DR CLARKE ON THE YEW-TREK. 129 



heathen Basilicse into Christian churches, that the edifices of the 

 new religion were erected near to the old sacred places — in the 

 neighlwurhood of yew groves — in fact, " beneath the yew-tree's 

 shade."* Thus both have come doym tcr us together ; and the yew, 

 from this connection, has l)een invested with its peculiar character, 

 and made suggestive of images of dool and sorrow. In depth of 

 tint, though not in its arboreal character, the yew resembles the 

 cypress, which was employed by the Greeks and Romans as a 

 funereal emblem, and planted amongst tombs ; from whence, doubt- 

 less, the Turks derive their practice of placing their sepulchral 

 monuments amid groves of cypress. We can readily conceive how, 

 under the fair climate of Italy or Greece, the " sad cypress" would 

 wear a still more sad and melancholy hue from its contrast with 

 the bright tints of earth and sky. 



The Members of the Club will recollect the affecting allusion 

 of Horace, — 



Neque harum, quas colis, arborum 

 Te, praeter invisas cupressos, 

 UUa brevem dominum sequitur. 



With reference to trees, as a characteristic decoration of our last 

 resting-place, their susceptibility of motion from every passing 

 breeze, and their various stages of growth, maturity, and decay, 

 preach to us silently, but significantly, of the changeful character 

 of human life, and admonish us, by the most eloquent symbols, 

 what shadows we are, and what shadows we pursue ; that *• we are 

 such stufl* as dreams are made of, and that our little life is rounded 

 with a sleep." Trees, too, besides the natural and various beauty 

 of their forms and foliage, subserve an admirable purpose in ab- 

 sorbing the mephitic gases which would otherwise pass through the 

 porous soil, and, in how slight quantity soever, taint the purity of 

 the vital air. No one can have compared the naked and repulsive 

 aspect of churchyards in towns and cities, dank with rank herbage, 

 and redolent of corruption, with the fair face of rural cemeteries, 

 decked with trees and flowers, and associated with peaceful and 

 pleasing images, without confessing (let reason and philosophy say 



* I refer my readers with pleasure to a work with which they must be 

 famiHar, Mr Selby's charming book on the British Svlva, in which our learned 

 collcngur j'ives his countcnnnce and authority t/j this idea. 



