The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1896-12-25
THE ANCIENT BRITONS AND
THEIR LOVE FOR TREES.

THEIR LOVE FOR TREES.
There was an island which, in the
olden times, was more beautiful than
language can describe Some parts
were covered with woods and thick
forests of oaks and ancient trees,
which were large, enough to protect an
FINALS. There were mountains upon
whose SUBMITS eagles built their nests,
and lakes were there filed with fish.
And wild fowls foated in peace over
those clear waters. There were mines
under the ground with rich veins of
iron, copper and tin. There were
broad lawns sloping down to the sea,
and white sands where shells and CO.
rails lay undisturbed in the sunlight,
only once in each day they were
washed by the tidal waves of the
moaning, melancholy sea just as they
have moaned ever since the third
day" when land and sea were divided
and light shown with the beauty of
solar rays upon the surface of the
changing pillows.
Those beautiful downs were covered
with grass and wild clover and a flne
sprinkling of many colored blossoms,
among which the white field lily stood
up clear and graceful to receive the
homage of the west winds sweeping
past on their way to the distant hills,
and they whistled softly among the
leaves that rested upon the swaying
branches of the forest trees. The
grasses were smooth and velvety, and
thousands of white sheep fed quietly
together Beyond were tall cliffs of
chalky whiteness rejecting the rays of
1.-The morning sun. Near the woods and
lakes in rude huts made sometimes by
woven bows of forest trees covered
with the Unframed skin Of wild ami
mails lived a rude people and they were
peacefully content. Not wave OF
contention seemed to disturb those
simple minded people. Their garments
We're made of skins, and their faces
and bodies were painted in many col
ors. They shot their game with bows
and arrows, and hunted wild animals
with dogs as wild as the game they
sought through the wild forests.
Roots, acorns and berries We're the
chief luxuries they lived upon.
Catching fish and wild animals, occa-
sionally killing Wild ducks and birds
for change; sometimes in rudely built
canoes they would go out upon the
waters for fishing trips, and gather in
their winters stores; milk and butter
and the rudest kind of cheese were lux
11ries they all shared in common.
They could only build the poorest kind
of canoes, make flint arrows, spears
and nets. The only animals they had
for companions We're their dogs. Eat
ing and fighting were their only pleas
llre They were not much more intel
lisent than the animals who culled the
forests and hills. They We're known as
wild hunters and lived as the animals
did. They possessed about as much
knowledge as the North American IN
dians The native Australians, or the
people Of New Zealand, in another
part Of the vast island, We're another
people surrounded with wild, pictur-
esque scenery; they seemed higher and
of more noble instincts. ct could not
be called intelligence)
The beautiful in nature always ele-
Yates either the animals or human be-
lngS, anu II WdS 81 WILL ILLS diiSC
people who intuitively sought the pres
ence Of a. spirit of supreme power-the
Infinite Presence of the unknown God.
They learned to tame their animals
that came down from the hills to feed
in the broad green pastures formed by
mature for their needs They had
Hocks of sheep and vast herds of cattle
which they watched over and lead
from one green meadow to another, so
the men grew richer, increasing their
herds and hocks yearly, and some be-
came mothers and some servants, and
lived quiet pastoral lives like the an
cient shepherds of whom they have
never heard, or even thought of. The
Bible was an unknown book of which
no one had ever heard, even as tradi-
tion. 1t was like the Hebrew children
with their cattle and camels man ser
wants and maid servants, oxen and
sheep. But those islanders never
knew of such stories, or of such people
as used to cultivate the plains of Jul
dea
This was long before the star ap-
peared to the shepherds prophetically
announcing the coming King of the
Earth and Sea.
Those rude people were the ancient
Britons who lived in a savage state
knowing nothing of God. They were
more ignorant than American savages
for they did believe in a Great Spirit
somewhere. This was that part Of
England, now called Kent, and the hills
above them were the white cliffs of Do
yer, seen by all mariners coming home
from sea, and hailed with shouts of JOY
by those ''who go down to the sea il
ships" Far in the distance can be
seen the vineclad shores of France
called Country Of the Gauls" by those
ancient Britons.
The merchants of Gaul would some
times cross the narrow straits in greer
ships roughly but strongly constructed
1T was strange that those people never
thought of cultivating the soil or try
ing to discover methods for turning w
the sods and increasing the rich pas
turage required for their rapidly in
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