who plants an oak, looks forward to future ages, and
plants for posterity. Nothing can be less selfish than this. He cannot
expect to sit in its shade, nor enjoy its shelter; but he exults in
the idea that the acorn which he has buried in the earth shall grow up
into a lofty pile, and shall keep on flourishing, and increasing, and
benefiting mankind, long after he shall have ceased to tread his
paternal fields. Indeed, it is the nature of such occupations to lift
the thoughts above mere worldliness. As the leaves of trees are said
to absorb all noxious qualities of the air, and to breathe forth a
purer atmosphere, so it seems to me as if they drew from us all sordid
and angry passions, and breathed forth peace and philanthropy. There
is a serene and settled majesty in woodland scenery, that enters into
the soul, and dilates and elevates it, and fills it with noble
inclinations. The ancient and hereditary groves, too, that embower
this island, are most of them full of story. They are haunted by the
recollections of great spirits of past ages, who have sought for
relaxation among them from the tumult of arms, or the toils of state,
or have wooed the muse beneath their shade. Who can walk, with soul
unmoved, among the stately groves of Penshurst, where the gallant, the
amiable, the elegant Sir Philip Sidney passed his boyhood; or can look
without fondness upon the tree that is said to have been planted on
his birthday; or can ramble among the classic bowers of Hagley; or can
pause among the solitudes of Windsor Forest, and look at the oaks
around, huge, gray, and time-worn, like the old castle towers, and not
feel as if he were surrounded by so many monuments of long-enduring
glory? It is, when viewed in this light, that planted groves, and
stately avenues, and cultivated parks, have an advantage over the more
luxuriant beauties of unassisted nature. It is that they teem with
moral associations, and keep up the ever-interesting story of human
existence.

It is incumbent, then, on the high and generous spirits of an ancient
nation, to cherish these sacred groves that surround their ancestral
mansions, and to perpetuate them to their descendants. Republican as I
am by birth, and brought up as I have been in republican principles
and habits, I can feel nothing of the servile reverence for titled
rank, merely because it is titled; but I trust that I am neither churl
nor bigot in my creed. I can both see and feel how hereditary