TREE-WORSHIP 51 



the tree of life would bring to the eater of it 

 the gift of immortality. The fruit of the for- 

 bidden tree would give the knowledge of good 

 and evil. Of this our first parents ate, and 

 they were driven from the garden, lest they 

 should eat of the tree of life and live for ever ; 

 and the ground was cursed because of their 

 sin, and they were condemned to labour and 

 to sorrow. 



The paradise to which men looked back, 

 then, was a walled garden. Those who turned 

 regretful thoughts towards the innocent happi- 

 ness of the first man and woman, where all was 

 health and beauty, were dwellers in walled 

 towns ; at least, such towns had become the 

 great centres of activity ; they were the nerve- 

 centres, the beating hearts of growing civilisa- 

 tion. The older life, when there was neither 

 town nor country, but only nature, was ceasing 

 to be even a tradition. But we find still linger- 

 ing the belief in the magic properties of the fruit 

 of trees : a relic of the earlier stages of belief 

 we have been passing in review; and, as we 

 have seen, such belief still lingers among the 

 most backward races, and among the unlettered 

 peasantry of the civilised world. 



