HISTORY OF THE OLIVE TREE, AND THE MODE OF PREPARING THE OIL.

No. I

THE Olive-tree (Olea Europea,) came originally from Asia, and grows abundantly about Aleppo and Lebanon. It is naturalized in many parts of Southern Europe, being found in woods and hedges, and in this wild state produces a small fruit of no value. When cultivated, however, it becomes one of the richest productions of the South.

It is an evergreen tree, with thick and leathery leaves, well calculated to resist the action of water, as they once did for the space of two hundred and seventy-one days; the period that elapsed from the day on which "the fountains of the great deep were broken up," until the evening when the dove came in to Noah, "and lo! in her mouth was an Olive-leaf pluckt off." And ever since, in all ages and countries, wherever this tree is known, has its branch been the favourite emblem of peace. The same chapter of Genesis also illustrates the locality of the Olive. The ark had rested on Mount Ararat one hundred and fourteen days, and the tops of the mountains had been seen forty days, yet when Noah sent forth the dove the first time, it returned, finding "no rest for the sole of her foot;' and it was not until seven more days had passed that the waters had retired from the plains, valleys, and rocky ravines where the dove is accustomed to seek its food, and in which the Olive delights to grow. The flowers are delicately small and white, are very numerous, and fall off in showers when the tree is shaken; so Eliphaz, upbraiding Job for his sins and misfortunes, and alluding to the loss of his children, says, The wicked man shall shake off his unripe grape as the vine, and shall cast off his flower as the Olive." (Job xv. 33.) The oval fruit has a delicate light-blue bloom upon it, but when this is rubbed off, is of a deep purple colour, shines, and has lost its beauty.

To an English eye this tree has, at first sight, no striking characteristic of beauty. Its height, which rarely exceeds thirty feet, creates no idea of grandeur, which in countries like England, that abound with lofty forest trees, is considered one of, if not the chief, element of beauty in trees. Again, it has a most sober hue that ill agrees with our preconceived notions of the golden tints of southern foliage; hence those, who in the rapidity of travelling glance at it with a careless eye, are generally disappointed, and hence it is almost universally compared with our own willow. Southey speaks of its "willowy foliage," but the

points of resemblance are not sufficiently well marked to justify the comparison of an Olive-grove with an ozier-holt. It is true that both trees are of about equal height, and have the under surface of their leaves of a lighter colour than the upper, which is very beautiful when their branches are turned or lifted by the wind. The cultivated Olive, too, is pollarded or deprived of some of its branches in order to develop the young wood; but as the fruit is the object and not merely the wood, as is the case with the willow, its branches are never destroyed year after year, and, consequently, it never has the unsightly appearance that that tree has when deprived of all its foliage. The poet Virgil contrasts the Olive with the willow. Making a shepherd praise one man at the expense of another, he says, "You are as much superior to him, as the dusky willow yields in beauty to the pale Olive." But it has charms superior, not only to the willow, but to most other trees. If the eye is not attracted towards it at first by any striking beauty, there are few natural objects that improve so much upon acquaintance. The more you see it, the more its graceful form and quiet beauty wins your admiration. It appears to greatest advantage in rocky situations, in the country round Athens for example, where an absence of general vegetation, during the warmer months, produces a beautiful contrast between the naked and burning rocks and the luxurious Olivegroves of the lower lands. A more beautiful scene can hardly be imagined than that from the Acropolis, a rocky fortress that rises abruptly on the south side of the city: standing within the portico of its Parthenon, you look down upon Mars' Hill, where St. Paul declared unto the superstitious Greeks the unknown God whom they ignorantly worshipped; beyond is the scarcely less famous pulpit of Themistocles, but it is to the plain to which the eye flies for relief, for

See there the Olive-grove of Academe

Plato's retirement.

