60 



No. VI. 



Silver Dale. 



This den or ravine, on both sides the run of wa- 

 ter, has in many places considerable blanks, which 

 should be filled up, where dry, with oak, Spanish 

 chesnut, and, to give variety to its look, spruce and 

 silver firs. At the top of this there are some fine old 

 ash trees, covered with ivy, which is a great orna- 

 ment to the place ; and to a person standing within 

 a few yards of them, they have a most impressive ef- 

 fect, and call up to mind the inexorable calm pace 

 with which time has passed over them, marking with 

 his ravages, destruction in every step ; their boughs 

 falling to pieces, and trunks tumbling over their hol- 

 low base with age ; methinks religion raises her sup- 

 plicating eyes to plead for a release in vain — in vain 

 philosophy, with all her wise maxims, and melody, 

 with her sublime songs — in vain could they combined, 

 touch the cold unfeeling heart of time. Yet me- 

 thinks the awful tyrant, totally unused to spare, re- 

 lented when he struck their finished pride, and part- 

 ly to repair the ravages his sweeping hand has made, 

 and to renew in green verdure those brightest gems 

 of nature, ties up their tottering trunks with twisted 

 ivy. Ho vv indescribably beautiful are these dead trees 

 in their grave clothes, returning to their original no- 

 thing, clothed in their ivy-mantled shroud. If I 

 durst but give scope to my flying imagination for a 

 moment, to an infinitely more grand and subhme sub- 

 ject, and take a peep at the noblest of all God's works 

 falling to pieces in the grave j but the immortal part, 



