102 
PLINY S NATUEAL HISTORY. 
[Book XII. 
other subjects ; thus may we trace up to their very origin the 
manners and usages of the present day. 
CHAP. 2. (1.) THE EAULY HISTORY OF TREES, 
The trees formed the first temples of the gods, and even at 
the present day, the country people, preserving in all their 
simplicity their ancient rites, consecrate the finest among their 
trees to some divinity ;^ indeed, we feel ourselves inspired to 
adoration, not less by the sacred groves and their very stillness, 
than by the statues of the gods, resplendent as they are with 
gold and ivory. Each kind of tree remains immutably conse- 
crated to its own peculiar divinity, the beech ^ to Jupiter,^ the 
laurel to Apollo, the olive to Minerva, the myrtle to Yenus, 
and the poplar to Hercules : besides which, it is our belief 
that the Sylvans, the Fauns, and various kinds of goddess 
JN'ymphs, have the tutelage of the woods, and we look upon 
those deities as especially appointed to preside over them by 
the will of heaven. In more recent times, it was the trees 
that by their juices, more soothing even than corn, first molli- 
fied the natural asperity of man ; and it is from these that we 
now derive the oil of the olive that renders the limbs so supple, 
the draught of wine that so efiiciently recruits the strength, 
and the numerous delicacies which spring up spontaneously at 
the various seasons of the year, and load our tables with their 
viands — tables to replenish which, we engage in combat with 
wild beasts, and seek for the fishes which have fattened upon 
the dead corpse of the shipwrecked mariner — indeed, it is only 
at the second course, after all, that the produce of the trees 
appears. 
But, in addition to this, the trees have a thousand other 
uses, all of which are indispensable to the full enjoyment of 
* Desfontaines remarks, that we may stiU trace vestiges of this custom 
in the fine trees that grow near church porches, and in church-yards. 
Of course, his remark will apply to France more particularly. 
5 It is doubtful whether the aesculus of the Eomans was the same as the 
bay-oak, the holm-oak, or the beech. See B. xvi. c. 4. 
^ See further on this subject in Phaedrus's Fables, B. iii. f. 17. 
Reckoning the promulsis, antecaena, or gustatio, not as a course, but 
only a prelude, the bellaria, or dessert, at the Eoman banquets, formed the 
second course, or mensa. It consisted of fruits uncooked, sweetmeats, and 
pastry. 
