HAZEL. 
255 
HAZEL. 
PEACE, RECONCILIATION. 
There was a time when men were not united by 
any tie. Deaf to the voice of Nature, the mother 
would snatch from her famished son the wild fruit 
with which he was striving to appease the craving of 
hunger. If calamity reconciled them for a moment, 
all at once the sight of an oak loaded with acorns, or 
a beech-tree covered with mast, made them as bitter 
enemies as ever. The earth was then a scene of 
misery. There was neither law, religion, nor lan- 
guage. Man knew not his high prerogatives ; his 
reason was not yet awakened ; and frequently he 
proved himself more cruel than the ferocious beasts, 
whose fearful howlings he imitated. 
The gods at length took pity on men. Apollo 
and Mercury made presents to each other, and de- 
scended to the earth. The god of harmony received 