Previous to the late revolution, this grove extended from the walls of the city to the sea; but during the war, 20,000 trees were burnt, and many an old tree may now be seen reduced to charcoal on one side, yet retaining its vitality on the other. The annexed figure represents one that had actually been burnt into two separate trees, resting against each other for mutual support, yet loaded with fruit at the time the sketch was taken. Some of these were purposely destroyed by the enemy, and some were cut for firewood. The facility with which this tree takes fire, even when standing in the green state, was not unknown to the ancients, and is thus noticed by Virgil:

Sparkling fire from hind's unwary hands
Is often scattered o'er their unctuous rinds,
And after spread abroad by raging winds:
For first the smould'ring flame the trunk receives,
Ascending thence, it crackles in the leaves,
At length victorious to the top aspires,
Involving all the wood in smoky fires.

DRYDEN'S Virg. Georgics. II. Since the peace, many thousand trees have been destroyed by floods. Drainage has been neglected, and the water stood for months upon the roots, and eventually killed the trees. A burning sun acting upon this mass of decayed vegetable matter, generated one of the most dreadful fevers that ever visited Athens. It paralysed the whole population; for two seasons there was scarcely an indication of exertion to cultivate the soil. In the suburbs, where scraps of land are generally so precious, there were no gardens; a few fig-trees and a solitary palm, which the war had spared, were almost the only

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We can trace the custom of using Olive-oil in religious ceremonies to the highest antiquity. Jacob poured it upon the pillar that he set up in Beth-el. (Gen. xxviii. 18.) The holy anointing oil of the temple was Olive-oil, scented with myrrh, cinnamon, sweet calamus and cassia.

The Mount of Olives is consecrated to us by the holiest associations. At the foot of the Mount, over the brook Cedron, is the Garden of Gethsemane, and according to Major Skinner, one of the latest travellers in the East, it abounds at the present day with exceedingly old Olive-trees. To this garden, "Jesus ofttimes resorted with his disciples." It was the scene of his prayer, of his agony, and betrayal. In one of her beautiful sonnets, Mrs. Hemans has adverted, to the awful circumstances connected with this spot. The palm-the vine-the cedar-each hath power To bid fair oriental shapes glance by, And each quick glistening of the laurel bower Wafts Grecian images o'er fancy's eye: But thou, pale Olive! in thy branches lie Far deeper spells than prophet-grove of old

Might e'er enshrine:-I could not hear thee sigh To the wind's faintest whisper, nor behold

One shiver of thy leaves dim silvery green, Without high thoughts and solemn, of that scene When, in the Garden, the Redeemer prayed

When pale stars looked upon his fainting head, And angels ministering in silent dread Trembled, perchance, within thy trembling shade. This tree was a great favourite with the ancient Greeks. They held it in such esteem, that the Athenians imagined that Minerva, the patron goddess of their city, created it peculiarly for them :-a superstition which arose from the crafty policy so eminently characteristic of their nation. In the time of Themistocles, some of the nobles, for the purpose of opposing his views, which were directed towards making them a maritime and warlike nation, and to induce the ignorant multitude to turn their attention more to agriculture, invented the fable of a contention between Minerva and Neptune for the honour of protecting the city of Athens. The assembly of the gods promised the preference to whichever of the two gave the most necessary and useful present to the inhabitants of the earth. Neptune, upon this, struck the ground with his trident, and immediately a horse issued from the earth. Minerva produced the Olive, and obtained the victory by the unanimous voice of the gods, who observed, that the Olive, which is the emblem of peace, is far preferable to the horse, which is the symbol of war and bloodshed. When in the island of Teaki, the ancient Ithaca, the writer saw an antique seal upon which, in

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As sacred history made the Olive emblematic of peace, so, from its great value to man, has it been universally considered the symbol of plenty. such we find it on the coins of those countries of which it is not a native; our own Britannia holds in her right hand the Olive-branch of peace and plenty. Scarcely an ancient custom existed in Greece with which we do not find this tree, in some way, associated. The wild Olive was never used on these occasions, but there were plantations sacred to their religious rites and festivities; and it was sacrilege to use them for any other purpose. A law existed, "if any one plucks up the sacred Olive-trees at Athens, beside the two yearly allowed at the public festivals and funerals, he shall pay one hundred drachms (31. 4s. 7d.,) for every one unlawfully pulled up, the tenth part of which fine shall be due to Minerva."

