xviii 



PREFACE. 



subject of a future state. How often, too, had 

 lier father expressed the comfort he derived from 

 believing that they should meet in another world ! 

 Emily, overcome by these recollections, left the 

 Plane-tree 



There are several other passages on this subject, 

 in the course of the same work. 



Cowper speaks with great interest of the trees 

 he remembered when a boy, though they were 

 then already old : had he watched the progress of 

 their growth from their first springing, they would 

 have been yet dearer to him. 



Claudian says of the old man of Verona, 



A neighbouring wood, born with himself, he sees. 

 And loves his old cotemporary trees." 



In old times, it was a custom with parents to 

 plant a tree at the birth of a son, and to judge by 

 the growth and thriving of the tree of the pros- 

 perity of the child. It is said in the life of Virgil, 

 that the Poplar, planted on his birthday, far out- 

 stripped all its contemporaries t. 



* Mysteries of Udolpho, vol. i. 

 f Evelyn's Sylva. 



