26 



WANDERINGS IN 



First bome, like good cheer in the houses of the great, has 



Journey. 



invited the birds to resort to it, and they have dis- 

 seminated beautiful, though destructive, plants on its 

 branches, which, like the distempers vice brings into the 

 human frame, rob it of all its health and vigour ; they 

 have shortened its days, and probably in another year 

 they will finally kill it, long before nature intended that 

 it should die. 



Ere thou leavest this interesting scene, look on the 

 ground around thee, and see what every thing here 

 below must come to. 



Behold that newly fallen wallaba ! The Avhirlwind has 

 uprooted it in its prime, and it has brought domi to the 

 ground a dozen small ones in its fall. Its bark has 

 already begun to drop off! And that heart of mora close 

 by it is fast yielding, in spite of its firm, tough texture. 



The tree which thou passed but a little ago, and which 

 perhaps has laid over yonder brook for years, can now 

 hardly support itself, and in a few months more it will 

 have fallen into the water. 



Put thy foot on that large trunk thou seest to the left. 

 It seems entire, amid the surrounding fragments. Mere 

 outward appearance, delusive phantom of what it once was ! 

 Tread on it, and like the fuss -ball, it will break into dust. 



Sad and silent mementos to the giddy traveller as he 

 wanders on! Prostrate remnants of vegetable nature, 

 how incontestably ye prove what we must all at last come 



