STUDY XIII. 235 



Trees frequently attach us to Country, when the 

 other ties which united us to it are torn afiinder. 

 I have known more than one exile who, in old- 

 age, was brought back to his native village, by the 

 recoUeftion of the elm, under the fhade of which 

 he had danced when a boy. I have heard more 

 than one inhabitant of the Ifle of France fighing 

 after his Country, under the fhade of the banana, 

 and who faid to me j "I fhould be perfeélly tran- 

 *' quil where I am, could I but fee a violet.'* 

 The trees of our natal foil have a farther, and moft 

 powerful attradion, when they are blended, as was 

 the cafe among the Ancients, with fome religious 

 idea, or with the recolleftion of fome diftinguiflied 

 perfonage. Whole Nations have attached their 

 patriotifm to this objed:. With what veneration 

 did the Greeks contemplate, at Athens, the olive- 

 tree which Minerva had there caufed to fpring 

 up, and, on Mount Olympus, the wild-olive with 

 which Hercules had been crowned! Plutarch relates, 

 that, when at Rome, the fig-tree, under which 

 Romulus and Remus had been fuckled by a wolf, dif- 

 covered figns of decay from a lack of moifture, 

 the firft perfon who perceived it, exclaimed. Wa- 

 ter ! water ! and all the people, in confternation, 

 flew with pots and pails full of water to refrefh it. 

 For my part, I am perfuaded that, though we have 

 already far degenerated from Nature, we could not 

 without emotion behold the cherry-tree of the fo- 



reft. 



