24 



LETTERS ON TREES. 



of the declaration. Possibly, however, it may have 

 been of wider import, and have embraced a larger 

 view of the nature of the tree. The tree, rather 

 than the "everlasting hills," may have been made 

 the basis of the declaration, as being possessed of 

 only a contingent perpetuity, — in its own nature 

 most truly perennial, yet subject to decay and ruin. 

 And so the declaration may have carried with it an 

 admonition and a warning, as well as a gracious assur- 

 ance ; and have been so intended and understood. 

 Looking at it, at least, from our present stand-point 

 in time and in the light of history, it is scarcely pos- 

 sible to read it otherwise. " The days of my people 

 shall endure as the days of trees." Yet the Cedars, 

 the "indestructible" Cedars, which once covered and 

 were the glory of Mount Lebanon, have all, save a 

 very small remnant, disappeared; while the " People" 

 that once " filled the land," and, like those " goodly 

 cedars" to which they were compared, " sent out their 

 boughs unto the sea and their branches unto the river," 

 have been driven out and dispersed into all lands, — • 

 " scattered and peeled."* — I am, &c. 



* Isaiah xviii. 2 and 7. 



