The ancient chronicle from which we have sketched these pictures here drops its curtain. We find no further traces of the different individuals whose characters and doings have flitted like a dream before our minds. But their history shadows forth their destiny; and we may trace its brighter or darker lines, by the characters in which they have been seen.
That memorable tree under which these deeds of terror were done, was then in its greenness and beauty. Not long after, and it literally fulfilled the prophetic intimation of Trellison. "Smitten, as was supposed by lightning, it withered away, and stood for years with leafless, outstretched arms, and sapless trunk, until burned to the ground, by the descendants of the third and fourth generation of those who suffered under it. In superstitious minds, tempests and torrents could not wash away the blood from the unhallowed hill whereon it grew, and the soil was cursed and barren of wholesome vegetation."[A]
True Religion acknowledges no affinity with superstition. She has indeed suffered from the artificial bonds in which skepticism has entwined them; but if her robes have been soiled and her countenance marred by the unnatural position she is thus compelled to occupy, her voice of charity and accents of love still proclaim her divine, and she will always come forth with renovated beauty, and offer to man the best antidote against superstition, and his only true happiness for time and eternity.
FOOTNOTE:
[A] 'Historical Letters,' by A. Cushing, Esq.