patriotic ardor and prophetic foresight, should have exclaimed, What a glorious morning!'

"At early dawn on the 17th of June, I heard the first shot from the men-of-war upon the intrenchments which had been thrown up during the night on Bunker Hill. Then the whole British camp and the entire population of the town were suddenly aroused. General Gage, in consternation, called a council of war. It was seen that the patriots were gaining strength every hour. I witnessed the embarkation of troops; heard the heavy cannonading; saw the landing, the attack, and the repulse; amid smoke and fire, beheld the long and deadly struggle. With what intense emotion, with what torturing anxiety, multitudes watched every movement! Amid the shouts for freedom I heard the lamentations for Warren, who had given up his life for the sacred cause of liberty. Then followed the protracted siege of Boston, during which untold sufferings were met with heroic courage.

"Then sprang into being the American army, and from thence the name of WASHINGTON was borne upon the breeze. It was the 3d of July, '75, when Washington assumed in full the position to which he had been chosen as commander-in-chief.' From that instant every eye turned to him; and expectations and convictions were awakened, which never, for one instant, were doomed to disappointment. On the first day of 1776, I saw the new flag with its thirteen stripes waving over the Continental army. I missed the old pine-tree; yet it was to be replaced by a constellation of stars, and I knew well that the toughness and grit of the forest-pine was embodied in every soldier there. Peering through the distance, I saw on the night of March 4, while it was yet starlight, that Dorchester Heights were being fortified. Two thousand men were at work silently and surely. The results accomplished were marvellous. Never,' it has been said, 'was so much work done in so short a time.' In the early morning, through the mist, General Howe gazed with amazement, hardly trusting his eyes, and with a shadowy hope that it might all prove a delusion. These rebels have accomplished,' he exclaimed, 'more in one night than my whole army would have done in a month.' And what a position! commanding both the harbor and the town. Startled and confounded, the British general saw plainly that nothing was left them but flight. Certain unavoidable delays preceded the embarkation, during which General Howe convened his officers in council, and the inevitable decision was made to evacuate the town. Then came hurry and confusion, mingled with feelings of bitterest disappointment and disgrace. Within six hours, eight thousand men embarked. The retreat,' said Washington,

was precipitate beyond any thing I could have conceived.' Military stores of great value were left scattered on every side. There were more than a thousand refugees, Tories, many of whom had crowded into the town from various quarters, with the vain idea of obtaining a security from British arms, which they did not find. Some of these people had held office under the crown. Terror-stricken, they now ignobly scrambled on board the men-of-war, and were taken to Halifax.

an

'I watched, with joy the fleet as it sailed, one hundred and twenty vessels, loaded with eight thousand men; which, with the addition of marines and sailors, rendered Howe's force over ten thousand strong. As the fleet passed out of the harbor in long line extending from the Castle to Nantasket Roads, a flag was hoisted on a church-steeple, understood signal to surrounding towns that the enemy had gone. Every hill-top was crowded with eager spectators, anxious to watch the departure of the British. In due time, the American army, with drums beating and banners flying, marched into the town. Washington was universally hailed as a Benefactor and Deliverer.

was at

"Warmest congratulations and most affectionate greetings were extended. Friends, long parted, rapturously met with tears of joy; and the air was filled with triumphant acclamations. The time-honored Thursday Lecture, established by John Cotton nearly a century and a half before, which had been suspended during the siege, once resumed; and, at the request of his Excellency the Commanderin-chief, the Rev. Dr. Eliot delivered a Thanksgiving Sermon. The officers of the American army attended the services; and Washington, with his associates in arms and the assembled people, bowed in gratitude together before the altar of God.

"I now saw that this nation was entering upon a new era. A brighter day was dawning for the human race; a new step had been taken for the establishment of constitutional freedom. This great continent, which had been reserved from the beginning of creation, was now apparently to be set apart for the advancement of Christian civilization. Evil might, indeed, crowd upon evil; but here, at least, was a wide field and fresh opportunities."

"Perhaps I am saying too much: but it is the privilege of old age. to be garrulous; and, having waited one or two hundred years without speaking, I may be excused a little talkativeness now. Possibly you. may feel that I am like Shakspeare's Gratiano, who, it will be remem

bered, talked an infinite deal of nothing, more than any man in all Venice; two grains of wheat,' they said, 'hid in two bushels of chaff.' But no: I trust you will not say that.

