THE OAK. 9 



" Let us examine with what care the seeds, those 

 little souls of plants, quorum exilitas, as one says, vix 

 locum ittveniat, in which the whole and complete 

 tree, though invisible to our dull sense, is yet per- 

 fectly and entirely wrapped up, exposed, as they 

 seem to be, to all those accidents of weather, storms, 

 and rapacious birds, are yet preserved from viola- 

 tion, diminution, and detriment, within their spiny, 

 armed, and compacted receptacles, where they sleep, 

 as in their causes, till their prisons let them gently 

 fall into the embraces of the earth, now made preg- 

 nant with the season, and ready for another burden : 

 for at the time of year she fails not to bring them 

 forth. With what delight have I beheld this ten- 

 der and innumerable offspring repullulating at the 

 feet of an aged tree ! from whence the suckers 

 are drawn, transplanted, and educated by human 

 industry ; and forgetting the ferity of their nature, 

 become civilized to all his employments. 



" But I cease to expatiate farther on these wonders, 

 that I may not anticipate the pleasures with which 

 the serious contemplator on those stupendous works 

 of Nature, or rather God of Nature, will find himself 

 even rapt and transported, were his contemplations 

 only applied to the production of a single wood." 



It is in this spirit that woods and groves should 

 ever be visited ; it is feelings like these that restore 

 them to their original representation of a verdant 

 Paradise, planted by God himself, for man therein 



