96 OUR WOODLAND TREES. 
operations of Nature we are frequently lost in 
wondering admiration of the incomprehensible 
power and of the subtle and irresistible influence 
exercised by an unseen hand. But the mind 
falters in attempting even to grasp, much less 
to express, the idea of the absolute excellence, 
of the nameless and indefinable charm, of the 
deep sense of unutterable pleasure suggested by 
the presence of Trees. 
Trees are always beautiful, and the exhaustless 
resources of the Creator have been bountifully 
employed to endow them with ever-changing 
qualities of loveliness—qualities which are no- 
where perhaps more strikingly illustrated than 
in our own temperate climes, where the alter- 
nation of the seasons provides continual variation 
in the sylvan character of our landscapes. Yet 
it is difficult to know to what season to apportion 
the palm of crowning glory, because all the 
seasons are so beautiful; and it is so often 
forgotten when the eye perhaps impresses us 
with what appears to be exceeding beauty, 
and makes us momentarily feel how much that 
beauty—by mental contrast—seems superior to 
