46 PROSERPINA. 



sacrificed their hair the sign of their continual!}' renewed 

 strength, to the rivers, and to Apollo. Therefore, to com- 

 memorate Apollo's own chief victory over death over Python, 

 the corrupter, a laurel branch was gathered every ninth year 

 in the vale of Tempe ; and the laurel leaf became the reward 

 or crown of all beneficent and enduring work of man work 

 of inspiration, born of the strength of the earth, and of the 

 dew of heaven, and which can never pass away. 



29. You may doubt at first, even because of its grace, this 

 meaning in the fable of Apollo and Daphne ; you will not 

 doubt it, however, when you trace it back to its first eastern 

 origin. When we speak carelessly of the traditions respect- 

 ing the Garden of Eden, (or in Hebrew, remember, Garden 

 of Delight,) we are apt to confuse Milton's descriptions with 

 those in the book of Genesis. Milton fills his Paradise -with 

 flowers ; but no flowers are spoken of in Genesis. We may 

 indeed conclude that in speaking of every herb of the field, 

 flowers are included. But they are not named. The things 

 that are named in the Garden of Delight are trees only. 



The words are, " every tree that was pleasant to the sight 

 and good for food ; " and as if to mark the idea more strongly 

 for us in the Septuagint, even the ordinary Greek word for 

 tree is not used, but the word v\ov, literally, every ' wood,' 

 every piece of timber that was pleasant or good. They are in- 

 deed the " vivi travi," living rafters of Dante's Apennine. 



Do you remember how those trees were said to be watered ? 

 Not by the four rivers only. The rivers could not supply the 

 place of rain. No rivers do ; for in truth they are the refuse 

 of rain. No storm-clouds were there, nor hidings of the blue 

 by darkening veil ; but there went up a mist from the earth, 

 and watered the face of the ground, or, as in Septuagint and 

 Vulgate, " There went forth a fountain from the earth, and 

 gave the earth to drink." 



30. And now, lastly, we continually think of that Garden of 

 Delight, as if it existed, or could exist, no longer ; wholly 

 forgetting that it is spoken of in Scripture as perpetually 

 existent ; and some of its fairest trees as existent also, or only 

 recently destroyed. When Ezekiel is describing to Pharaoh 



