246 THE OLIVE LEAF. CHAP, 



the trees and forests of the past. The difference between 

 the living tree and the dead fuel on the hearth or in the 

 lamp, is that the fire in the one, owing to the conserving 

 power of the vital principle, is burning without being 

 consumed ; whereas in the other it is burning and con- 

 suming reducing to dust and ashes, because of the 

 absence of the vital conserving principle. Like Aaron's 

 rod that budded, the mystical candlestick had buds, 

 blossoms, and fruit. The bowls which contained the oil 

 were shaped like an almond-nut, the knops looked like 

 the flower buds, and the carved flowers resembled the 

 fully-expanded blossoms of the almond tree. This tree 

 was selected as the pattern of the golden candlestick, 

 and as that which yielded Aaron's miraculous rod, be- 

 cause it is the first to awaken from the sleep of winter, 

 as its Hebrew name signifies. Its early bloom, coming 

 in January before there is any green leaf on herb or tree, 

 and the ground is naked and desolate, heralds the ap- 

 proach of spring. I remember being greatly struck with 

 this circumstance among the ruins of the Palaces of the 

 Caesars at Rome. The soft clouds of almond bloom 

 looked surpassingly lovely, clinging to the leafless trees, 

 that grew among the grey old ruins, and looking down 

 upon the Arch of Titus on which, among the spoils of 

 Jerusalem, the golden candlestick is sculptured, still re- 

 taining delicately cut in the Pentelic marble the almond 

 ornaments on its shaft and branches. It was a symbol 

 of the life of nature, rising in perpetual youth and beauty 

 out of the decaying ruins of man's works. And so the 

 Hebrew candlestick might be regarded as emblematical 



