235 
By Oread’s were filled the heights of heaven, 
A Dryad dwelt in every tree of earth, 
And from a lovely Naiads urn, 
Every silver-foaming stream had birth. 
This state of things existing, it was not difficult to believe, 
as Grimm remarks, that “‘to animals comprehension of human 
language ; to plants sensibility ; and to all creatures, power of 
manifold changes of form might be attributed, and that some 
should be invested with higher qualities (werth) than others, 
until they were at length elevated to an idolatrous degree 
of veneration. Gods and men were changed, or changed 
themselves into trees, plants, or animals; spirits and elements 
took upon themselves material forms, and it was in the spirit 
of the system of which they were part, not to deprive their 
manifestations of their attributes, though changed in appear- 
ance. Under these circumstances the adoration of plants or 
animals seems nothing strange, and becomes unintelligible, 
only when the higher being, vanishes from human conscious- 
ness behind its assumed form, and the latter alone, remains as 
its substitute.” 
In proof of the universality of the idea respecting plants 
and trees, which is all I at present wish to call your attention 
to, I need only refer to the mysterious trees of life and know- 
_ ledge, connected with the fall of man; the ash Yggdrassil 
under which the Gods of the North held their court, and 
which appears to be identical with those just named; the 
_ sacred groves of Baal so frequently mentioned in Scripture ; 
_ those of the Western nations, Celtic, Germanic, and Scandi- 
_ navian; the Oaks of Dodona; the sacred lotus of Egypt, 
India, Tibet, and Nepaul; the Pine Cone and sacred tree of 
the Assyrian sculptures; the Verbena, or sacrificial plants of 
the Romans, (one of which was peculiar to every God); the 
fable of the Golden Bough; the sacred tree of the Lombards, 
destroyed by St. Barbatus; and other instances of such 
_ superstitions, recorded by various authors. In the 96th 
Psalm, I may make the passing remark, occurs also this 
curious passage, relating to my subject, after a similar invoca- 
tion of the heavens, the earth, and the sea, and “all that 
