57 
THE HOLLY. 
ILEX AQUIFOLIUM. 
“ Oh, Reader ! hast thou ever stood to see 
The holly-tree? 
The eye that contemplates it well perceives 
Its glossy leaves, 
Order'd by an intelligence so wise 
As might confound the atheist’s sophistries. 
Below, a circling fence its leaves arc seen 
Wrinkled and keen; 
No grazing cattle through their prickly round 
Can reach to wound: 
But as they grow where nothing is to fear, 
Smooth and unarm’d the pointless leaves appear. 
I love to view these things with curious eyes, 
And moralise: 
*, 
And in this wisdom of the holly-tree 
Can emblems see 
Wherewith perchance to make a pleasant rhyme, 
One which may profit in the after time. ” 
It has been asserted that “ nature abhors a vacuum : ’’ 
with more truth, judging from the infinite variety every 
