73. But with the early serpent-worship there was associated another,
that of the groves, of which you will also find the evidence exhaustively
collected in Mr. Fergussen's work. This tree-worship may have taken a
dark form when associated with the Draconian one; or opposed, as in
Judea, to a purer faith; but in itself, I believe, it was always healthy,
and though it retains little definite hieroglyphic power in subsequent
religion, it becomes, instead of symbolic, real; the flowers and trees
are themselves beheld and beloved with a half-worshipping delight, which
is always noble and healthful.
And it is among the most notable indications of the volition of the
animating power that we find the ethical signs of good and evil set on
these also, as well as upon animals; the venom of the serpent, and in
some respects its image also, being associated even with the passionless
growth of the leaf out of the ground; while the distinctions of species
seem appointed with more definite ethical address to the intelligence of
man as their material products become more useful to him.
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