SOUTH AMERICA. 25 

 which trickle down from them. The Hghtning, too, has Fikst 



Journey. 



blasted one side of it. Nature looks pale and wan in its — 



leaves, and her resources are nearly dried up in its extre- 

 mities ; its sap is tainted ; a mortal sickness, slow as a 

 consumption, and as sure in its consequences, has long- 

 since entered its frame, vitiating and destroying the 

 wholesome juices there. 



Step a few paces aside, and cast thine eye on that 

 remnant of a mora behind it. Best part of its branches, 

 once so high and ornamental, now lie on the ground in 

 sad confusion, one upon the other, all shattered and 

 fungus-grown, and a prey to millions of insects, which 

 are busily employed in destroying them. One branch of 

 it still looks healthy ! Will it recover ? No, it cannot ; 

 nature has already run her course, and that healthy- 

 looking branch is only as a fallacious good symptom in 

 him who is just about to die of a mortification, when he 

 feels no more pain, and fancies his distemper has left 

 him ; it is as the momentary gleam of a wintry sun's ray 

 close to the western horizon. See ! while we are speak- 

 ing a gust of wind has brought the tree to the ground, 

 and made room for its successor. 



Come further on, and examine that apparently luxuriant 

 tauronira on thy right hand. It boasts a verdure not its 

 own ; they are false ornaments it wears : the bush-rope 

 and bird- vines have clothed it from the root to its top- 

 most branch. The succession of fruit which it hath 



E 



