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ARBOR DA Y MANUAL. 
INSCRIPTION FOR THE ENTRANCE TO A WOOD. 
S TRANGER, if thou hast learned a truth which needs 
No school of long experience, that the world 
Is full of guilt and misery, and hast seen 
Enough of all its sorrows, crimes, and cares, 
To tire thee of it, enter this wild wood 
And view the haunts of nature. The calm shade 
Shall bring a kindred calm, and the sweet breeze 
That makes the green leaves dance, shall waft a balm 
To thy sick heart. Thou wilt find nothing here 
Of all that pained thee in the haunts of men, 
And made thee loath thy life. The primal curse 
Fell, it is true, upon the unsinning earth, 
But not in vengeance. God hath yoked to guilt, 
Her pale tormentor, misery. Hence, these shades 
Are still the abodes of gladness ; the thick roof 
Of green and stirring branches is alive 
And musical with birds, that sing and sport 
In wantonness of spirit; while below 
The squirrel, with raised paws and form erect, 
Chirps merrily. Throngs of insects in the shade 
Try their thin wings and dance in the warm beam 
That waked them into life. Even the green trees 
Partake the deep contentment; as they bend 
To the soft winds, the sun from the blue sky 
Looks in and sheds a blessing on the scene. 
***** Bryant. 
I sit where the leaves of the maple, 
And the gnarl’d and knotted gum, 
Are circling and drifting around me, 
And think of the time to come. 
For the human heart is the mirror 
Of the things that are near and far; 
Like the wave that reflects in its bosom 
The flower and the distant star. 
Alice Cary, The Time to Be. 
Earth’s tall sons, the cedar, oak and pine, 
Their parent’s undecaying strength declare. 
Sir R. Blackmore, 
