LETTER VII. 



*^ He was not of an age, but for all time." 



Ben Jonson. 



« To Time 

 The task was left to whittle thee away 

 With his sly scythe, whose ever-nibbling edge, 

 Noiseless, an atom and an atom more 

 Disjoining from the rest, has, unobserved, 

 Achieved a labour, which had far and wide. 

 By man performed, made all the forest ring." 



William Cowper. 



October 21, 1854. 



My Dear Sons, 



1. In a former letter (Letter II.) I told you that in 

 different parts of the world there are trees of almost 

 all sorts which have already stood for ages, and have 

 grown to a vast size ; that many of these trees are 

 still vigorous and growing ; and, what is particularly 

 remarkable, that they exhibit as yet no signs of what 

 can properly be regarded as old age. Much of their 

 trunk, as I then remarked, may have been hollowed 

 out from the decay of the heart-wood, and many of 

 their larger branches may have been broken off in 

 the lapse of time. But so much of them as yet remains 



