3Sm!) of tfre jfntft Common. 



" Thrice fifty summers have I stood 

 In beauteous, leafy solitude, 

 Since childhood in my rustling bower 

 First spent its sweet and sportive hour, 

 Since youthful lovers in my shade 

 Their vows of truth and honour paid ; 

 And on my trunk's smooth, glossy frame 

 Carv'd many a long-forgotten name : 

 Oh ! by the vows of gentle sound, 

 First breath'd upon this sacred ground ; 

 By all that truth hath whisper'd here, 

 Or beauty heard with willing ear, 

 As love's own altar honour me, 

 Spare, woodman, spare the beechen tree." ROGERS. 



LET him who loves to mark the changes of the seasons, 

 and to watch the alternations which spring and summer, 

 autumn and winter, produce in the vegetable kingdom, 

 stand beside one of those magnificent columns which 

 spring from out the parent earth, and bear on high a 

 canopy of branches. Let him choose that season when 

 the leaves are just beginning to expand, when the 

 swelling buds assume a reddish tint, and here and there 

 a young green leaf has unfolded, in all its freshness and 

 its beauty, as yet unsoiled by a passing atom, or un- 

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