by the eye, before the mind can form a just and adequate idea of it. No epicure can judge a ragout by the palate of another; a musician must hear the concert, he presumes to criticise; and the reader will gain but a very imperfect idea of the finest landscape in the universe, by reading or hearing it described. For we can neither taste, hear, smell, feel, nor see by proxy.

Thus, when Ossian describes vales, rocks, mountains, and glens, the words he uses are the same; and the images, they respectively suggest, would appear to be the same; but the scenes themselves are dressed in an infinite variety of drapery. It is not that the poet is poor, but that language is indigent. A superficial reader, possessing no play of fancy, when the sun is represented as going down, and the moon as rising; when a cataract is said to roar, and the ocean to roll; can only figure to himself the actual representations of those objects, without any combinations. A man of an enlarged and elegant mind, however, immediately paints to himself the lovely tints, that captivate his fancy in the rising and setting of those glorious luminaries; he already sees the tremendous rock, whence the cataract thunders down; and thrills with agreeable horror, at the distant heavings of an angry ocean. Possessing a mind, that fancy never taught to soar, the one perceives no graces in a tint; a broad and unfinished outline only spreads upon his canvas; while, by the creating impulses of genius, the outline is marked by many a matchless shade, and the foreground occupied by many a bold, or interesting group.

NATURAL AND MORAL ANALOGIES.

GIFTED with an accomplished mind, the POET walks at large, amid the creations of the material world; and, imbibing images, at every step, to form his subjects and illustrate his positions, he turns all objects into intelligible hieroglyphics.

For there is an analogy between external appearances and interior affections, strikingly exemplificative of that general harmony, which subsists in all the universe. For infinite are the relations and analogies, which objects bear to each other: -Harmonies, which would give ample scope for the satisfaction and rapidity of the liveliest imagination! It is from these analogies, that the heavenly bodies have been considered symbols of majesty; the oak of strength; the olive of peace; and the willow of sorrow. One of the Psalms of David, pursuing this analogy, represents the Jews, hanging their harps upon the willows of Babylon, bewailing their exile from their native country.

The yellow-green, which is the colour Nature assumes at the falling of the leaf, was worn in chivalry, as an emblem of despair. Red is considered as indicative of anger, sometimes of guilt; green of tranquillity; and brown of melancholy. The lotos was regarded in Egypt as an emblem of the creating power: and the cypress has long been acknowledged an emblem of mourning; the swan of graceful dignity; the violet of modesty; the myrtle of love; and the tulip of vanity: the aloe of constancy; the mulberry of prudence; the lily of the valley of innocence; the rose of beauty; the

"Come, now, let us reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet; they shall be as wool.”—Isaiah, i. v. 18. When Moorcroft was about to take leave of the Lama of Nàràyan, on bis journey to Mánasanawara, the Lama took his friend's white garment in his hand, and said, "I pray you, let me live in your recollection, as white as this cloth."

b Green, in heraldry, is used to express liberty, love, youth, and beauty: and all acts and letters of grace were, at one time, signed with green wax.

© Because it vegetates from its own matrice. The lotus is esteemed sacred in Thibet, Nepaul, and Hindostan *. On its bosom Bramah was supposed to have been born; and on its petals Osiris delighted to float t. This flower is very common along the countries bordering the Senegal, the Gambia, and the Niger +.

* Asiat. Research. vol. i. 243.

+ Indian Antiq. iii. 232. Park's Trav. 100.

fuschia of magnificence; and the palm and laurel of honour

and victorya.

Branches of palms were, in ancient times, esteemed emblems of mental and bodily vigour; and the white violet of love; as a blush was the emblem of modesty and virtue. The amaranth was an emblem of immortality. St. Peter promises an amaranthine crown; and Milton says, the amaranth bloomed in Paradise; but for man's offence was removed to Heaven; where it still grows, shading the fountain of life, near which the river of bliss rolls in streams of amber: while every angel is supposed to be bound with crowns and wreaths of amaranth.

The yew! Many reasons have been assigned for the custom of planting yew-trees in the yards of churches; and because they were, in ancient times, used for bows, some of the scholiasts have sanctioned the belief, that they were planted, in order to be used for those weapons. The fact, however, is, the yew-tree has been considered an emblem of mourning from the earliest times. The more ancient Greeks planted round their tombs such trees only, as bore no fruit; as the elm, the cypress, and the yew. This practice they imported from the Egyptians; the Romans adopted it from the Greeks; and the Britons from the Romans. From long habits of association, the yew acquired a sacred character; and therefore was considered as the best and most appropriate ornament for consecrated ground. The custom of a Cui geminæ florent vatumque ducumque

The ancient rhapsodists always recited the verses of the poets, with laurel rods in their hands. And when Castro entered in triumph into Goa, he walked upon silk, holding a laurel bough; while the ladies showered flowers upon him, as he passed. b Plut. Symp. lib. viii. Quest. 4.

