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paradise? Xerxes in the midst of his most 

 ambitious enterprise, stopped his vast army to 

 contemplate the beauty of a tree. Cicero from 

 the throng, and exertion, and anxiety of the 

 Forum, was accustomed, Pliny tells us, to 

 steal forth to a grove of palm-trees, to refresh 

 and invigorate his spirit. In the Scaplan 

 Groves, the same author adds, Thucydides was 

 supposed to have composed his noble histories. 

 The Greek and Roman classics, indeed, abound 

 with expressions of admiration of trees and 

 woods, and with customs which have originat- 

 ed in that admiration ; but above all, as the 

 Bible surpasses, in the splendour and majesty of 

 its poetry, all books in the world, so is its sylvan 

 and arborescent imagery the most bold and 

 beautiful. Beneath some spreading tree are the 

 ancient patriarchs revealed to us sitting in con- 

 templation, or receiving the visits of angels ; 

 and what a calm and dignified picture of pri- 

 meval life is presented to our imagination, at 

 the mention of Deborah, the wife of Lapidoth, 

 judging the twelve tribes of Israel, between 

 Ramah and Bethel, in Mount Ephraim, be- 

 neath the palm-tree of Deborah. The oaks 

 of Bashan, and the cedars of Lebanon, are but 



