Fir and Palm. 209 



He dreams of a palm-tree towering 



Afar in the eastern land, 

 Alone, and silently dreaming 



'Mid rocks and burning sand.* 



Thus, while the Hebrew Psalmist in one place 

 promises that the Lord shall lead His chosen " by 

 the still waters," his companion yet more powerfully 

 indicates the shelter, and to them the soft benignance 

 of their God, by likening His tender and solicitous 

 kindness to the shadow of a great rock in a weary 

 land — an idea which is made fine use of in that 

 grandest hymn of Luther, " Ein feste Burg ist unser 

 Gott." Art, in interpreting for us the benignity of 

 nature as it affects our spirits, says almost the same. 

 In its selection — its necessary selection — of elements 

 that present a unity to the mind of the observer, it 

 must carefully balance the shadows and the lights, the 

 blacks and the whites, the sun and the shade ; so that, 

 though it may be sweet there also to walk by the 

 "still waters," yet sweeter at once in intenser pains 

 and in intenser pleasures, is it to rest under "the 

 shadow of a great rock in a weary land." 



* This is from Heine — a free translation — and here is the original : — 



" Ein Fichtenbaum steht einsam, 



Im Norden auf kahler Hon, 

 Ilin schliifert mit weisser Decke 



Umhiillen ihn Eis und Schnee. 

 Er traumt von einer Palme 



Die fern im Morgenland, 

 Einsam und schweigend trauert 



Auf brennender Felsenwand." 