• Hor. iii. od. 10. 14.

d Georg. lib. ii. 1. 439.

placing them singly is equally ancient. Statius calls it the solitary yew: and it was, at one time, as common in the church-yards of Italy as it is now in North and South Wales. many villages of those two provinces the yew-tree and the church are coeval with each other.

In

The palm, the plantain, the olive, and the pepper-plant, seem to have been instinctively used as emblems of peace, by many nations. Hence Tasso call the former "le sacre palme b." The natives of Australia del Espiritu Santo invited the friendship of the discoverers by holding boughs of palm-trees in their hands. When Vancouver was at the Island of Otaheite, the messenger, whom he had sent to inform the king of his arrival, returned with a present of plantain, as a peace-offering: and when a misunderstanding had occurred between Krusenstern and the king of Nukahiwa, the king sent him a pepper-plant, as a token of reconciliation. Branches of trees seem, in all ages and countries, to be used as emblems of peace, from the time of Noah to that of Hannibal, when the inhabitants of one of the Alpine towns met him with garlands and branches 1. "We have

a Olive wreaths were annually worn by the soldiers of Rome, on the day on which they were reviewed by their generals; when every soldier appeared decorated with the ornaments he had received as rewards of his valour. "This review," says Dionysius of Halicarnassus, who describes the whole ceremony, "formed a most magnificent sight, worthy the grandeur and majesty of Rome." -Lib. vi. Cæsar first adopted the laurel wreath; and the Germans and Gauls used branches of trees in various ceremonies.-Lucan, lib. iii. Claudian, in Laud. Stilich. b Jer. Del. b. iii. st. 75.

Fernand. de Quiro's Voy. to Polynesia, &c., 156, ed. 1606.—In several islands of the South Sea, chiefs present the fruits of their orchards, as peaceofferings to strangers.

d Voy. Discov. i. 254.—An old man in the Great Loo-choo Island approached Mr. Clifford with a green bough in his hand; which Mr. C. observing, broke one from a tree, and exchanged boughs with him.—Hall, p. 145, 4to. f Gen. ch. viii. ver. 11.

e Krusenstern's Voy., vol. i. p. 160.

Vide Polyb. iii. 50-52.

h When Dampier was off New Guinea, the natives made signs of friendship by pouring water on their heads with one hand, which they dipped in the sea.— Voy., vol. iii. part ii. p. 97.

planted the tree of peace," says an American Indian," and we have buried the axe under its roots; we will henceforth repose under its shade; and we will join to brighten the chain, which binds our nation together."

Nearly through all the empires, countries, and islands of Eastern Asia, peace, friendship, and benevolence are signified by the presentation of a betel leaf. In Africa it is still a leaf or a bough. When Captain Tuckey, in his expedition to the Congo, appeared at a feast given by the chenoo of Embomma, the chief seemed to be dubious as to the real motive of his voyage. At length an old man rose up hastily, and taking a leaf from a neighbouring tree, exclaimed, “If you come to trade with us, swear by your God, and break this leaf.". This Captain Tuckey refused to do. Then said the old man, “If you come with no design of making war upon us, swear by your God, and break this leaf." Captain Tuckey immediately took the oath, and broke the leaf. Upon which the whole party rose up, and danced for a considerable time; and all was cheerfulness and satisfaction.

Palms were worn, as emblems, by those, who had made pilgrimages to the Holy Land: and the custom of carrying branches of palms, on Palm-Sunday, is said to have been derived from the worshippers of Serapis. It was introduced into the service of Christianity by Origen ;—that Origen, who taught the doctrine of the plurality of worlds, and who illustrated Christianity by the Alexandrian system of philosophy; who esteemed gods, angels, and the souls of men, to be of one substance; who believed that the soul had a pre-existent state; and that those of good men advanced in regular gradation to a higher state of perfection.

Garlands of olives are also of high antiquity. It was with a garland of this plant that the women of Jerusalem crowned Judith, when she returned from the camp of Holofernes a. They met her on the way, and blessed her; and leading her

a Judith, xv. 12, 13.