 green trees of the neighbouring coppice, which sprung, it 

 may be, from out the earth, a thousand years later, in the 

 lapse of time. 



The old trees are well qualified by age, to teach lessons 

 of wisdom to hoary men. Had they a voice, they could 

 discourse much concerning the mutability of things below ; 

 how nations have risen and waned, while they advanced 

 to maturity, and of the gradual emerging of a mighty 

 people from the darkness of past ages, to the highest pitch 

 of intellectual culture. But this may not be, for the 

 gifts of speech and reason, of voice and memory, are not 

 for these ancient tenants of the soil. Leaning against their 

 mossy trunks, with no prompter, and no hearer, except 

 the time-worn trees and the calm still scene around me, 

 let me be myself the oracle, and discourse to mine own 

 ear, concerning the mutations of past ages. 



Here, then, in bye-gone days, stood one vast forest, 