The victors at the Olympic games were crowned with wreaths of a peculiar variety of the Olive, which was brought by Hercules (so fable will have it,) from the Scythians, and planted near Olympia, where it flourished. It was called Callistephanos, that is, fit for crowns; and it was forbidden, under a great penalty, to cut it for any other use. Games, similar to these were revived at Athens in 1835, and Otho, the amiable young King of Greece, crowned the victors with wreaths of Olives.

In all festivals in which Minerva was concerned, we find the Olive used as believed to be most acceptable to her. At the lesser Panathenæa, an Athenian festival in honour of her, the conqueror at the games then held, was rewarded with a vessel of Olive-oil, which he was permitted to dispose of how and where he pleased, whereas it was unlawful for any other to transport that commodity: further, he received a crown of those Olives which grew in the Academy and were sacred to Minerva.

At their marriages every part of the bridegroom s house, and more particularly the door, was decorated with flowers and boughs upon the nuptial day. Plutarch says that the Olive was more particularly used for this purpose. The same custom is seen, at the present day, both in private and public rejoicings. When the king of Bavaria, the father of Otho the First, paid a visit to his son, there was scarcely a doorpost in the streets of Athens through which he passed that was not covered with myrtle and Olive-boughs.

No. XIV.

....dipped an Olive-branch in holy dew, Which thrice he sprinkled round; and thrice aloud Invoked the dead, and then dismissed the crowd. It was a privilege of the citizens to use the oil in the schools of exercise, for one of the laws relating to these schools was, that no slave shall presume to anoint." In the ancient baths there was a room for the purpose of anointing with oil, to close the pores of the body after the use of the hot baths, and to prevent the skin from becoming rough after the water was dried off. Pliny says that, at the time of the Trojan war, they had no better unguent than common olive oil perfumed with odoriferous herbs, especially roses. It was considered effeminate for the men to use even this, and, at a much later period, the Greek virgins were not allowed to anoint themselves with any odorous unguent, but used simple olive oil. Minerva and Diana are represented as rejecting perfumed oils. Solon made a law that "no man shall sell perfumes;" but Socrates was of opinion that it was decent enough for women to smell of perfumed unguents, but that men should rather smell of oil, an opinion which the modern Greeks seem very generally to have retained, and actual contact is unnecessary to detect their partiality for it.

The Olive-tree was scarcely less a favourite with the Romans, although it was not held in the same sacred light as amongst the Greeks; the ivy and the vine in some measure superseding its use. Their gardengod, however, was adorned with it; this god, usually cut out of the trunk of some old tree, was crowned with various wreaths peculiar to each season. In spring, it was decorated with flowers, with corn in summer, with the vine in autumn, and with the Olive in winter, the most appropriate season for it, as at any other period either the flowers or fruit would be destroyed. In a poem ascribed to Catullus, this rustic god is represented as saying

Soon as the vernal season smiles, I'm gaily crowned with flowery spoils; But yellow wreaths of ripened corn, 'Mid summer heat, my brows adorn ; The luscious vine's thick branches spread In blushing autumn round my head; And, when cold blows the wintry winds, My temples pale-green Olive binds. The Romans, ever superstitious, were in notning more so than the uses to which they religiously applied certain woods, some of which they called "fortunate," others "unfortunate." When they burnt anything bad or ill-omened, they made use of such unfortunate trees that were under the protection of the infernal gods, as the holly and all kinds of thorny shrubs; on the other hand, the Olive, fig, pear, and apple trees, and the vine, and many other trees, that were valuable for their productions, they used on joyous and fortunate events. The wild Olive, as being unproductive and useless, was classed with the former, and the cultivated with the latter.

The oil was more used in their toilet than in that of the Greeks. Catullus, accusing some luxurious Latin youth of effeminacy, says, that his couch was "fragrant with chaplets of flowers and perfumed with the Syrian Olive oil." Any one would suppose that oil of a superior quality was, at that period, an article of commerce between Syria and Italy; but any rich odour was termed Syrian with the Romans, and in this case with great propriety, as the Olive came originally from that part of Asia.

MODERN JEWS. PART II.

