1G4 



The Forest Trees of Wiltshire. 



wooded district ? Where can a right-minded man receive more 

 instruction than while being so occupied ; or where can his heart 

 his feelings, his soul be so elevated, so overflowing with thankful- \ 

 ness, gratitude and love towards an all-wise Creator? Every' 

 object around tends to purify the mind, and to raise the thoughts ! 

 from " Nature up to Nature's God." The moss, the wild flower, 

 the fern at his feet ; the shrubs and underwood around ; and the 

 majestic trees, some with wide umbrageous tops : some with tall, I 

 straight, smooth trunks leading the eye to the Heaven above, to j 

 which they so significantly point, — all speak in language too plain 

 not to be understood, of that Omniscience and Omnipotence which 

 have placed him in what, but for an undutiful and ungrateful 

 disregard of his Maker's commands, might be, and always have 

 been, a perfect Paradise here below. And more than that, which 

 opens to his mind's eye that celestial Paradise, in comparison with 

 which, all, even the most beautiful in this earthly sphere, pales 

 and fades away into utter insignificance. Dull indeed, must be his 

 feelings, dead his soul, who can make Nature in her loveliest, as in 

 her grandest garb, his frequent and cherished companion, and not 

 join with Nature in that adoration which she so surely pays to his 

 and her Creator ! Who is there who cannot, or rather, who can- 

 not but join his voice in prayer or praise, with those sounds which 

 ever greet his ears from insect and from bird ; or from rustling 

 leaves and the winds sighing through the waving boughs ? Thus 

 beautifully, in words, has one of our old poets clothed the idea :— 



" Walk with thy fellow-creatures ; note the hush 

 And whispers 'mongst them : there's not e'en a spring 

 Or leafe but hath his morning-hymn ; each bush 

 And oak doth know ' I Am.' Canst thou not sing ? " 



