












































236 RECONCILIATION. 
We are told by Pliny that they who took up 
this root were directed by superstition to turn 
their backs to the wind ; and before they began 
to dig they were to make circles round the 
plant with the point of a sword, and then turn- 
ing to the west, proceed to take it up. 
Many absurd and superstitious ideas have 
arisen from the supposed virtues of this plant, 
which probably never existed. 
nan rr 
RECONCILIATION, 
HAZEL. 
Why sit we not beneath the grateful shade. 
Which hazels, intermixed with elms, have made ? 
DRYDEN. 
THERE was a time when men were not united 
by any common tie. When the mother would 
deprive her son of the wild fruit with which he 
wished to appease his hunger, and if misfortune 
united them for a moment the sudden sight of 
an oak laden with acorns, or a beech covered 
with beech mast, rendered them enemies. At 
that period the earth was filled with horror; 
there was no law, no religion, no language; 
man was utterly ignorant of his nature—his 
reason slept, and he was often seen more cruel 