IT is likely that when Jerusalem and its Temple were destroyed, several of the Jews who had till then rejected the Gospel, may have been at length converted, by the strong additional evidence which was thus afforded. They saw the heavy judgment that fell on their nation; and that it was such as to make the observance of their law impossible. They saw, also, that the event agreed with what Jesus had predicted forty years before. And they saw, too, that those of his followers who had been living in Jerusalem, had been enabled to escape destruction by following his directions, and fleeing to the mountains as soon as they saw Jerusalem encompassed by an army. It is, therefore, likely that several may have been led by this additional evidence to embrace the Christian faith, But of this we have no records; as the book of Acts takes in only an earlier period. And in that book we have no particulars of the numbers of those Jews who were converted; though it appears they must have amounted to many thousands, indeed, many myriads; that is, tens of thousands; as is said in the original Greek of Acts xxi. 20. But still these made but a small portion only of that great nation. And as the Jewish Christians would soon become mingled with the Gentile Christians, and cease to be a separate people, hence, all those who are known as Jews at this day, are the descendants of those who rejected the Gospel.

They are computed to amount, at the present time, notwithstanding the prodigious slaughter of them, at the taking of their city, and on several other occasions, to no less a number than 4,800,000, scattered through various parts of the world; everywhere mixing and trading with other nations; but everywhere kept distinct from them by their peculiar faith and religious observances. And everywhere they preserve and read with the utmost reverence their sacred books which foretell the coming of the Messiah, or Christ, at a time which (by their own computations) is long since past, namely, about the time when Jesus did appear. Their books foretell, also, such judgments as their nation is suffering; and foretell, too, what is most remarkable, that notwithstanding all this they shall still remain a separate people, unmixed with the other nations.

You should observe, too, that these prophecies are such as no one would ever have made by guess. Nothing could have been more unlikely than the events which have befallen the Jewish nation. Nothing like them has ever been foretold of any other nation; or has ever happened to any other. There are, indeed, many cases recorded in history, of one nation conquering another, and either driving them out of the country, or keeping them in subjection. But in all these cases, the conquered people who have lost their country, either settle themselves in some other land, or if they are wholly dispersed, generally. become gradually mixed and blended with other nations; as, for example, the Britons and Saxons, and Danes and Normans, have been mixed up into one people in England.

The only people who at all resemble the Jews in having been widely dispersed and yet remaining distinct, are the people commonly called Gipsies, and whose proper name is Zinganies, Jinganies. It has been made out that they are an East-Indian nation, speaking a Hindoo dialect. And they are widely scattered through the world, keeping up their language and some customs of their own, in all the countries

through which they wander. They are certainly a very remarkable people; and if there had been any prophecy (which there was not,) of their being thus dispersed, we might well have believed that such a prophecy must have come from inspiration.

But in some remarkable points their condition differs from that of the Jews, and is less unaccountable.

First, they do not (like the Jews) live in towns among other men, and in houses; but dwell in tents, by the road-sides, and on commons; leading the life of strolling tinkers, pedlars, and fortune-tellers. This roaming life, of course, tends to keep them separate from the people of the countries in which they are found.

But the chief difference is, that the Gipsies are always ready, when required, to profess the religion of the country, whether Christian or Mohammedan, or any other; seeming to have no religion of their own, and to be quite indifferent on the subject. The Jews, on the contrary, always, when they are allowed, settle in towns along with other men; and are kept distinct from them by their religion, and by nothing else. They are the only people who are everywhere separated from the people of the country in which they live, entirely by their peculiar faith and religious observances; and that, too, though their religion is such (which is the strongest point of all) that the most important part of its ordinances, the sacrifices ordained in their law, cannot be observed by them. The Jews, therefore, in their present condition, are a kind of standing miracle; being a monument of the wonderful fulfilment of the most extraordinary prophecies that were ever delivered; which prophecies they themselves preserve and bear witness to, though they shut their eyes to the fulfilment of them, No other account than this of the present state and past history of the Jews ever has been, or can be given, that is not open to objections greater than all the objections put together that have ever been brought against Christianity.

