frequently met with in the museums of Italy, called "Diana of the Ephesians," a variety of the Indian Maya. In the Chinese sacred books "the Taou (the divine reason, or wisdom) preserves the heavens and supports the earth: he is so high as not to be reached, so deep as not to be followed, so immense as to contain the whole universe, and yet he penetrates into the minutest things." The sacred ash of the Scandinavians, is a symbol of the Chinese Taou. THE SACRED OAK. Among the Teutonic race, the oak was the sacred tree, as also among the Kelts, the primitive inhabitants of Palestine, the Hebrew patriarchs, and the early Greeks. The Keltic magi, or Druids, the priests of the religion of the oak (deru), regarded this tree as symbolical, or even representative, of the Almighty Father. Under it was the sanctum; here they performed their most solemn rites, and no sacrifice could be offered up, until the leaves of this tree, as a sort of propitiation, had been strewed upon the altar. In their veneration for the oak, the Hebrew patriarchs so much resembled the Druids, that the religion of the oak among the latter has been ascribed to a more ancient practice of it among the former.c We read in Genesis (xii. 6, 7) that when Abraham entered the land of Canaan, God appeared to him under an oak, the oak of Moreh, to promise the possession of the country to his posterity; and also that the Lord appeared to Abraham in the oaks, or at the oak of Mamre, as it is in the Hebrew, but not in our translation (Gen. xviii. 1). It was under an oak, the oak According to the Indian myths, the Trimourti is sometimes figured as a tree with three branches, each of which is radiant with a central sun. To shew how the idea of a tree pervaded the metaphysical conceptions of the Hindoos is shewn in the following passage from M. Guiniaut's work, Religions de l'Antiquité, vol. i., p. 147, “Quand se furent formés les quatorze mondes avec l'axe qui les traverse, et au-dessous le mont Calaya, alors parut sur le sommet de ce dernier le triangle, Yoni, et dans l'Yoni le Lingam, ou Siva Lingam. Ce Lingam (arbre de vie) avait trois écorces: la première et la plus extérieure était Brahmâ, celle du milieu Vichnou, la troisième et la plus tendre Siva; et, quand le trois dieux se furent détachés, il ne resta plus dans le triangle que la tige nue; désormais sous le garde de Siva." See a dissertation on the antiquity of China in "A Complete View of the Chinese Empire." London, 1798. See Dickenson's dissertation, De Origine Druidium, contained in his learned little volume printed at Oxford in 1655, where we read, "Porrò igitur quæras unde querna istæc religio nata est? Nimirum è quercubus Mamræ: sub quibus olim viri sanctissimi (penes quos, tum rei divinæ faciendæ, tum justitiæ administrandæ cura fuit) religiosissimè degebant: quarum umbra simul Abrahamæ domicilium, Deoque templum præbuit," p. 190. Dr. Stukeley, who wrote about a century after, adopted this opinion. by Sichem, that Jacob buried, as in a consecrated place, the images and earrings of his household, forfeited to God (Gen. XXXV. 4). That this was a holy place is shewn by Joshua here setting up a stone of memorial under the oak which was in the sanctuary of the Lord, thus the Hebrew and the Vulgate "quæ erat in sanctuario Domini" (Joshua xxiv. 26). It was also under an oak that the angel, or as some understand, and the Vulgate more correctly renders it, God himself conversed in a visible form with Gideon (Judges vi. 11-21). It would appear therefore, that the oak in Palestine was regarded as the emblem of a divine covenant, and indicated the religious appropriation of any stone monument erected beneath it-and that it was also symbolical of the divine presence, possibly from association. It is worthy of remark that the same Hebrew word () which signifies oak means an oath also, and that the root of this word is () mighty, or strong, the origin of the name of the Deity in many ancient languages." Among the Greeks, the oak of Dodona was the seat of the oldest Hellenic oracle, whose priests sent forth their declarations on its leaves. The oak thus distinguished, on the shores of the Mediterranean, was the Quercus Ilex, in northern regions, and colder climates, the Quercus Robur. The monarch of trees in our northern flora, as indicative of living strength and power, was an