Note 246 — Chapter XXI · THE ANTHOLOGY.
Reading edition
Spare the parent of acorns, good wood-cutter, spare! Let the time-honored fir feel the weight of your stroke, The many-stalked thorn, or acanthus worn bare, Pine, arbutus, ilex—but touch not the oak! Far hence be your axe, for our grandams have sung How the oaks are the mothers from whom we all sprung.
Merivale.