42 STUDIES IN THE FIELD AND FOREST. 



which, under the magnifying glass, exhibit the various 

 plumes and glittering ornaments of the most brilliant 

 birds and butterflies, live under the protection of these 

 minute plants, as the larger animals find shelter in a 

 forest of trees. When the timber has entirely perished, 

 and has become assimilated with the soil, other hosts 

 of plants of a higher order take the place of the former, 

 until new forests have reared their branches over the 

 ruins of those of a preceding age. Rocks, continents, and 

 worlds are subject to the same decay, and the same ulti- 

 mate renovation. Thus the whole system of the uni- 

 verse is but an infinite series of permutations and com- 

 binations, all the atoms, amidst apparent chaos, moving 

 in the most mathematical order, and gradually resolving 

 themselves into organized forms, infinite in their num- 

 bers and arrangements. 



In this country we have no classic ruins. The relics 

 of the ancient structures of the aborigines can hardly 

 awaken a romantic sentiment. We cannot associate 

 with them any agreeable historic reminiscences. We 

 behold in them only the evidences of savage customs, 

 unformed art, and a miserable superstition, which afford 

 nothing to admire. No scenes are so well fitted as the 

 ruins of a great and civilized nation, to inspire the 

 mind with that contemplative habit which is the foun- 

 dation of the poetical character. They fill the soul 

 with noble conceptions, and serve to divert the thoughts 

 from a consideration of mere personal interest, and turn 

 them back upon the ages of chivalry and romance. 



Nature has so constituted the mind as to enable it to 

 convert all her scenes, under certain circumstances, into 

 sources of pleasure. It is not the beautiful alone that 

 affords these agreeable impressions ; nor is it the cheer- 

 ful scenes only among natural or artificial objects that 



