while all its lofty, tapering height points Godward.

It is your confidant; and the more you tell it, the more you will find
to say. While it is very modest and retiring, requiring time to get
acquainted with you, still, the more it talks to you, the more you
will want to hear. The pine is your school-master, and you are the
royal pupil,--Roger Ascham and Queen Elizabeth. It is no longer an
ordinary tree, but something born with a spirit in it; and it has
birthdays. Thoreau, the man who loved Nature so much that the birds
and the fishes took care of him and were never afraid of their master,
used to visit certain trees on certain days in the year. The pine has
a birthday worth celebrating in December, the maple in October, and
the birch in May. You think this is all fancy, and believe persons
must be very imaginative to find such friends in Nature? Oh, no; along
with fancy Nature tucks very real things into our thoughts about her.
You only need an introduction to her, and you will see for yourselves.
The most practical among you will find that even fancy is a most useful
quality, because it leads men to think out great truths.

Some of the most remarkable ideas in literature, philosophy, science,
and, religion have come from just this snug little acquaintance with
Nature. Probably the most original poet in the last hundred years was
Wordsworth. However much he lacked in some respects, he has done most
towards shaping the minds of other poets, and towards advancing new
and beautiful theories. His honest ideas, his simple truths, were told
him by the field-flowers--the celandine and daisy and daffodil--as
well as by the common trees and the common sky. I suppose most of the
principles of natural philosophy, and of many of the sciences, must
have been derived from an acquaintance with Nature in her ordinary
aspects. Oh, do not think it necessary to behold Nature in her great