THE TREES OF AMERICA, 35 



and harmonious life," all of which may be made to contribute to our knowledge 

 and worship, as they are said to have done to that of the Magian brotherhood. 

 It is lo this end that we would ask all our human brothers and sisters to go 

 forth with us into our common heritage, the kingdom of nature. Go forth into 

 the solemn forest, and eveiy where, through all its sounding aisles, we shall hear 

 the whisperings of the voice divine, and witness the workings of our Father's 

 hand. Do we desire food for scientific study and careful investigation, let us 

 examine the development of the little cellule which contains in its almost incon- 

 ceivably small body the power to produce the mighty oak. Do we wish to com- 

 mune with Him who is the author of our being, here are his first temples, before 

 whose sublime architecture the noblest human structure becomes feeble, and 

 dwindles into insignificance, when compared with the extent of the forest arches 

 and columns, stretching arch beyond arch and column beyond column, until lost 

 in the gray and shadowy distance. And then here, too, is the music of the 

 woods : — 



" The phantom fingers of the Breeze 

 Play upon the slumbrous trees 

 Their wondrous, untaught minstrelsy ; 

 Making every leaf a key, 

 Every string a flat or sharp, 

 Every sycamore a harp." 



A gifted friend, long since passed away, thought he could distinguish every 

 species of bush and tree by its peculiar music when played upon by the passing 

 breeze. There can be no doubt that the slightest change in form of leaf or 

 branch must give back a difierent tone to the touch of the airy musician, and 

 that it would require only an ear nice enough, to distinguish one from the other. 

 The music of the pine groves is familiar to every one. The poet Coleridge 

 calls it " soul-like music." The great and the good of every land lend us the 

 influence of their example in this communing with the woods. Our own poet, 

 Longfellow, to whom the world pays homage, thus speaks of his communings 

 with the trees in their own 



" green land of dreams, 

 The holy land of song." — 



