210 THE MOUNTAIN. 



low. The roots which are spread abroad below, in the re- 

 gions of mankind, are restrained by action. Its form is not 

 to be found here, neither its beginning, nor its end, nor its 

 likeness. When a man hath cut down this Azwattha, whose 

 root is so firmly fixed, with the strong axe of disinterest, from 

 that time that place is to be sought from whence there is no 

 return for those who find it ; and I make manifest that first 

 Pooroosh from whom is produced the ancient progression 

 of all things."* 



Does not the oracular tree whisper to each ear the answer 

 to the prayer it wants to hear ? To the shepherd boy in 

 the raptures of love, love only, as when the "Milk-white 

 thorn that scents the evening gale," breathes out for him his 

 "tender tale ;" to the poet, dreaming, it speaks of beauty and 

 ecstasy, a wave of that sea of glittering globules which plays 

 forever before his soul, "a flash of light in the infinite and 

 eternal night;" to the savant, armed with microscope, it 

 gives an invitation, beckoning forward to explore and con- 

 template forever ; and to the pious devotee, in the fervors 

 of devotion, is it not a " stream of consecrated glory, which 

 heaven ardent opens, and lets down on man in audience 

 with the Deity "? 



It is thus that the Hebrew prophet's far-reaching adum- 

 brations attain to final organic utterance in the transcendent 

 soul of the Swedish seer through the spiritual interpretation 

 of the Word ; and thus, also, that the Myths, of Scandina- 

 vian Scalds, find soil for their roots in Scottish heads, and 

 " Heimskringlas" and "Heroes in History" unite in the 

 infinite beauty and significance of the tree. So, in far-off 

 symbolisms and correspondences, in vague and shadowy but 

 living and suggestive thoughts, does the tree stretch forth 

 its roots, trunk, branches and leaves, flowers and fruit, into 

 that more spiritual and ethereal world the consciousness of 

 man. From ancient bibles and vedas, in inspirations of 

 Hebrew and Hindoo bards, from mysterious Druidical sha- 



* Of Poorooshottama. B. V., page 111. 



