OAK-WORSIIIP
254
CANNES
Among the ancient Greeks the oak, as the noblest of trees, was sacred to Zeus, and among the Ko- mans to Jupiter. Oak-worship, however, was one of the most remarkable peculiarities of tlie religion of the northern nations. The inhabitants of the holy city of Kief, in Russia, offered their sacrifices under a sacred oak in their annual voyages to the Black Sea in June. The oak was considered by the Hessians as the symbol and the abode of the gods. Winifred, an apostle of the Germans, cut down an enormous oak which was sacred to Thor ; and such was the horror wliich the sacrile- gious deed excited that judgments were expected to fall upon the head of the impious missionary. " The gods of the ancient Prussians," says Mr. Gross, " showed a decided predilection both for the oak and for the lin- den. The ground upon which they stood was holy ground, and was called Romowe. Under their ample shade the principal gods of the Prussians were wor- shipped. The most celebrated oak was at Romowe, in the country of the Natanges. Its trunk was of extraor- dinary size, and its branches so dense and diffusive that neither rain nor cold could penetrate through them. It is affirmed that its foliage enjoyed an amaranthine green, and that it afforded amulets to both man and beast — under the firm belief of the former at least that thus employed it would prove a sure preventive against every species of evil. The Romans, too, were great ad- mirers of this way of worship, and therefore had their Luci in most parts of the city." " As Jupiter," to quote from the same intelligent writer, " gave oracles by means of the oak, so the oaken crown was deemed a tit orna- ment to deck the majestic brow of the god, contempla- ted as Polieus, the king of the city. The origin of the oaken crown as a symbol of Jupiter is attributed by Plu- tarch to the admirable qualities of the oak. ' It is the oak,' says he, ' which among wild trees bears the finest fruit, and which among those that are cultivated is the strongest.' Its fruit has been used as food, and the honey-dew of its leaves drank as mead. This sweet se- cretion of the oak was personified under the name of a nymph denominated Melissa. Meat, too, is indirectly furnished in supplying nourishment to ruminant and other quadrupeds suitable for diet, and in yielding bird- lime, with which the feathered tribes are secured. The esculent properties of the fruit of some trees, as the Quercus escuhis, and the many useful (jualities of their timber, may well entitle them to the rank of trees of life, and to the distinction and veneration of suppliers of the first food for the simple wants of man. Hence, on account of its valuable frugiferous productions recog- nised as the mast, the beech is generally known as the fagus, a term which is derived from (pciyiiv, to eat. There was a period in the history of mankind when the fruit of the oak, the neatly encased acorn, formed the chief means of subsistence ; and the Cliaonian oaks of the Pelasgic age have justly been immortalized on account of their alimentary virtues. It was then, according to Greek authors, that the noble oak was cherished and celebrated as the mother and nurse of man. For these reasons Jupiter, the munificent source of so great a blessing, was adored as the benignant foster-father of the Pelasgic race, and denominated Phegonaiis. In the blissful and hallowed oak-tree, according to the puerile notions of those illiterate people, dwelt the food-dis- pensing god. The ominous rustling of its leaves, the mysterious notes of the feathered songsters among its branches, announced the presence of the divinity to astonished and admiring votaries, and gave hints and encouragement to those whose interest or curiosity prompted them to consult the oracle. For this reason odoriferous fumes of incense were oflered to the oracling god under the Dodon;pan oak."
The religious veneration paid to the oak-tree bj' the original natives of Britain in the time of the Druids is well known to everj- reader of Piritish history. The Druids esteemed the oak the mo^t sacred object in nat- ure, and they believed the mistletoe also which grew
upon it to partake of its sacred character. Hence orig- inated the famous ceremony of cutting the mistletoe, which took place at the beginning of the year. See Mistletoe. We have reason to think that this ven- eration was brought from the East, and that the Druids did no more than transfer the sentiments their progeni- tors had received in Oriental countries. In fact, since in hot countries nothing is more desirable than shade, nothing more refreshing than the shade of a tree, we may easily suppose the inhabitants would resort for such enjoyment to
" Where'er the oak's thick branches spread A deeper, darker shade."
The Supreme Being, whom the Druids termed Hassus or Mighty, was worshipped under the form of an oak. See Gardner, Faiths of the World, p. 551. See Druids.
Oakes, Uuian, president of Harvard College, was born in England in 1631, and brought to America in his childhood. A sweetness of disposition exhibited itself early, and remained with him through life. He was graduated at Harvard College in 1649. He soon after returned to England, and was settled in the ministry at Titchfield, in Hampshire ; but being silenced in 1662 as a nonconforming divine, he longed for employment on this side the Atlantic. The church of Cambridge, on the decease of Mr. Mitchell in 1668, sent a messenger to England to invite him to become their minister. He accepted in lOTl, and was also placed at the head of Harv^ard College April 7, 1675, still however retaining the pastoral care of bis flock. On Feb. 2, 1680, the cor- poration appointed him president, and persuaded him to be inaugurated, and to devote himself exclusively to this object. He died July 25, 1681. Mr. Oakes was a man of extensive erudition and distinguished usefulness. He excelled equally as a scholar, as a divine, and as a Christian. By his contemporaries he was considered as one of the most resplendent lights that ever shone in this part of the world. In the opinion of Dr. Mather, America never had a greater master of the true, pure, Ciceronian Latin, of his skill in which language a speci- men from one of his commencement orations is pre- served in the MagnaUn. With all his greatness he was very humble, like the full ear of corn -which hangs near the ground. He published an artillery-election sermon, entitled. The Uncoiiqiierahle, A ll-Conquering, and more than Conquering Christian Soldier (1672): — Election Sermon (1673) : — A Sermon at Camhridge on the Choice of their Military Officers: — A Fast Sermon: — and an Elegy on the Death of Rev. Mr. Shepard, of Charlistomn (1677), pathetic and replete with imagery. See Holmes, Hist, of Camhridge ; I'eirce, Hist, of Harvard Univer- sity; Allen, Amer. Bingr. s. v. ; Sprague, Annals Amer. Pulpit, vol. V.