This, then, as well as several other difficulties in our religion, such as have been formerly mentioned, will be found, on examination, to be,-even when you cannot fully explain them,-not so much objections against the truth of your religion, as confirmations of it.

And when you do meet with any objection which you are at a loss to answer, you should remember, (as has been above said,) that there are many things which all men must believe, in spite of real difficulties which they cannot explain, when there are much greater difficulties on the opposite side, and when sufficient proof has been offered.

And in the present case, you have seen that it is not only difficult, but impossible, to account for the rise and prevalence of the Christian religion, supposing it not to have come from God. It certainly was introduced and propagated (which no other religion ever was) by an appeal to the evidence of miracles. Nothing but the display of supernatural powers could have gained even a hearing for the Apostles; surrounded as they were by adversaries prejudiced against their religion by their early education and habits of thought, and inclinations, and hopes. And these supernatural powers were, as you have seen, acknowledged at the time by those adversaries; who were driven to attribute the Christian miracles to magic

arts.

And you have seen, too, that the religion itself, and the character of Jesus Christ as drawn in the Christian Scriptures, and the whole of the narrative

of those books, are quite different, and, indeed, opposite to what might have been expected from impostors or enthusiasts.

And lastly, you have seen that many of the difficulties that have been brought as objections against Christianity, turn out, on careful inquiry, to be an additional evidence of its truth.

Among others, this is remarkably the case with the difficulties relating to the history and condition of the Jewish nation. Though you may not be able fully to explain all the circumstances relating to that wonderful People, you may learn from them, what they refuse to learn from themselves, a strong proof of the truth both of their Scriptures, and of the Gospel which they obstinately reject. It is so ordered by Providence that even that very obstinacy is made to furnish an additional proof of Christianity; by setting them forth before all the world as a monument of fulfilled prophecy.

There are several other instructions and warnings, also, which you may learn from attentively reflecting on the case of the Jews: and I will conclude by shortly mentioning a few of these.

First, you should remember that when you see the Jews, both formerly, and now, obstinately keeping to the faith of their forefathers, merely because it is what they were brought up in, and refusing to listen. to any reasoning on the subject of religion, a Christian has no right to wonder at, or to blame, them, if he does the same thing himself; that is, if he is satisfied to take upon trust whatever he may have been told, and is resolved neither to seek nor to listen to any arguments that may enable him "to give a reason of the hope that is in him." And the same may be said of Mohammedans and Pagans, as well as of Jews. Though the Christian happens to have a religion that is right, he is not more right than they, if he goes on the same plan that they do. At least, he is right only by chance, if he holds a faith that is true, not because it is true, but merely because it is that of his forefathers,

Secondly,-You should remember that we are apt to make much less allowance for the unbelieving Jews than for Christians who lead an unchristian life; and that we ought to do just the contrary.

It is difficult for us, of these days, to understand and fully enter into the great difficulty which the Jews had (and still have), in overcoming all the prejudices they had been brought up in, and which were so flattering to their own nation, as God's favoured People. It was a hard task for them to wean themselves from all the hopes and expectations of temporal glory and distinction to that nation; hopes which they and their ancestors had cherished for so many ages. No doubt it was a grievous sin in them to give way to those prejudices, and to reject the Christ as they did. But it is a greater sin, to acknowledge Him, as some Christians do, as their Lord and Master, and to "believe that He shall come to be our judge," and at the same time, to take no care to obey his precepts, and copy the pattern of his life. This is more truly impiety than that with which an infidel is chargeable. For suppose two men each received a letter from his father, giving directions for his children's conduct; and that one of these sons, hastily, and without any good grounds, pronounced the letter a forgery, and refused to take any notice of it; while the other acknowledged it to be genuine, and laid it up with great reverence, and then acted without the least regard to the advice and commands contained in the letter: you would say that both of these men indeed were very wrong; but the latter was much the more undutiful son of the two.

Now this is the case of a disobedient Christian, as compared with infidels. He does not, like them, pronounce his father's letter a forgery; that is, deny the truth of the Christian revelation; but he sets at defiance in his life, that which he acknowledges to be the Divine command.

