}Q2 plint's natural history. [Book XII. 



other subjects ; thus may we trace up to their very origin the 

 manners and usages of the present day. 



CHAP. 2. (1.) THE EARLY HISTORY OF TREES. 



The trees formed the first temples of the gods, and even at 

 the present day, the country people, preserving in all their 

 simplicity their ancient rites, consecrate the finest among their 

 trees to some divinity ; 4 indeed, we feel ourselves inspired to 

 adoration, not less by the sacred groves and their very stillness, 

 than by the statues of the gods, resplendent as they are with 

 gold and ivory. Each kind of tree remains immutably conse- 

 crated to its own peculiar divinity, the beech 5 to Jupiter, 6 the 

 laurel to Apollo, the olive to Minerva, the myrtle to Yenus, 

 and the poplar to Hercules : besides which, it is our belief 

 that the Sylvans, the Fauns, and various kinds of goddess 

 Nymphs, have the tutelage of the woods, and we look upon 

 those deities as especially appointed to preside over them by 

 the will of heaven. In more recent times, it was the trees 

 that by their juices, more soothing even than corn, first molli- 

 fied the natural asperity of man ; and it is from these that we 

 now derive the oil of the olive that renders the limbs so supple, 

 the draught of wine that so efficiently recruits the strength, 

 and the numerous delicacies which spring up spontaneously at 

 the various seasons of the year, and load our tables with their 

 viands — tables to replenish which, we engage in combat with 

 wild beasts, and seek for the fishes which have fattened upon 

 the dead corpse of the shipwrecked mariner — indeed, it is only 

 at the second 7 course, after all, that the produce of the trees 

 appears. 



But, in addition to this, the trees have a thousand other 

 uses, all of which are indispensable to the full enjoyment of 



4 Desfontaines remarks, that we may still trace vestiges of this custom 

 in the fine trees that grow near church porches, and in church-yards. 

 Of course, his remark will apply to France more particularly. 



5 It is doubtful "whether, the sesculus of the Romans was the same as the 

 bay-oak, the holm-oak, or the beech. See B. xvi. c. 4. 



6 See further on this subject in Phsedrus's Fables, B. hi. f. 17. 



7 Reckoning the promulsis, antecaena, or gustatio, not as a course, but 

 only a prelude, the bellaria, or dessert, at the Roman banquets, formed the 

 second course, or mensa. It consisted of fruits uncooked, sweetmeats, and 

 pastry. 



