444 ON USEFUL AND BOOK I. 



ing. On naming the oak, the willow, the cedar, the pine, the 

 cypress, &c. their peculiar form, tints, and modes of growth, 

 successively present themselves to the imagination, each tree 

 forms distinct character, highly pleasing and interesting. 

 Again, if we examine any of these trees by itself, the 

 number and diversity of boughs, spray, and leaves of which it 

 is composed, its varied and rich masses, their different tints, 

 and the various effects which they are capable of receiving from 

 light or shade, the breeze or the storm, is wonderful; and com- 

 paring it with the works of art, we are astonished that such a 

 collection of separate, and apparently discordant parts, should 

 produce such an excellent and harmonious whole. 



Numerous are the pleasing effects, independent of utility, 

 that result from a wooded country, compared with a naked 

 one. The different seasons are more strikingly characterized; 

 the sounds of waterfalls, the murmur of the breeze, and the 

 bleating of cattle, have each their charms greatly heightened 

 bypassing through trees: deprived of them, we should lose 

 what adds to the pleasure resulting from viewing the finest 

 landscape, the melody of singing birds; and let me observe, 

 that those who live in naked countries, though they may pos- 

 sess the lark and the linnet, can have no just idea of the effects 

 of many other birds peculiar to woody scenes*. 



* See Graham's " Birds of Scotland.' 1 '' 



