272 OCTOBER. 



the purity of heaven. To lovers and poets they 

 have ever been favourite haunts ; and the poets 

 by making them the scenes and subjects of 

 their most beautiful fictions and descriptions, 

 have added to their native charms a thousand 

 delightful associations. Ariosto, Tasso, Spenser, 

 Shakspeare, and Milton, have sanctified them 

 to the hearts of all generations. What a world 

 of magnificent creations comes swarming upon 

 the memory as we wander in woods ! The 

 gallant knights and beautiful dames, the magi- 

 cal castles and hippogriffs of the Orlando ; the 

 enchanted forest, the Armida and Erminia of 

 the Gerusalemma Liberata ; "Fair Una with 

 her milk-white lamb," and all the satyrs, Archi- 

 mages, the fair Florimels and false Duessas of 

 the Faery Queene ; Ariel and Caliban, Jaques 

 and his motley fool in Arden, the fairies of the 

 Midsummer-Night's Dream, Oberon, Titania, 

 and that pleasantest of all mischief-makers, 

 ineffable Puck, — the noble spirits of the immor- 

 tal Comus. With such company, woods are to 

 us any thing but solitudes — they are populous 

 and inexhaustible worlds, where creatures that 

 mock the grasp but not the mind, a matchless 

 phantasmagoria, flit before us ; alternately make 

 us merry with their pleasant follies, delight us 

 with their romantic grandeur and beauty, and 

 elevate our hearts with their sublime senti- 



