186 



leave my wine, which cheereth God and man, 

 and go to be promoted over the trees ?' 



The patriarchs and prophets frequently 

 represent in scripture the flourishing state of 

 a nation, a tribe, or a family, under the 

 emblem of a vine. " Thou hast brought a 

 vine out of Egypt, thou hast cast out the 

 heathen, and planted it; thou preparedst 

 room before it, and didst cause it to take 

 deep root, and it filled the land/' Psalm Ixxx. 

 Again the Psalmist mentions it, " Thy wife 

 shall be as the fruitful vine, upon the walls 

 of thine house/' 



The heathens, likewise, held the vine in 

 the highest estimation. Bacchus was eleva- 

 ted to the rank of a god, for having taught 

 men the use of the vine. As the god of 

 vintage, of wine, and of drinkers, he is ge- 

 nerally represented as crowned with the vine ; 

 and, according to Pliny, to have been the 

 first who ever wore a crown, 



the grapy clusters spread 



On his fair brows, and dangle on his head. 



Ovid. 



Bacchus was sometimes represented as 

 an infant holding a cluster of grapes with a 

 horn, and he has often been depicted as an 

 old man, whose head was encircled with the 



