MILTON'S MULBERRY-TREE, AND BUST, IN CHRIST'S COLLEGE

Summary

We are not of the number of those who look upon Milton's tree with that reverential awe with which it is regarded by some of its visitants: It is well when faith can so far hold its possession of the mind as to present a more vivid impression to the imagination through the medium of some sensible image, than could be produced without such aid. It was thus that the ancient Persian adored the Sun as the visible image of the Deity and, in humble prostration before the God of day, did but acknowledge, through him, the eternal source of Light and Life. But we confess it is beyond our capacity to associate very distinctly the immortal Bard with a decayed tree, which, now some two hundred years old, may or may not have been stuck in the ground, when a helpless twig, by his hand,

Seris factura nepotibus umbram.

An apple-tree at Pembroke College boasts the venerable Ridley as its foster father or patron: a cedar, though dead, is allowed to stand a memorial of the botanist Martyn: a pear-tree once stood in the garden of Sidney College, which was said to owe its existence there to the Protector: Lausanne, every one knows, rejoices in Gibbon's acacia: and Olney Chace arrogates no little fame to itself from the presence of Cowper's oak.