128 SYLVA FLORIFERA. 



new idea, or gives a fresh turn to our thoughts, 

 yet, perhaps, no two persons think alike during 

 such contemplation ; for different minds in- 

 cline to different thoughts, as different men 

 pursue different objects. 



" On this side and on that, men see their friends 

 Drop off, like leaves in autumn; yet launch out 

 Into fantastic schemes, which the long lives 

 In the world's hale and undegenerate days 

 Could scarce have leisure for." 



These were the reflections of Blair. The 

 magistrate must think of the Roman lictors 

 when he sees the birch, as naturally as the 

 country pedagogue will think of the truant, 

 or the truant of the pedagogue. The chan- 

 cellor who becomes broomseller will reflect 

 how inadvertently laws may be broken. The 

 nautical man pictures to himself our early 

 navigators, in their precarious though skin- 

 lined barks of birchen basket-work. 



The antiquarian and the historian, as they 

 pass this tree, will have repassing in their minds 

 the events of ancient times, that have been 

 made known to us by the bark of the birch. 

 The military man sees in the birch, the tree 

 that afforded the old English warriors arrows, 

 bolts, and shafts ; and our artillery-men behold 

 a wood whose charcoal gives them their com- 



