OCTOBER. 273 



ments. What wisdom do we learn in the world 

 that they do not teach us better? What music 

 do we hear like that which bursts from the 

 pipes of the universal Pan, or comes from some 

 viewless source with the j-Eolian melodies of 

 Faery-land ? Whatever woods have been to 

 all ages, to all descriptions of superior mind, 

 to all the sages and poets of the past world, 

 they are to us. We have the varied whole of 

 their sentiments, feelings, and fancies, bequeath- 

 ed as an immortal legacy, and combined and 

 concentrated for our gratification and advan- 

 tage ; besides the innumerable pleasures which 

 modern art has thrown to the accumulated 

 wealth of all antiquity. Botany has introduced 

 us to a more intimate acquaintance with the 

 names and characters, and with something also 

 of the physical economy of both " the trees of 

 the wood" and of the smallest plants which flou- 

 rish at their feet ; so that wherever we cast our 

 eyes, we behold matter for both admiration and 

 research. 



What can be more beautiful than trees ? 

 their lofty trunks, august in their simplicity, 

 asserting to the most inexperienced eye, their 

 infinite superiority over the imitative pillars of 

 man's pride ! their graceful play of wide-spread- 

 ing branches ! and all the delicate and glorious 

 machinery of buds, leaves, flowers and fruit, 



T 



