reflection, Woods, those indispensable appendages to landscape, diffuse an equal delight by their coolness, their solemnity, and the charm which they spread around us, as we wander beneath their arched and sacred shades. The Romans frequently erected temples and statues to the genius of the place ;-GENIO LOCI. Pliny1 assures us, that Minerva, as well as Diana, inhabits the forests: and Akenside finely alludes to the religious awe, with which woods, boldly stretching up the summit of an high mountain, are beheld by persons of polite imaginations: Mark the sable woods, That shade sublime yon mountain's nodding brow. With what religious awe the solemn scene Commands your steps! as if the reverend form Of Minos, or of Numa, should forsake Th' Elysian seats; and down the embowering glade If to rivers and mountains all nations, at early periods of their history, have conspired to attach the idea of veneration; how much more so have the eminent, in all ages, delighted in paying honours to groves and forests. Pilgrimages were made to the oaks of Mamre, near Hebron, from the time of Abraham to that of Constantine: and the nations surrounding the Jews were accustomed to dedicate trees and groves to their deities; and to sacrifice upon high mountains: customs, which were even practised by the Jews themselves, previous to the building of Solomon's Temple3. Among the woods of Etruria, Numa, to whom Rome was under greater obligations than to Romulus, sought refuge from the 1 Lib. i. Ep. 6. 3 1 Kings, c. iii. v. 2, 3, 4. 2 Calmet, b. i. c. 7. * Il Princip. 1. i. c. 11. cares that attended the government of an infant, and, till his reign, a turbulent people. I know not whether those objects tended to inspire Numa with a resolution of serving mankind; but certain it is, that he infused into the discipline of his adopted country such an ardent love of virtue, that, during his reign, (as Livy informs us,) the neighbouring states, which had hitherto regarded Rome, not in the light of a city, but of a camp, situated amongst them, for the purpose of depopulating every other city, entertained so perfect a respect for its inhabitants, that they deemed it impious to disturb a people, who were so constantly occupied in the practice of virtue and the worship of the gods. It was Numa who first erected a temple to Peace and Faith'. The consecration of groves prevailed much with the Jews. Abraham himself planted a grove in Beer-sheba; and worshipped there2. The custom was, however, forbidden by Moses. In Kings1, it is said, they set up "images on every hill, and under every green tree." Ezekiel reproves it; also Hosea; but the valley of Hinnon was esteemed so venerable for its shade, that it was even personified as a god; and in such esteem did they hold the cedars of Lebanon, that one of the most effective threats of Sennacherib was, that he would level them with the ground'. 1 Merito ergo rex quidem Romanorum, Numa erat ei nomen, cum esset Pythagoreus, primus ex omnibus hominibus posuit templum Fidei et Pacis.Clemens Alexand. Stromatum, lib. v. p. 648. 2 Gen. ch. xxi. v. 33. 4 2 Kings, ch. xvii. v. 9. 3 Deut. ch. xvi. v. 21. 5 Ezekiel, ch. xx. v. 28. and ch. vi v. 13. 6 Hos. ch. iv. v. 13. 72 Kings, xix. v. 33. At Sardis an opinion was prevalent, that trees were older than the earth.-Vid. Philost. in Vit. Apol. vi. c. 37. II. The oratories of the Jews were surrounded by olives'; and the Greeks, who first inhabited Tuscany, consecrated the forests, which rose on the banks of the Cærites, to their god Sylvanus. Under those shades they assembled every year to celebrate his anniversary 2. A custom, analogous to this, prevails at the present day in some parts of Italy: particularly among the herdsmen and shepherds of Rhegio; who entertain the highest veneration for the wood, called Silva Piana, about three leagues from Parma. The Christians decorate their houses and churches with holly and bay leaves; and the modern Jews, at the time of the Pentecost, deck their synagogues with garlands of flowers. Tacitus3, in describing the ceremony of consecrating the Capitol, when repaired by Vespasian, informs us, that the first part of the ceremony consisted in the soldiers entering with boughs of those trees, which the gods were supposed to take the greatest delight in. In the second, the Vestal virgins, attended by boys and girls, sprinkled the floor with spring water, brook water, and river water. 1 Juvenal, Sat. vi. He calls a Jewish priestess "Magna sacerdos arboris." 2 Et ingens gelidum lucus prope Coeritis amnem, Religione patrum latè sacer; undique colles Eneid, lib. viii. 1. 597. 3 Hist. lib. iv. Many of the Japanese temples are situated among woods. This people delight in avenues; and in the islands of Satzuma and Meac-Sima, the Russians observed alleys of high trees stretching from hill to hill, with arbours, formed at certain distances, for the service of weary travellers'. That the Anglo-Saxons worshipped trees, we may infer from Canute's having forbidden that species of idolatry. The Raphaans of India selected spots, shaded by the banana and the tamarind, for their kioums; while, in the recesses of intricate forests, the Druids of Gaul, Britain, and Germany, were accustomed to sacrifice. Virgil, who describes Elysium as abounding in the most luxuriant gifts of nature, represents it as one of the highest enjoyments of the happy spirits, to repose on flowery banks, and to wander among shady groves2: while the Icelanders believe, that on the summit of the Boula, a mountain which no one has hitherto ascended, there is a cavern, which opens to a paradise in perpetual verdure, delightfully shaded by trees, and abounding in large flocks of sheep3. The Syrians personified their god Rimmon, under the figure of a pomegranate*: and the Babylonians wore one carved on the head of their walking-sticks; because they esteemed it a sacred emblem. The Sicilians had, at one time, a great veneration for the chesnut-tree, which grew in La Regione Sylvana: the Mordivines of Russia still venerate the oaks of their ancestors 5: in Otaheite, the Vid. Krusentern's Voy. vol. i. 243. 3 Voy. in Iceland, 168. 4 2 Eneid, vi. 673. 2 Kings, ch. v. v. 18. Pallas' Trav. South Russia, vol. i. p. 34. weeping willow is allowed to be planted only before the houses of the higher classes of the community: in Pennsylvania, churches are isolated in woods; and pulpits erected beneath the branches of oaks: while among the Dugores there are groves, in which every family has its appropriate place for offering sacrifices. In the Romish Church, palms are still esteemed sacred; while in some parts of Calabria, they regard the cutting off a single branch from an olive-tree a deed, worthy the punishment of excommunication. The Babylonians fabled, that Leucothoe, daughter of one of their kings, having sacrificed herself to a god, her father condemned her to be buried alive. The lover, pitying her melancholy fate, shed ambrosia, and poured nectar over her grave; on which a tree sprung up, and quickened into frankincense. Thus Leucothoe became a Hamadryad, under the care of her lover: but he forsaking her, she pined into the flower, which turns its head constantly to the sun; and hence derives the name of heliotrope. Dryads were attached to woods: Hamadryads to single trees, with which they lived and died 3. Nymphs of the mountains were called Oreades; those of springs and 1 Michaux's Travels, v. ii. p. 231. 2 Pallas's Travels in Russia, vol. ii. p. 231. 3 Oblations of oil, honey, and milk were offered to them.-Vid. Georg. i. v. 11. Ecl. x. Ovid. Met. i. v. 647. Shakespeare fables, that Ariel having refused to execute the commission of Sycorax, the witch confined her in the body of a tree, where she continued imprisoned twelve years, until released by Prospero.-Vid. Tempest, i. sc. ii. |