No! The resentment melted all away, -
"For this my grief a single smile will pay,"
Our trav'ller cried, "and why should it offend,
That one so good should have a pressing friend?
Grieve not, my heart, to find a favourite guest
Thy pride and boast! Ye selfish sorrows, rest;
She will be kind, and I again be blest."

While gentler passions thus his bosom sway'd,
He reach'd the mansion, and he saw the maid,
"My Laura!"" My Orlando! This is kind;
In truth, I came persuaded, not inclined:
Our friend's amusement let us now pursue,
And I to-morrow will return with you."

Like man entranced, the happy lover stood, "As Laura wills-for she is kind and good: Ever the truest, gentlest, fairest, best

As Laura wills-I see her, and am blest."

Home went the lovers, through that busy place,
By Loddon-hall, the country's pride and grace;
By the rich meadows where the oxen fed,

Through the green vale that form'd the river's bed;
And, by unnumber'd cottages and farms,
That have, for musing minds, unnumber'd charms :
And how affected by the view of these
Was then Orlando- did they pain or please?

and why?

Nor pain nor pleasure could they yield,
The mind was fill'd-was happy-and the eye

Roved o'er the fleeting views, that but appear'd to die.
Alone, Orlando, on the morrow, paced

The well-known road. The gipsy tent he traced
The dam high raised the ready dykes between

The scatter'd hovels on the barren green

The burning sand-the fields of thin set rye, -
Mock'd by the useless Flora blooming by.
And last, the heath, with all its various bloom,
And the close lanes that led the trav'ller home.

Then, could these scenes the former joys renew?

Or was there now dejection in the view?

Nor one nor other could they yield,

and why?

The mind was absent, and the vacant eye

Wander'd o'er viewless scenes, that but appear'd to die.

OBSERVATIONS

ON

FOREST SCENERY.

OBSERVATIONS

ON

FOREST SCENERY.

BOOK I.

SECTION I.

It is no exaggerated praise to call a tree the grandest and most beautiful of all the productions of the earth. In the former of these epithets nothing contends with it; for we consider rocks and mountains as part of the earth itself. And though among inferior plants, shrubs, and flowers, there is great beauty; yet when we consider that these minuter productions are chiefly beautiful as individuals, and are not adapted to form the arrangement of composition in landscape, nor to receive the effects of light and shade, they must give place in point of beauty-of picturesque beauty at least, which we are here considering-to the form, and foliage, and ramification of the tree. Thus the splendid tints of the insect, however beautiful, must yield to the elegance and proportion of animals which range in a higher class. With animal life I should not set the tree in competition. The shape, the different coloured fur, the varied and spirited attitudes, the character and motion, which strike us in the animal creation, are certainly beyond still life in its most pleasing appearance. I should only observe with regard to trees, that nature has been kinder to them in point of variety, than even to its living forms. Though every animal is distinguished from its fellow, by

some little variation of colour, character, or shape; yet in all the larger parts, in the body and limbs, the resemblance is generally exact. In trees, it is just the reverse: the smaller parts, the spray, the leaves, the blossom, and the seed, are the same in all trees of the same kind : while the larger parts, from which the most beautiful varieties result, are wholly different. You never see two oaks with an equal number of limbs, the same kind of head, and twisted in the same form. However, as variety is not alone sufficient to give superiority to the tree, we give the preference, on the whole, to animal life.

We strongly suspect that Mr Gilpin's remark, as regards trees, appears true only because the variety of the larger parts of them visibly forces itself upon our attention, whilst the smaller parts, the spray, the leaves, the blossom, and the seed, are too minute for their varieties to be discernible, without an almost microscopical examination. But were such an examination applied, we are disposed to think that no two leaves of the creation would be found exactly alike. This observation is hardly necessary here, however; for so far as regards picturesque effect, Mr Gilpin is right: that which is not visible cannot possibly excite any emotion.

SECTION II.

TREES when young, like striplings, shoot into taper forms. There is a lightness and an airiness in them, which is pleasing; but they do not spread and receive their just proportions, till they have attained their full growth.

There is as much difference, too, in trees- I mean in trees of the same kind—in point of beauty, as there is in human figures. The limbs of some are set on awkwardly, their trunks are disproportioned, and their whole form is unpleasing. The same rules, which establish elegance in other objects, establish it in these. There must be the same harmony of parts, the same sweeping line, the same contrast, the same ease and freedom. A bough indeed may issue from the trunk at