288 



A COMPARISON OF THE 



Via. 78. 



The mere .weight, breadth, and height of the trunk and branches 



of a tree, without reference to its 

 outUnes or foliage, are the principal 

 sources of majesty in trees ; and it 

 is when majesty and picturesqueness 

 are combined that we realize our 

 higher ideals of grandeur. A tree 

 with massive horizontal branches in- 

 voluntarily impresses us with a sense 

 of the immense inherent strength 

 that can sustain so great a weight in a position that most squarely 

 defies the mechanical force of gravity; and therefore conveys the 

 impression of majesty, though it has no extraordinary height or 

 dimensions. On the other hand, the tulip-tree, or the cottonwood, 

 with a straight and lofty stem from three to six feet in diameter, 

 is a grand object by virtue of its weight, and loftiness, and the 

 power that its dimensions express, though its head may not be 

 proportionally large, nor its bark or branches massive, rough, and 



angular; or its outline irregular enough 

 to be picturesque. The sycamore, or 

 buttonball, is a familiar example of a 

 swelling trunk of majestic size. Its 

 bark is as smooth in age as in youth ; 

 but it has a certain picturesqueness 

 from the contrasts of color caused, by 

 shedding its thin bark laminae in scales ; 

 and majesty by its size, and the bold- 

 ness of its divergent branches. 



Mere size of trunk, and weight Cf branches, affect us so 

 powerfully, that when we have lived near a fine old tree, it is not 

 so much the beauty of its foliage, or the pleasures of its shade, that 

 produce the reverent love we have for it, but the unconscious 

 presence of the majesty of Nature impressing us like 



" * * * an emanation from the indwelling spirit of the Deity." 



By referring to the vignette of the oak at the head of page 302, 

 the effect produced by mere breadth and weight in producing 



Fig. 79. 



