5*2 
dirge-like tones obtained for them from Virgil the 
epithet of “ the singing pines.” And in another place 
he says, — 
4 * The pines of Msenalus were heard to mourn, 
And sounds of woe along the groves were borne.” 
And Milton, with apparent reference to the readiness 
with which they respond to the breath of this aerial 
visitant, says,— 
“ His praise, ye winds, that from four quarters blow, 
Breathe soft or loud ; and wave your tops, ye pines, 
With every plant — in sign of worship wave.” 
And Thomson thus in the same spirit, and with a 
similar allusion, — 
■ ** To Him, ye vocal gales, 
Breathe soft, whose spirit in your freshness breathes. 
Oh l talk of Him in solitary glooms, 
Where o’er the rock the scarcely waving pine 
Fills the brown shade with a religious awe.” 
Many of our modern poets descant most sweetly on this 
wild “ natural music:”— 
‘ And then there fled by me a rush of air 
That stirr'd up all the other foliage there; 
