168 



THE TREMBLING POPLAR, OR ASPEN. 



Lightfoot tells us that the Highlanders entertain a 

 superstitious notion that our Saviour's cross was made of 

 this tree, for which reason they suppose that its leaves can 

 never rest. Superstitions of this class originated partly 

 in that love of the marvellous which is the characteristic 

 of ignorance, and partly, perhaps, in feelings of real piety ; 



but the sober-minded Christian will not allow his faith to 

 be affected by a mere natural phenomenon. " All is 

 miracle " that tends to confirm his belief in God's superin- 

 tending providence, but he humbly refuses to derive from 

 the visible world any teaching but that which Eevelation 

 confirms. Reason teaches him that the trembling of the 

 Aspen is dependent on the peculiar mechanism of its 



