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■^'^1^ THE HAZEL. 

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THE Hi\ZEL {Coryhis avellana). — RECONCILIATION. 



Peace. 



Time was when the human race had no common bond of 

 union. Deaf to the cries of nature, the lover abandoned his 

 mistress ; the mother snatched from her child the wild fruit 

 with which he sought to satisfy his hunger. If misfortune 

 united them for a moment, the sight of an oak laden with 

 acorns, or of a beech-tree bearing abundant mast, made them 

 enemies. Then the world was filled with woe. There was 

 neither law, nor religion, nor intelligible language. Man 

 understood not his nature ; his reason slept, and he Avas oft 

 as cruel as the most ferocious beasts, whose bowlings he 

 imitated. 



The gods took pity upon mankind ; Apollo and Mercury 

 prepared gifts and came down upon earth. The god of 

 harmony received from the son of Mai'a a tortoise-shell with 

 which he made a lyre, and gave to Mercury, in exchange, a 

 hazel-rod, which had the power to inspire with a love of 

 virtue, and to reconcile hearts divided by hatred and envy : 

 thus provided, the two sons of Jupiter presented themselves 

 to men. Apollo sang forthwith of that Eternal Wisdom 

 which made the world ; he told them how the elements were 

 produced, and how charity unites by its gentle influence all 

 created beings ; and taught his hearers that they must 

 appease the anger of the gods by prayer. At his voice you 

 <f might have seen mothers, pale and trembling, draw near him, 

 l^v holding their little infants in their arms; hunger ceased- 

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