OR ASPEN. 



367 



On the other hand^ an Aspen-tree in a state of 

 perfect rest furnishes a beautiful natural emblem 

 of a summer calm. In the following passages, 

 two of our great poets of Nature appear to have 

 vied with each other in the selection of their 

 imagery : — 



Gradual sinks the breeze 

 Into a perfect calm, that not a breath 

 Is heard to quiver through the closing woods, 

 Or rustling turn the many twinkling leaves 

 Of Aspen tall. Th' uncurling floods diffused 

 In glassy breadth, seem, through delusi\ e lapse, 

 Forgetful of their course. 'Tis silence all, 

 And pleasing expectation. 



Thomson. 



Into a gradual calm the zephyrs sink, 

 A blue rim borders all the lake's still brink ; 

 And now, on every side, the surface breaks 

 Into blue spots, and slowly lengthening streaks. 

 Here, plots of sparkling water tremble bright 

 With thousand thousand twinkling points of light : 

 There, waves, that hardly weltering die away, 

 Tip their smooth ridges with a softer ray. 

 And now the universal tides repose. 

 And, brightly blue, the burnish'd mirror glows, 

 Save where, along the shady western marge. 

 Coasts with industrious oar the charcoal barge : 

 The sails are dropp'd, the Poplar's foliage sleeps. 

 And insects clothe, like dust, the glassy deeps. 



Wordsworth. 



. Lightfoot tells us that the Highlanders enter- 

 tain a superstitious notion that our Saviour's cross 

 was made of this tree, for which reason they 

 suppose that its leaves can never rest. Super- 

 stitions of this class originated partly in that love 

 of the marvellous, w^hich is the characteristic of 

 ignorance, and partly, perhaps, in feelings of refa 

 piety ; but the sober-minded Christian will not 

 allow his faith in Revelation to be affected by a 



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