In contemplating the length of life of one of the reverend and hoary
elders of the forest, we are apt to forget that it is not to be measured
by the standard of man or of the higher animals; for it is really not
the measure of an individual existence, but, as it were, of the duration
of an empire or a nation. A tree is a populous community, presided over
by an oligarchy, of which the flowers are the aristocracy, and the
leaves the working-classes. The life of the individual members of the
commonwealth is brief enough, but the state of which they are members,
has often a vast duration; and some of those whose ages we have referred
to, could they take cognisance of human affairs, would look with
contempt upon the instability and irregularity of human governments and
states, as compared with the unchanging order and security of their
own.--_Professor Forbes in Art-Journal._