sect of DRUIDS; the philosophers, whose order, they say, was instituted
by one _Samothes_, which is in English as much as to say, an heavenly
man. The _Celtic_ name, _Deru_, for an Oak was that from whence they
received their denomination; as at this very day the _Welch_ call this
tree _Drew_, and this order of men _Derwyddon_. But there are no small
antiquaries who derive this oaken religion and philosophy from the
_Oaks of Mamre_, where the Patriarch _Abraham_ had as well a dwelling
as an _altar_. That _Oaken-Plain_ and the eminent OAK under which
_Abraham_ lodged was extant in the days of _Constantine_, as _Isidore_,
_Jerom_, and _Sozomen_ have assured us. Yea, there are shrewd
probabilities that _Noah_ himself had lived in this very _Oak-plain_
before him; for this very place was called _Ogge_ [see Transcriber's
Note #1 at end of chapter], which was the name of _Noah_, so styled
from the _Oggyan_ (_subcineritiis panibus_) sacrifices, which he did
use to offer in this renowned _Grove_. And it was from this example
that the ancients, and particularly that the Druids of the nations,
chose _oaken_ retirements for their studies. Reader, let us now, upon
another account, behold the students of _Harvard College_, as a
rendezvous of happy _Druids_, under the influences of so rare a
president. But, alas! our joy must be short-lived, for on _July_ 25,
1681, the stroke of a sudden death felled the _tree_,

"Qui tantum inter caput extulit omnes
Quantum lenta solent inter viberna cypressi.

"Mr. _Oakes_ thus being transplanted into the better world the
presidentship was immediately tendered unto _Mr. Increase Mather_."

This will suffice as an example of the bad taste and laborious pedantry
which disfigured Mather's writing. In its substance the book is a