the canopy of heaven, hung with the rich carving of the leaves. The Jewish Temple had all its ornaments fa. shioned after the semblance of nature. The palm-treethe blossoms and fruit of the clustering almond-the beauty of the flower of the field-were the models followed in that glorious edifice, which yet came not up to the magnificence of shrine still possessed by the Gentile.

It is in the forest, also, that Spring exhibits all the beauty of awakened creation ;-with the wood is associated the new life of animal nature;-"the still small voice of speechless adoration, expressed in joyful existence, there sounds in our ears. The luxuriant prodigality of vegetation-its beautiful hues and forms-its rich and varied perfumes,-all unite to charm the senses and the soul; and, in despite of the sins and sufferings of weak or guilty man, we there feel our hearts elevated to sublimity, and acknowledge, with the delightful emotions of true religion, that "God is Love."

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There are numerous beautiful allusions in Scripture to trees. The goodly tree, whose branches spread, and whose leaves do not wither, is frequently used as the image of the virtuous man; and the mind, while it mourns the fall of what was so flourishing, contrasts it with the destiny of the man it typifies. He too is crushed to the earth by sorrow or misfortune;-but while the tree falls never again to raise its head, the nobler work of God is struck down to ascend the higher; he is smitten for his welfare; he sinks, to rise to glory, honour, and immortality.

I have felt all this, and much more-much that I shall not attempt to portray ;-but my feelings were never so powerfully excited by the ravage of the storms among my own paternal trees, nor by the devastation of any

number, as what I once experienced on seeing a single tree felled, which belonged to no sylvan scene, which was unhonoured and disregarded by its proprietor, and indeed was, I believe, thought of by none but myself. This tree stood, several years ago, in the suburbs of London. My house was situated beyond the turnpike on the Chelsea side, and immediately opposite lay a field, the property of a dairyman, in the centre of which was a magnificent elm-one of those large-spreading elms of rich foliage that, standing single, have space to be seen to peculiar advantage, and appear to give more shade and shelter than several trees afford in less conspicuous situations. It was in all the pride of July. I had been detained thus late in town by indisposition, and my mind was weighed down with affliction. The spring had been passed in attending the fatal illness of my beloved companion,-in the vicissitudes of hope and bitter fear. During the last days of her lingering sickness, ere she was totally debilitated, she had taken pleasure in letting me assist her to the window, where she would sit to receive the cooling breeze-admiring this elmtaking interest in watching the cows gathering around to enjoy its shade-noticing their various attitudes, and fancying they looked up in gratitude to its ample branches for their shelter from the sun. How often did she point out to me its verdant beauty, expressing her satisfaction that, although doomed to die in the town, her eyes were still blessed in looking on the lovely work of Nature. Her pure and gentle spirit ever found subject for gratitude and thanks. To the dying, the spring is generally the most mournful season; all nature renovating with life, while theirs ebbs away, forms so melancholy a contrast, and adds to the depression of encreasing weakness. But she saw the genial season approach

as kind support; and, as the first tender green of the elm budded forth, and the leaves opened to all their luxuriant vegetation, she lamented not that every thing revived except herself, but hailed the season as the emblem of the brighter life to which she was hastening. Still the religion, which made her joy in the prospect of advancing Heaven, did not prevent her sorrowing deeply to part from me. She, the dying one, pitied, soothed, and supported me, the one who was to continue to live-She taught me resignation to her death.-But though she did teach me to be resigned, I cannot bear to dwell on these

scenes.

I had recovered my strength tolerably, and was preparing to leave my melancholy solitary house, and return to the country. I did not know that all the ground opposite had been sold in building-lots; and, as I approached the window after breakfast, by the involuntary motion which takes us to inhale the morningair and admire the splendour of the summer sun, I was disappointed in seeing men in the field, instead of the fine sleek cattle reposing at their ease, in the graceful groups that give a picturesque appearance to the rich comfort of an English homestead. The men approached the elm with axes and ropes: I stood for several minutes observing their movements, till, painfully convinced they were going to take down the tree, I turned from the window in sadness, and took up a book; waiting the arrival of a person who was to pass the morning with me on business. In vain I tried to read-tender and mournful recollections crowded on my mind ;-I again walked to the window, and again turned away. At last the person I expected came, and for several hours I was intent on the intricacy of lawpapers and parchments. The business completed, and

again left alone, I threw myself on the couch fatigued and dispirited--but the sound of the axe reached me, every repeated stroke rang in my ears, and vexed my heart. I started to the window, and determined to go out and try by exercise to shake off my depression, and avoid witnessing the fall of the noble tree. But I stood fixed, gazing on the men, who were toiling laboriously; they relieved each other at the axe, striking resounding blows they fixed a rope around a large branch, and hauled together. They appeared to me like barbarians, uniting their feeble individual strength to destroy worth and beauty, the tree seeming a creature far their superior;-and when at last it fell with a tremendous crash, they raised a shout of savage exultation-huzzaing at the overthrow of what none but themselves could see fall without grief. I could bear it no longer, but burst into tears, and wept long and uncontrolledly. When I again raised my head, I saw them-I could have called them monsters,-hewing off the branches, and the fine tree lay despoiled! It may be deemed extravagant, but I exclaimed from my heart, "Thank God this did not occur sixweeks ago!"

A STORY OF THE OLD TIME IN ITALY.

[From a MS. found in the Convent of Siderne, in Calabria.]

"I AM the orphan daughter of noble parents, whom I will not name-for they should rest in their tombswho, dying together as they had lived, left me in early youth the lady of a large estate, in the most fertile fields of Italy. I had fair and stately halls, and hounds for sport and parade, and trained hawks and vassals for service in court or field, in war or pleasure; with

This allusion to the counting-house was rather grating to my feelings, but I must freely own that there may be a certain mercantile cast in my physiognomy, which might in some degree justify my wife's waggery, and I sat very passively while she recounted to a posse of friends, how I had watched a whole week in the cowhouse with the blacksmith's gun, peeping through the crannies at my unsuspecting foe,-how he hopped from twig to twig, without suffering me to take a level at him -how he at last hopped upon the muzzle of the gun, which had been all day protruding from the cow-house, like the spout of a tea-kettle, and how I was a full half hour before I could summon resolution to pull the trigger. The laugh was against me, but my mind was made up; and the next day, when I mounted my nag, at the usual hour of attendance at my office, instead of turning towards the city, I ambled away very complacently to a celebrated house-agent's. 66 Pray, Sir," said I, "have you such a thing as a sporting-box to let? I don't want it very far from town-only just a pretty distance, so that I can run down and kill my three or four brace of birds, and then return to my-hem!-to the opera." book was immediately handed to me, containing the descriptions of about twenty, which seemed precisely calculated for my accommodation. Were it not rather foreign to my present purpose I should direct the notice of the Society for the Suppression of Viee" to this identical book, for it was written with a flow of language and depth of poetical feeling, which gave a semblance of truth to fictions of a most injurious tendency. The residence which particularly struck my fancy was, " An elegant cottage, at the extremity of a delightful village, with beautiful lawn, surrounded with odoriferous shrubs and exotics of all descriptions, stables, and stable-yard,

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