3. Lastly, you should remember that no argument you can bring against unbelievers, will have greater weight with most of them, than a Christian life; and nothing again, will be more likely to increase and confirm their unbelief, than to see Christians living in opposition to the precepts and spirit of the Gospel; and especially to see them indulging bitter and unkind and hostile and uncharitable feelings towards their fellow-creatures, and even their fellow-Christians. The objection thence raised against the Christian religion, is indeed (as has been above said) not a real and sound one; but still it will be raised and therefore, you cannot too carefully consider how much you will have to answer for, if you contribute to bring an ill name on your Christian faith; and if you do not, on the contrary, endeavour to the utmost, "to adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour, in all things."

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Let the outer edge of each of these two circles be divided into any corresponding number of equal parts, with a small hole in the centre of each board to receive a pin, on which a thin piece of brass revolves; this piece of brass is divided, say into twenty-four parts, beginning at the centre, and reaching as far as the inner line of the index on the margin of the circular board. The other circle is furnished with several similar pieces of metal having also twenty-four equal divisions, beginning from the centre; in one case one-half of the distance from the centre to the outer index contains the whole of the twenty-four divisions, in another one-fourth contains the same number, and in another two-thirds.

In order to use this instrument, place the original design on the circle first described, and place the index in its place, the pin, of course, piercing the centre of the paper.

We are supposing now that the drawing is to be reduced, say to one-half its breadth and length. Place a piece of paper sufficiently large on the other circle, and the brass index, on which the twenty-four divisions occupy one-half of its length, in its place on the second circle. Suppose the object to be reduced is a head: place the index on the circle which holds the original

drawing, so that it shall exactly cut some particular point in the design, for instance, the corner of the eye. Note which of the twenty-four divisions on the moveable index is opposite to it, and, at the same time, which of the divisions on the circular index is cut by the edge of the straight index. Place the straight edge in the same position on the circle which carries the blank paper.

If the angle of the eye in the original design is opposite the ten on the moveable index, make a dot on the paper opposite the same number of the moveable index of the circle on which the blank paper is placed, and it will show the place of the angle of the eye in the reduced copy. In this manner find as many points as you think necessary for your guidance. If the copy is to be one-fourth the size of the original, use the index in which the twenty-four divisions occupy one-fourth of its length, and so on.

A carpenter having a piece of mahogany of a triangular form, see fig. 3, wished to know how he could cut it up to the best advantage. His first idea was to make an oblong-square table of it, but he found that, if he did so, the waste of the wood would be very great; after consideration, he discovered that the most economical method of using his wood would be to form it into an oval. To make this oval contain as much wood as possible, he proceeded in the following manner: Let B G D be the triangular piece of wood; take G H, one-half of the base, and divide the triangle by drawing a line from H to в; take G H in the compasses, and set it off on one of the sides from G to E, draw the line E F, and the point I will be the centre of the oval; draw K L, parallel to E F, and at the same distance from the centre as the

E

G

K

H

Fig. 3.

L

C

D

base G D. The points a and c are found by dividing the line from E to K, and drawing a C, or by drawing the dotted lines DA and G C through the centre at I. These points being found, the oval must be completed by the eye of the draughtsman.

In the Saturday Magazine, Vol. X., p. 220, in describing the mode of forming twenty triangular sides, a figure of

an error occurred in the

Fig 4.

engraving; two of the triangles forming the sides being omitted. Fig. 4 is a corrected outline.

THERE is hardly a circumstance connected with our exist not yield abundant evidence of the wisdom and beneficence ence, which, when examined with a little attention, does which preside over the universe. We have only to turn up the soil at our feet, to find in it innumerable seeds useful to man; we have only to look around us upon the surface of the earth, to see it stocked with a variety of animals, conducive not only to our subsistence, but to our convenipopulation at our command; and the more deeply we inence and recreation. The sea also, and the air, have their vestigate the laws by which the whole system of vegetable and animal life is governed, the more clearly we shall perceive their complete and exclusive adaptation to the planet on which they carry on their operations.-Quarterly Review.

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