Glasgow.
_Veneration for the Oak._--The oak--"the brave old oak"--has been an object
of veneration in this country from the primaeval to the present times. The
term _oak_ is used in several places in Scripture, but nowhere does it
appear to refer to the oak as we know it--_our indigenous oak_. The _oak_,
under which God appeared to Abraham, bears apparently a resemblance to the
_tree of life_ of the Assyrian sculptures; and, perhaps, the _Zoroastrian_
{469} _Homa_, or sacred tree, and the _sacred tree of the Hindus_; and the
same may yet be found in the _British oak_. Is there a botanical affinity
between these trees? Are they all _oaks_? Was the _tree of life_, as
described in the Bible, an _oak_?