"Some persons are very literal, like those farmers, who, hearing of the essay by Richard and Maria Edgeworth on Irish Bulls,' ordered at once numerous copies to be distributed through the agricultural districts for the improvement of stock. There are those who would never believe that a tree could produce dates; unless, indeed, it were a date-tree. But you may ask seriously, how it was possible for the like of me to observe and remember such things as I have related. These are reasonable inquiries; but there are questions more easily asked than answered. Could Sir Isaac Newton explain how he disentangled the threads of creation, and discovered the hidden laws of the universe? Can any one reveal where acquired knowledge, yet unwritten, accumulates itself? or in what unseen archives Memory stores her inexhaustible treasures? away 6 Could the author of Hamlet,' think you, tell us out of what depths of creative thought 'Hamlet' was written? or Burns make known by what mental alchemy his melodious songs sprang into being? Could Bryant account for his "Thanatopsis,' written in the freshness of his youth? or Longfellow unfold the mysterious advent of Evangeline'? Yet every tree loves Bryant the more because of his 'Forest Hymn,' and Longfellow because of his companionship with murmuring pines, and hemlocks bearded with moss. To them alike

while

"The thick roof

Of green and stirring branches is alive
And musical with birds;'

'The gray old trunks, that high in heaven
Mingle their mossy boughs,'

give to them both perpetual benedictions. They alike feel that even

'The delicate forest-flower

Seems, as it issues from the shapeless mould,

An emanation of the indwelling Life;'

while the trees in their presence stand like Druids of eld, their beards resting upon their bosoms,' and speaking with voices sad and prophetic.'

"At such moments they could enthusiastically exclaim with Wordsworth,

6

It would hardly be fitting in me to present such a claim; but, when Wordsworth asserts it, I acquiesce. It must be confessed, the ancient Hebrews had much the same belief. The Psalmist declares that 'all the trees of the wood rejoice before the Lord.' The prophet Isaiah exclaims that all the trees of the field shall clap their hands;' and in the First Book of Chronicles it is written, Then shall the trees of the wood sing out at the presence of the Lord.' Those prophets of God had minds nicely attuned to the harmonies of Nature. In Ezekiel we are told that all the trees of the field shall know that I the Lord have brought down the high tree, and exalted the low.' And what human feelings are recognized in the experience of trees, when in the same book it curiously describes a cedar of remarkable beauty, which grew so fair, that all the trees that were in the garden of God envied it'! Another singular circumstance is recorded in the Book of Judges, where the trees assembled with much excitement for a popular election. They had various candidates which it was proposed should be promoted to rule over them. Some advocated the olive-tree, while some preferred the fig-tree; others urged the claims of the vine; and at last they united upon the bramble! Men have been practising upon this ever since, and only too often has the bramble been called to rule. To the patriarchal mind, Nature was full of exhaustless creative energy. There was thought and feeling; while the impassioned sympathies found on every side an intelligent and joyous response.

"Will any one still question how I could know what transpired beyond the narrow circle of my immediate presence? I answer, one object in Nature works in harmony with another. It is affirmed in the book of Ecclesiastes, 'A bird of the air shall carry the voice, and that which hath wings shall tell the matter.' What could be more natural than that these winged messengers, delicate and aerial beings, fluttering between earth and heaven, should keep me informed?

But, besides this, there are subtle and electric communications; a conscious sympathy, - mysterious and wonderful,— imparting knowledge. Under such influences, Eliphaz, the friend of Job, exclaims, —

'A word stole secretly to me;
Its whispers caught my ear.'

"And intimations there are which come without even so much as a whisper. Thus Milton affirms, that when, in evil hour, the forbidden fruit was plucked,

'Earth felt the wound; and Nature, from her seat

Sighing through all her works, gave signs of woe.'

"It was not essential that all Nature should actually behold that act: without need of sight came an instinctive and throbbing response. Then every tree of the forest was acknowledged as the Lord's, and the cedars of Lebanon were of his planting. At such a time the voice of the Lord God was heard walking in the garden in the cool of the day. In that glorious dawn of creation, the morning-stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy.' What I say now is, that, if ever there was a time when a tree should observe and feel, it would be under such a condition of things as that through which I have passed. If ever there was a time when the trees should clap their hands and sing out before the presence of the Lord, it should be when a nation like this is being born into nobler privilege and a grander life. Over such a Declaration of Independence as the patriots made, and a Centennial year like that upon which we have now entered, the morningstars may well sing together, and all the sons of God shout for joy!"

"It is singular how often trees have become identified through past ages with historical and literary events. It was under an oak that Ferdinand and Isabella, in 1476, after hearing mass in the Church of Santa Maria de la Antigua, swore that the rights and privileges of the people should be maintained inviolate. Three hundred years after that event, this land (the discovery of which must ever be gratefully associated with the name of Isabella), by its struggle for freedom, made the year 1776 memorable; as if there were some mystic significance in what men term 'the spirit of '76,' one event foreshadowing another!"

"I have heard of the mulberry-tree planted by Milton in the gardens of Christ's College.

"Of Shakspeare's tree, from which the carved box was made that enclosed the papers conveying the freedom of Stratford-on-Avon to David Garrick.

"Of Falstaff's tree, in Queen Elizabeth's Walk at Windsor Forest, associated with Herne the hunter, which the King of Prussia, and Alexander von Humboldt, on visiting England, asked first of all to see.