to STwg in 2&dfacfe arfe. 215 



circumambient fluid, which gives hilarity and freshness to 

 everything that lives and moves on the surface of the 

 earth, is not subjected to the unalterable law which seems 

 impressed on all beside. Earthly things grow old, or 

 assume some new character. Even the kindred element 

 of water evaporates, and is replenished by means of rain 

 or dew; the soil is blown away in dust, and renewed 

 again by the decay of vegetables. Men cease from off 

 the earth ; in one day their thoughts perish ; cities which 

 they have erected, noble structures, destined to last for 

 ages, crumble silently, or else are overthrown by war or 

 earthquakes ; but the air, though ever moving, neither 

 evaporates, nor is susceptible of change. Thus, then, 

 whether in the character of a whirlwind, or of zephyr ; 

 whether as a breeze of spring, or tempest from the north, 

 has it raged or sported in the branches of the stately tree, 

 which stands among its brethren of the forest, resembling 

 a noble column, surrounded by crowding houses. It is 

 termed the Duke's Walking-Stick, but the hand that 

 would essay to move the shaft from out the place where 

 it has stood for ages, must be gifted with a power and a 

 spell, which even the wildest fancy has never yet assigned 

 to any being of mortal mould ; not even to those giants 

 of fierce bearing, with whom she loves to people her land 

 of fiction. The column stands alone, its smooth trunk is 

 branchless to a giddy height, and its topmost boughs are 

 higher than the roof of Westminster Abbey at its loftiest 

 elevation. A tree, with which the branches of no other 



