330

A DISCOURSE

30o k iv. dwn, to ask advice of God . Naturalists tell us, that the' Laurus and

Agnus Castus were trees which greatly composed the fancy, and did fa-cilitate true visions; and that the first was specifically efficacious irfancmy Author exprefses it) to inspire a poetical fury : Such a

See S. Ful'

oee o. r ui-gent. Mythol.

cap. x'lii. et tradition thert.lunsterum in

Comment. father-in-law:

. et tradition there goes of Rebekah the wife of Isaac, in imitation of her

The instance is recited out of an ancient Ecclesiastical

See Hier in History by Abulensis. From hence the Delphic Tripod, the Dodonaeanrad. Heb. Oracle in Epirus, and others of that nature, had their original: At this

^(»g t Q t jy, U # t

decubation upon boughs the Satyrist seems to hint, where he introduces

the Gypsies :

Arcanam Judaea tremens mendicat in aurem,Interpres leg am Solymarum, et magiia SacerdosArboris, ac sum mi fida internuncia cceli.

jvv. Sat. vi.

With fear

A cheating Jewish whispers in her ear,

And begs an alms: An High-Priest’s daughter she,Vers’d in their Talmud and Divinity ;

And prophesies beneath a shady tree.

For indeed the Delphic Oracle (as Diodorus , lib. xvi. tells us) was firstmade e Lauri ramis, of'the branches of Laurel transferred from Thefsaly,•VideAnnium bended and arched over in form of a bower or summer-house ; a veryViterif lib. s ; m pie fabrick yo.u may be sure : And Cardan, I remember, in his book

TcicdeLeg de Fato, insists very much on dreams had,by sleeping upon the boughslib. ih and leaves of trees, for portents and presages; and that the use of some

X See Aristo- G f them do dispose men to visions.

phanes Schol,ad Pluti Ver-

ba, **1 t«!t* jp rom ] ienee then began Temples to be erected * and sought to in such

f ,-we find f sanction for it among the laws of the Twelve Ta-there was hardly a Grove without its temple, so almost

wo ■>, &c. places; nay,-’

bles; and

every temple had a Grove belonging to it, where they placed idols, altars,m?™*! i, ^ r.o-bts, endowed with fair revenues, which the devotion of super-

stitious f

ret uvocijy)fA.»\ot- " A

To which add, bratriCeS.

stitious persons continually augmented: Such were those £ arbores obum-bratrices, mentioned by TertuJlian, Apol. cap. ix. on which they sus-

vf. 1 Videtdo^ pended their 'AwS-oVara and devoted things : And I remember to have

lacmias^miro seen s °uiething very like this in Italy , and other parts; namely, where

literatas, ra- the images of the Blefsed Virgin, and other saints, have been enshrinedmis arboriun . ,

postibusque m hollow and umbrageous trees, frequented with much veneration;