EELATIONS OF TREES TO POETRY AND FABLE. 



Feom the earliest period of history, mankind have 

 looked upon trees and woods with veneration, regarding 

 them as special gifts of the gods to the human race. 

 The ancient priests and philosophers used them as their 

 places of retirement, both for the study of wisdom and 

 the services of religion. Hence arose that early custom 

 of planting trees in circles, forming a kind of amphi- 

 theatre, for religious assemblies. The teachers of philoso- 

 phy used the same circular groves. These were held in 

 the greatest reverence ; and no man dared to commit the 

 sacrilegious act of cutting down any part of them or de- 

 facing any of the trees. By means of these circular 

 groves, wise and holy men obtained that seclusion and 

 quiet which it was not easy to find in towns and cities. 

 They were both schools and chapels, devoted to religion 

 and philosophy. Hence the often-quoted remark of Pliny 

 that " the groves were the first temples of the gods." 



It is not improbable that many of the ancient super- 

 stitions relating to trees and groves originated with wise 

 men, who believed that such holy fears alone would re- 

 strain the people from devastating the whole earth by 

 the destruction of trees. Science now supplies man- 

 kind with rational motives for their preservation, in 

 place of the religious scruples of ancient communi- 

 ties. I am inclined to believe that many a rational 

 principle has been advocated by "wise men under the 

 guise of theology. The draidical priesthood foresaw 

 that the oakj from the superior value of its timber, 



