TO THE WOODS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2895, 8 September 1909, Page 71

TO THE WOODS.

UNDER THF GREENWOOD TREE. Under the greenwood" trse Who loves to lie 1 with me, And tune his merry not© Into the swest bird's throat, Come hither, come hither," come hither; Hero shall he see No enemy But Winter and rough -weather. Who doth ambition shun, And loves to lie in the sun, Seeking the food he eat?, And piens'd with what he gets, Come hither, come. hither, come hi4h«r; Here shalT he see No enemy But Winter and rough weather. — William Shakespeare. THE SPIRIT OF THE TREE. Reveries of Longfellow, idylls of Tennyson, sonnets.,, of Shakespeare, songs of Browning, verses of the minor poets, we know them all with their strange deep sympathy with the woods and the trees. Who does not thrill with delicious tremor and ghostly fears as v he reads Meredith's "Woods of Westermain"? ; A writer^ little known among us, Has said of the wild trees — " You are fortunate when you grow to a live, tender, earnest love for the wild trees, animals, and birds, and recognise them all as coming from j and built of the same mind and spirit as your own. . . . The wild tree is not irresponsive or' regardless of a love like that. Such love is not a myth, or n>ci-e sentiment. It is a literal element and force going from you to the tree. "It is felt by the spirit of the tree. You represent a part and belonging of 1 the Infinite Mind. Tba tree represents | another part and belonging of the Infinite J Mind. . There is a sense in the | tree which feeLs your love and responds 1 to it. It does not respond or show its j pleasure in our way, or in any way which 1 we can now undeistand. Its way of doing | so Ls the way of the Infinite Mind, of which it is a part. " You are fortunate indeed if you love trees, especially the wild ones growing I where the Great Creative force placed j them and independent of man's care. All J things that we call ' wild ' or natural are t nearer the Infinite Mind than those which 1 have been enslaved, artificialised, and j hampered my man. Being nearer the 1 Infinite, they have in them the more per- { feet Infinite Force and Thought. That is 1 why. when you are in the midst of what j is wild and natural — in the forest or the mountains, where every trace of man's work is left behind — you feel an indescribable exhilaration and freedom that you do not realise elsewhere. ". . . Ifc is the Infinite Force and Mind, as expressed by all these natural

"things/ which is acting on you. Tot 7 cannot get this force in the town, or eve* in the carefully cultivated garden, for the« the plants and- trees have too much- of man's lesser -mind in them. The tree, then, is- literally one of God's thoughts. Th"at thought is. worth our study . It contains some wisdom which we have not yet gotten hold of. We want that wisdom. We want to make it a, paT^of ourselves."