But a very old forest tree is a thing subject to the
same laws of nature as ourselves: it is an energetic being, liable to an
approaching death; its age is written on every spray; and, because we
see it is susceptible of life and annihilation, like our own, we imagine
it must be capable of the same feelings, and possess the same faculties,
and, above all others, memory: it is always telling us about the past,
never pointing to the future; we appeal to it, as to a thing which has
seen and felt during a life similar to our own, though of ten times its
duration, and therefore receive from it a perpetual impression of
antiquity. So again a ruined town gives us an impression of antiquity;
the stones of which it is built, none; for their age is not written upon
them.
87. This being the case, it is evident that the chief feeling induced by
woody country is one of reverence for its antiquity. There is a quiet
melancholy about the decay of the patriarchal trunks, which is enhanced
by the green and elastic vigor of the young saplings; the noble form of
the forest aisles, and the subdued light which penetrates their
entangled boughs, combine to add to the impression; and the whole
character of the scene is calculated to excite conservative feeling.
The man who could remain a radical in a wood country is a disgrace to
his species.
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