Time turns whate'er can perish into dust; Himself to fall, in nature's wreck entomb'd; THE HOLLY. ILEX AQUIFOLIUM. "Oh, Reader! hast thou ever stood to see The eye that contemplates it well perceives Order'd by an intelligence so wise As might confound the atheist's sophistries. Below, a circling fence its leaves are seen No grazing cattle through their prickly round But as they grow where nothing is to fear, I love to view these things with curious eyes, And moralise; And in this wisdom of the holly-tree Can emblems see Wherewith perchance to make a pleasant rhyme, One which may profit in the after time." IT has been asserted that "nature abhors a vacuum:" with more truth, judging from the infinite variety every where observable in her productions, may it be said that nature abhors sameness. Take the vegetable world for instance: what diversity of form, colour, and fragrance, what different means are used for accomplishing similar ends. In one and the same coppice how various in outline and in tint are the trees which compose it! — "No tree in all the grove but has its charms, We have just been considering two of the pine genusevergreens, of course: the holly, too, is an evergreen; but how different in every respect, save that from which both derive their general title! Compare the thready, bluishgreen leaves of the one, with those of the other, -so bright with nature's varnish," broad, spinous, and of a warm hue,—and the result will be an acquiescence in the assertion, nature abhors sameness.' 66 The holly is one of the most esteemed of our native evergreens. Its value is felt in sylvan scenery, even in spring and summer, when the woods and thickets are arrayed in the full flush of "leafy luxury;" but it is in connection with the wintry landscape, that it may most confidently challenge our admiration. When all the deciduous trees have "put their graceful foliage off," and "stand barren as lances," the holly cheers us with |