50 VOICES PROM THE WOODLANDS. 



veneration with which men in the olden times regarded us, 

 and the gathering of our symbolic leaves by village maidens, 

 when the crescent moon was seen in heaven ; 



" Then rapidly, with foot as light 

 As the young musk roes, out they flew, 

 To cull each shining leaf that grew 

 Beneath the moonlight's hallowing beams." 



High hills and mountain pastures delight us most, though 

 seen occasionally beside coal-pits and the rush of waters. 

 Beautiful are we in our assigned localities, when dews and 

 sunbeams are abroad, and cloud-shadows chase one the 

 other over the greensward; but far more beautiful when 

 the moon, shining in her brightness, gives to the wide 

 moor or upland pasture a character of vastness and extent, 

 and when all sounds are heightened, whether of distant 

 waters, or the moaning of night winds. 



You will like to know, it may be, why our leaves were 

 gathered in silence and in mystery. Because of their 

 fancied resemblance to the moon. Seek for the origin of 



