THE LANDSCAPE BEAUTIFUL 



woods, and blossomed brightness of odor- 

 iferous wit, and sweet whispers of unintru- 

 sive wisdom, and playful morality." 



We infer the character of God chiefly 

 from our experience of human nature; but 

 of all those things in external nature which 

 speak to us of divine love and care, the 

 trees seem to be the preeminent ministers, 

 — the symbols and the substance of wor- 

 ship. The Druids used to worship the oak- 

 trees, it is said. They must have been a 

 kindly, amiable folk. The Hebrew preach- 

 ers used to object to their people going to 

 the groves for worship, but their objection 

 seems to have been factitious and purely 

 technical. "The groves were God's first 

 temples," and it is hard to believe that there 

 could ever be any idolatry there. 



33 



