Sl'EAT AND FOLIAGE. 137 



If a man were disposed to moralize, the rami- 

 fication and spray of a thriving tree afford a good 

 theme. Nothing gives a happier idea of busy 

 life. Industry and activity pervade every part. 

 Wherever an opening, how minute soever, appears, 

 there some little knot of busy adventurers push 

 in and form a settlement : so that the whole is 

 everywhere full and complete. There too, as is 

 common in all communities, are many little elbow- 

 ings, justlings, thwartings, and oppositions, in 

 which some gain and others lose.* 



* As a continuation of this moralizing strain, the following 

 short allegory ventures to appear in a note : — 



TJt sylva3 foliis pronos mutantur in annos ; 



Prima oadunt ; ita 



Dehemur morti nos, nostraque 



As I sat carelessly at my window and threw my eyes npon a 

 large Acacia which grew before me, I conceived it might aptly 

 represent a country divided into provinces, towns, and families. 

 The larger branches might hold out the first, the smaller 

 branches, connected with them, the second, and those com- 

 binations of collateral leaves, which specify the Acacia, might 

 represent families composed of individuals. It was now late 

 in the year, and the autumnal tint had taken possession of 

 great part of the tree. 



As I sat looking at it, many of the yellow leaves (which 

 having been produced earlier, decayed sooner) were continually 