appropriate symbol of the living God, but in process of time, the Druids converted this symbol into an incipient idol. The boughs were cut off, and two of the larger ones being fixed at right angles into the stem, the form of a cross was produced, or a figure having a rude semblance to a man; on the top of this was inscribed THAU (éos), and on the arms the Keltic Trinity, HESUS, BELENUS, and THARAMIS, a triad corresponding apparently with the Scandinavian Trinity, ODIN, d Scripsit quoquè omnia verba hæc in volumine legis Domini: et tulit lapidem, posuitque eum subter quercum quæ erat in sanctuario Domini." • Consult on the subject Bates's Critica Hebræa, Gousset's Hebrew Lexicon, Parkhurst, etc., ;, Al or Ail, for the, (jod) is here servile, and may be dropped or not, is God; and the root word of GOD in its various forms, significant -is ap אילים or אלים orאיל or אל of power and might. The word whether written plied to persons and creatures which have power or virtue in them, or are robust and strong. Jacob Gousset observes" Dei nomen est, et solet sumi non ut simplex ejus designatio, sed quasi respiceret aliquid speciale attributum, nempe fortitudinem vel robur, et idcirco vertitur Deus fortis, scilicet deduci a rad: .", according to Parkhurst, " expresses the omnipresence of God, i.e., the universal extension;" but he will not presume to say "of his substance," but of his knowledge and power," according to the awful questions in Jer. xxiii. 23, 24, "Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith Jehovah." Compare 1 Kings viii. 27; Psalm cxxxix. 7—12. TV: BALDER, and THOR. Hesus or Esus was the mighty one; Belenus (Bel or Baal) the Lord, corresponding to Apollo-and Tharamis was the power of the moving heavens, or he who directs the atmospheric phenomena, rain, wind, thunder, etc., the same as Thor, the thunderer, and the Jove of the Greeks. The conquests of the Keltic race were pre-historic; but the name Hesus, as a god of war and leader of a conquering race is sufficiently characteristic, if the derivation of Middleton be correct, that it was from Eas or Es, a torrent or cataract, to which the Romans added the termination us, thus making Esus, or Hesus, the irresistable. Such also was Odin, the god of battles, to the conquering race of Scandinavia; and such must needs be the Deity worshipped by nations whom the spirit of conquest urges to the acquisition of territory, for if they put their trust in any God at all, it is in one who is with them, and helps them to overthrow their enemies.―Jehovah is occasionally thus mentioned in the sacred books of the Jews, and thus the God of the Assyrians is figured on the bas-reliefs from Nimroud. Belenus, like Balder, is a beneficent deity delighting in sunshine, and in doing good; but the three are to be considered only as different forms, or diversities of acting, of the One, who in the sunbeam is Balder, rejoicing the heart; in the thunder is Thor, whose word is "like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces" (Jer. xxiii. 29); and who, when he overthroweth his enemies, is Odin, or Mars. In Germany, as in England, the oak was long regarded as a sacred tree; solemn assemblies were held beneath it, and decrees were often dated "sub quercubus," or "sub annosa quercu❞f Shakespeare mentions the oak as sacred to Jove.9 "And rifted Jove's stout oak With his own bolt.' In later times, or perhaps even then, they were synonymous with "gospel trees." Herrick, in his Hesperides, has an allu sion to this. 66 Dearest bring me under that holy-oke, or gospel tree, Holy-oak was still a household word in our language during the last century. THE MISTLETOE. But however sacred the oak may have been among the Keltic nations, the mistletoe that grew upon the oak would seem to f See Keysley's Antiquitates Septentrionales et Celticæ. & Temp. v. i. have been still more so. than the Druids, are said by Borlase, to have regarded the mistletoe, the "all-heal" of our pagan ancestors, as something divine. Virgil describes it as the golden branch. The Persians and Massagetae, no less "Aureus et foliis et lento vimine ramus Junoni infernæ dictus sacer. growing on the tree of deep shade, Jupiter's sacred oak, and alone affording a safe passport to the infernal regions. Charon, when he saw it, became silent, for it betokened an authority higher than his