THE OAK. 



9 



historian of men than of trees : I will not, there- 

 fore, pursue the subject any further. 



In European countries the Oak was an im- 

 portant tree at a very early age, being valued for 

 its fruit. In Asia the estimation in which it was 

 held appears to have had some other origin, for, 

 although we read in the Sacred Volume of dates, 

 almonds," &c., being used as articles of food, no 

 such mention is made of acorns ; nor is it proba- 

 ble that they were ever eaten by men in a country 

 naturally affording fruits so much more palatable. 

 But in Greece and Italy, before agriculture was 

 invented or introduced, acorns held an important 

 place among the more savoury viands of the in- 

 habitants. The traditions of the poets tell us that 

 strawberries, blackberries, cornels, and acorns, 

 were the homely fare of the first inhabitants of 

 these countries ; of which, acorns must have been 

 the most valuable, for being of a less perishable 

 nature than the rest, they would bear being stored 

 away for winter use. For this reason, perhaps, 

 it was that the Greeks believed that, of all the 

 trees with which they were acquainted, the Oak 

 was the first created. We need not, then, won- 

 der that, holding this belief in its antiquity and 

 extreme usefulness, they regarded it with venera- 

 tion, and, in their ignorance of Divine Revelation, 

 entertained the, to us extravagant, notion that the 

 Deity chose it as a medium for making known his 

 will to man. At the same time it is much to 

 be wondered at that the Israelites, who had not 

 the excuse of ignorance, should have fallen into 

 nearly the same fatal error, and that too with 

 respect to the very same tree. The Oak grove at 

 Dodona in Epirus was long resorted to by the 



