OCR Text |
Show A Difcourfe of Foreft-Trees. Chap.XXXV, Foliorum deferibam diverfitates 2 What fhall we fay of the A4/teriows forms, variety, and variegation of the Leaves and Flowers, contriv'd with fuch Art, yet without Art; fome round, others long, Oval, A‘ultangular, indented,crifped, rough, mooth andpolifhed, oft and flexible at every tremulous blaft, as if it would drop in a moment, and yet fo obftinately adhering, as to be able to eonteft againft the fierceft Winds , that proftrate mighty Structures, raifing Hurrocanes, the violence whereof whole Fleets and Countries do often feel ; yet I fay, continually making War,and fometimes joyning Forces with {teeming fhowers, againft the poor Leaf, tyed on bya flender féalk; there it abides till God bids it fal! : For fo the wifé Difpofer of Things hasplac't it, not only for Orzament , but ufe and protedtion both of Bodyand Fruit , fromthe exceflive heat of Summer, and colds even of the fharpeft Wiwters, and their immediate ee mg find : in eh fuch Places and see > as good man, have alwayes Fruit upon them, like the blefed and ripe, or eine sonatas fuch as the Pine, Fir, ArbutwsOrange and molt of thofe which the Zvdies and more Southern Tratts plentifully aboundin; where Nature provides this continual fhelter, and clothes them with perennial Garments. 22. Let us again examine with what care the Seeds, thofelittle Souls of Plants, Quorum exilitas (asone fayes) vix locum inveniat (in which the whole and compleat Tree; thoughanvifible to our dull fenfe, is yet perfectly and intirely wrapp'd up) are preferv'd from avolation, diminution and detriment; expos’d, as they feem to be,to all thofe accidents of Weather,fiorms and rapacious Birds Chap.XXXV, A Difcourfe of Forelt-Trees, furnifhes a great Part of the World with all that even a Voluptuous Man can need, or almoft defire, it were {afficient to employ hi Meditations and his Hands, as long as he had to live Jears were as many as the moft aged Oak: tie h his Bur = Wifi,and = Thinking dtun can need noneof thele Topics, in every Hedge, and admire every Field they are before him; and yet we do not them, becaufe theyare Common, and obvious: Thus wefall into the juft reproachgiven by one of the Phi ‘ofophers (introduc’d by Cicde nat the Oratour ) to thofe whoflighted what they law every-day Del» 2» becaule they every-day faw then5 Quafi,Novitas nos magis quim magnitudo rerum, debeat ad exquirendas caufas excitare: As if Novelty onely fhould be of more force to ingage our enquir y into the Caufes of Things, than the Herth and Magnitude of the Things themfelves, 2 Refonate montes Laudationem > SYLVA 5 4.44. 236 Et omne Lignum us. in their {pinic,arm'd and compacted Receptacles; where they fleep as in their Caxfes, *till their Prifonslet them gently ‘fall into the embraces of the Earth, now made pregnant with the Seafoz, and readyfor another Burthex: For at the time ofYear he fails not to bring them forth; and with what delight have I beheld this tender and innumerable Off-fpring repulxlating at-the Feet of an aged Tree! fromwhencethe Suckers are drawn, tranfplanted and educated by humane Induffry; and forgetting the ferity of their Nature, becomecivilizdto all his Employments. 23. Can we look on the prodigious quantity of Liguor, which one poor wounded Birchwill produce in a few ours , and not be aftonifl’d howfome Trees fhould in fo fhort a fpace, Weep more than they weigh? andthat fo dry, fo feeble and wretched a branch as that which bears the Grape, fhould yield a Juice that Cheers both God and Mane That the Pine, Fir,Larch,and other Refinous Trees, Planted in fuch rude, and uncultivated places, amongit Rocks and dry Pumices, fhould tranfude into Terpentize, and pearl out into Gums, and pretious Balas ¢ De T here are ten Thoufand Confiderations more, befides that of their Medicinal and Sanative properties, and the Afechanical Ufes mention'd in this Treatifé. which a Contemplative Perfon may derive from the Groves and the Woods; all of them the Subject of Wonder; And thoughhe had onely the Palm or the Cocco, which furnifhes ] iBYi |