The Man Who Laughs Part I, Book the First, Chapter V - The Tree of Human Invention

In which a solitary child wanders across the bleak, desolate plateaux of Portland, confronting the vast and indifferent wilderness with no guidance but the chill earth beneath his feet. Nearby, the sombre remains of a bound and ravaged corpse hang as a haunting symbol of nature’s inexorable decay and the inscrutable mysteries of existence.