Such arc the recollections this tree awakens; recol¬ 
lections which connect it—how closely ! how touchingly ! 
— with the moral history of man. It bore tidings to the 
patriarch of the assuaging waters, — to the Christian it 
speaks of a second deliverance, through Him who “in 
his love and in Ins pity redeemed him.” 
As if to bear testimony to its former fertility, the olive 
still grows plentifully in Judea, and also in Syria. From 
these lands it is supposed originally to have been trans¬ 
ported to southern Europe. Pliny, who gives the pre¬ 
ference to the olive above all other fruit-bearing trees, 
except the vine, says, that “ Italy and Africa were both 
strangers to it two centuries after the building of Rome; 
after being well naturalised in which countries, it was 
carried thence into Spain and Gaul.” 
In Greece it was cultivated at a very early period; 
particularly in the neighbourhood of Athens, in which 
place it was held in the greatest veneration. Super¬ 
stition had its share in the esteem with which the in¬ 
habitants regarded it; for they believed it to be the 
special boon of Minerva herself to their favoured city, 
on which account they chose her for their tutelary deity, 
and paid her divine honours. The legend of the olive 
and the horse, the respective gifts of Minerva and Nep¬ 
tune, is familiar to every reader. 
