Excerpt from The Hill Difficulty IN a great forest, when Spring, Summer, and Autumn have renewed and finished their work, the leaves that fall off are never lost, but still have many uses. They may pass, though trodden under foot, into the life of brighter and fresher leaves, although they possess Within them no power to reproduce a tree. Thus our thoughts, aban domed to the World, may do some good, provided a good nature is in them, and not the depravity and death of our moral nature, even though they may seem to have no great active power, except merely to weave a part of the common mould Where mind is nourished. Still, if of a pure moral tendency, they may have a good share of influ ence in producing another fresh and vigorous foliage. On this ground, any right-minded Pilgrim through our World may be pardoned for the publication of a Book of Leaves. If they are only leaves, so they be pure leaves, they can do no harm. If efficacious seeds are found within them and among them, although these he not of much note at present, yet possibly they may grow the better and more surely for not being noticed, in some minds on which the leaves have fallen. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.