TREES HARMONISE WITH HUMAN FEELINGS 201 
aspect, and stunted dimensions. Some are yet 
vigorous in their old age; others, gnarled and 
knotted, with torn and ragged bark, partially 
denuded and decayed wood and thinly - clad 
branches. Many vicissitudes have these aged 
denizens of the forest seen: sunshine and gloom, 
calm and tempest; the enlivening heat of summei 
and the cramping frosts of winter have come over 
them—how often one cannot tell. In the midst of 
them has the half-savage Celt of the olden time 
shot his arrow into the stately stag; and but 
yesterday has the smooth-faced and trimly-clad 
Saxon sent from his rifle, as he leant against one 
of their trunks, the whizzing messenger of death 
to the herd that reposed in peace upon the mossy 
knoll. Farther on, many trees lie prostrate on the 
hillside among a scattered group of melancholy 
survivors; and yet farther up the valley the ground 
is covered with trunks, erect, but decayed, broken 
down, shaggy with moss and lichen, rotten to the 
core, and crumbling under the action of the weathei. 
Said I not well, that trees harmonise with human 
feelings'? He who for the hundredth time could 
pass by such a scene and not experience its 
depressing effect must have a heart unfit for any 
gentle emotion. A trumpet could not more forcibly 
proclaim the inevitable death of all organic being 
than do these lifeless and silent monuments of 
ruin .—Natural History of Deeside, p. 169. 
