330 



A DISCOURSE 



BOOK IV. dim, to ask advice of God, Naturalists tell us, that the Laurus and 

 ^"^^'^v^ Agnus Castus Avere trees which greatly composed the fancy, and did fa- 

 scc s. Fill- cilitatc true visions ; and that the first was specifically'efficacious Trpo; ts? 



i-j^sGiaansq, (as my author expresses it,) to inspire a poetical fury : such a 



gent. Mylliol 

 cap. xiii. et 



commeiu!" tradition there goes of Rebekah the wife of Isaac, in imitation of her 

 father-in-law : the instance is recited out of an ancient Ecclesiastical 



See Hier. in 



^rad.^Heb. 3 jj^gj^Qiy jjy Ahulejis'is. From hence the Delphic tripod, the Dodonean 

 oracle in Epirus, and others of that nature, had their original : at this 

 decubation upon boughs, the satyrist seems to hint, where he introduces 

 the gypsies : 



Arcanam Jud«a tremens mendicat in aurem^ 

 Intei'pres legum Solymarum, et magna sacerdos 

 ' Arboris, ac sumrai fida internuncia coeli. Juv. Sat. vi. 



With fear 



A cheating Jewess wliispers in her ear, 



And begs an ahns : an high-priest's daughter she, 



Vers'd in their Talmud and divinity ; 



And prophesies beneath a shady tree. 



For indeed, the Delphic oracle (as Dicdorus, lib. xvi. tells us) was first 

 made e Lauri ramis, of the branches of Laurel transferred froni Thessaly, 

 bended and arched over in form of a bower or summer-house ; a very 

 simple fabric you may be sure : and Cardan, I remember, in his book 

 ' Vide Aiini- de Fato, insists very much on dreams had by sleeping upon the boughs 

 xvii.^fori58.^' leaves of trees, for portents and presages ; and that the use of some 

 t cic. de Leg. of them do dispose men to visions. 



lib. ii. 



J See Aristo- 

 phanes sciioi. From hence, then, began temples to be erected * and sought to in such 



ad Pluti Ver- " 



ba. xai places ; nay, we find f sanction for it among the laws of the twelve ta- 

 wov,'&c. bles ; and as there was hardly a grove without its temple, so almost 

 Tii'v itoT'vujv, vM every temple had a grove belonging to it, where they placed idols, altars, 

 "»vtIx5 '"'v and lights, endowed with fair revenues, which the devotion of super- 

 CT°lTi'lX<r?T ^ stitious persons continually augmented : such were those X arbores ohum- 

 fvhi^r''^''add° hratrkes, mentioned by TertuUian, Apol. cap. ix. on which they sus- 

 vi" vide^t!'do'- pended their 'Ava5r/juaTa and devoted things : and I remember to have 

 iacin'iar"''au?o secu Something very like this in Italy, and other parts ; namely, where 

 irbonfm "^pos! tlic imagcs of the blessed virgin, and other saints, have been enshrined 

 fixar"^ in hollow and umbrageous trees, frequented with much veneration ; 



