BEAUTY. » 99 
that of other seasons, that the present charm 
is largely due to the impressions produced by 
the seasons which have just gone, or to sugges- 
tions of the sylvan changes which are to come. 
Is not the charm of Spring, for instance, 
largely due to our association of its budding 
foliage with the bare branches on which the 
green life of that foliage is first unfolded; to the 
present contrast of colours between dark limbs 
and boughs and twigs and glorious green, and 
to our remembrance of the sweet sleep—the 
hush, the calm—which have fallen on plant-life 
during the season of winter, the dream-season 
of deciduous plants? If it were not for the sleep 
we should not have the awakening, and the 
awakening would lose half of its charm. 
And how beautiful is the awakening of Spring! 
Long ere we see the fulfilment of its green pro- 
mise; long even ere spreading branches are covered 
with the budding precursors of their green life, 
there has been unseen movement within the Tree 
stems. The sap, the life-blood of the T'ree, stirred 
into activity by the subtle force which throws 
its mystic influence over the plant world when 
