98 SOLID EEFLECTIONS. 



shall have no picture of fancy, but a faithful representation of 

 dwellings that are raised and of the dwellers which raise them, 

 if not on every oak tree, in every wood of oak. 



Let the main thoroughfare and diverging streets of our city 

 be represented by the trunk and branches of the oak tree. 

 In its verdant foliage we may see the green places with which 

 those streets are surrounded and interspersed, while, to render 

 the analogy more complete, the pipes by which a capital is 

 watered are not unaptly paralleled by the vessels which con- 

 vey and distribute the pervading sap. 



Here is our capital ; now for its inhabitants and these are 

 made up, as may have been surmised already, of an insect 

 multitude, such as on the oak, above every other tree of the 

 forest or the garden, are accustomed to populate every quarter 

 root, branch, and foliage and all of them engaged on some 

 purpose of utility or pleasure. 



To begin with the builders, and their solid erections, com- 

 pleted or in progress. Following the course of some branch 

 (or highway) we shall presently perceive them. And here we 

 have one* a covered structure of triangular form its walls 

 composed, apparently of a sort of tiling, which resembles in 

 colour the back of the smooth branch whereon it is seated 

 and there we see another and another (call them what }^ou 

 will, huts or palaces) not contiguous, but as regular in plan, 

 aye, and more so, than the houses in our best-built streets. 

 On another diverging branch are several similar erections, in 



* Vignette. 



