AN ANCIENT OAK, 
42 
grasses of the field ; but to pass them by in utter disre- 
gard, is to neglect a large portion of rational pleasure 
open to our view, which may edify and employ many a 
passing hour, and by easy gradations will often become 
the source whence flow contemplations of the highest 
orders. Young minds cannot, I should conceive, be too 
strongly impressed with the simple wonders of creation 
by which they are surrounded : in the race of life they 
may be passed by, the occupation of existence may not 
admit attention to them, or the unceasing cares of the 
world may smother early attainments — but they can 
never be injurious — will give a bias to a reasoning mind, 
and tend, in some after-thoughtful, sobered hour, to 
comfort and to soothe. The little insights that we have 
obtained into nature’s works are many of them the off- 
spring of scientific research ; and partial and uncertain 
as our labors are, yet a brief gleam will occasionally 
lighten the darksome path of the humble inquirer, and 
give him a momentary glimpse of hidden truths : let 
not then the idle and the ignorant scoff at him who de- 
votes an unemployed hour, — 
“ No calling left, no duty broke,” 
to investigate a moss, a fungus, a beetle, or a shell, in 
“ ways of pleasantness, and in paths of peace.” They 
are all the formation of Supreme Intelligence, for a wise 
and a worthy end, and may lead us by gentle gradations 
to a faint conception of the powers of infinite wisdom. 
They have calmed and amused some of us worms and 
reptiles, and possibly bettered us for our change to a 
new and more perfect order of being. 
We yet possess two forest trees, beautiful and unmu- 
tilated ! An oak in Shellard’s lane has escaped the wood- 
man’s ax, the hedger’s bill: it stands on the side of 
the waste, and has long afforded shade and shelter to 
an adjoining farm-house. These circumstances, and not 
being valuable as a timber tree, may have contributed 
to its preservation : its hamadryad is left alone in the 
land to mourn her lost companions. This tree is not 
mentioned as being at all comparable with the gigantic 
productions of the kind that we have accounts of, and 