own, and with inward admiration he regarded this "venerabile donum," as though it had foreshadowed the expectancy of all nations, "longo post tempore visum." The Druids gathered the sacred mistletoe of the oak at yule tide, this annual ceremony was a very high festival, and was accompanied with sacrifices and a sacred banquet. The circumstance of the mistletoe being found growing on the oak, was that which gave it value, shewing that God had accepted it. When cut with the golden sickle, it was received with extreme reverence on a white cloth, extraordinary lifegiving powers were ascribed to it, and great importance was attached to receiving a portion of it-that all this had a meaning, there can be no doubt-Dr. Stukeley says that it was laid on their altars, as an emblem of the salutiferous advent of Messiah, and adds that the custom of the Druids was still in his time preserved in the north, "and was lately at York: on the eve of Christmas-day they carry mistletoe to the high altar of the cathedral, and proclaim a public and universal liberty, pardon and freedom to all sorts of inferior and even wicked people at the gates of the city towards the four quarters of heaven." Mistletoe still retains a popular place in our Christmas festivities, though its sacred meaning has been forgotten. The learned Warburton was of opinion that Virgil in the story of the descent of Æneas to the infernal regions, intended to convey to the reader a description of the Eleusinian mysteries, derived from those of Isis, in which was carried a golden branch. Severus states that many doctrines in the Greek mysteries were delivered in the profound learning of the Egyptians. Virgil describes Æneas as being instructed in the Orphic theology of an omnipresent universal mind, which is the life of all things. "Principio cœlum ac terras, camposque liquentes, Lucentemque globum Lunæ, Titaniaque Astra, Spiritus intus alit, totamque infusa per artus Medallic History of Marcus Aurelius Valerius Carausius. Mens agitat molem, et magno se corpore miscet. This primitive theology found no less in sacred than in profane writers, dressed up in the fantastic imagery of the north, became the pictorial Scandinavian myth, known as the ash yggdrasill, or the tree of universal life. The rites which Virgil relates to have been performed by Eneas in honour of Proserpine, and to procure her favour, are considered by many, to have been similar to those practised by the Druids. And we have the authority of Strabo for the fact, that there was an island near Britain, supposed to be Anglesea, where the same rites were performed to Ceres and Proserpine, as were used in Samothrace, so celebrated for the sanctity of its asylum, and the mysterious worship of the Cabiri. CHRISTMAS TREE. The Christmas-tree, or Christ-baum of our German neighbours, has by some been regarded as the modern diminutive of the Scandinavian yggdrasill, but the birth-place of the Christmas-tree, is Egypt, and its origin is long anterior to the Christian era. It was a popular notion that the palm-tree put forth a shoot every month, and a spray of this tree, with twelve shoots on it, was used in Egypt, at the time of the winter solstice, as a symbol of the year completed. Egyptian associations are still mingled with the custom of the Christmas-tree; there are as many pyramids as trees used in Germany, in the celebration of Christmas, by those whose means do not admit of purchasing trees and their concomitant tapers. In the vision of St. John, the tree beheld growing by the side of running water, and which bears twelve manner of fruits, yielding her fruit every month, and whose leaves were for the healing of the nations, was evidently meant for the date palm, the leaves of which when blanched were used for writing on. Trees have always been favourite images with prophets and poets in the sacred writings they are put for nations and persons-thus the prophet Ezekiel (xxxi. 3, 8, 9) speaking of the Assyrians and their king, says, "The Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon with fair branches, the cedars in the garden of God could not hide him, the fir-trees were not like his boughs, and the chesnut-trees were not like his branches; nor any tree in the garden of God was like unto him in his beauty. I have See a letter from Berlin in The Times, Dec. 25th, 1855. |