£ 48 ] 



bitants. This fea-girt ifland depends upon oaks for 

 its commerce and protedtion. Thefe are found 

 therefore in a variety of foils, in lands both itifF and 

 light, both wet and dry but attain their fuUeft mag- 

 nitude 



ment : it gives a nobler air to feveral parts of nature ; it fills the 

 earth with a variety of beautiful fcenes, and has fomething in it 

 like creation. For this reafon, the pleafure of one who plants is 

 Ibmething like that of a poet, who, as Arillotle obferves, is more 

 ^delighted with his produ6lions, than any other writer or artift 

 "whatfoever. 



Plantations have one advantage in them, which is not to be 

 found in moft other works, as they give a pleafure of a more laft- 

 ing date, and commonly improve in the eye of the planter. When 

 you ^ave finiftied a building, or any other undertaking of the like 

 nature, it immediately decays upon your hands ; you fee it brought 

 to the utmoll point of pcxfc£lloii, dud fium that time baftemng to 

 its ruin. On the contrary, when you have finiflied your planta- 

 £ons,they are ftill arriving at greater degrees of perfe61:ion as long 

 as you live, and appear more beautiful in every fucceeding year tliaa 

 they did in the foregoing. 



But I do not only recommend this art to men of eftates as a plea- 

 ■fmg amufement, but as it is a kind of virtuous employment, and 

 may therefore be inculcated by moral motives j particularly from 

 the love which we ought to have for our country, and the regard 

 which we ought to bear to our pofterity. As to the fii-ft, I need 

 only mention, what is frequently obferved by others, that the in- 

 creafe of forefl trees does by no means beai* a proportion to the 

 -deftruftion of them, in fo much that, in a few ages" the nation 

 xnay be at a lofs to fupply itfelf with timber fufficient for the fleets' 

 of England. 



SpeSatQr, No. 583—20//; Augitft^ 1714. 



^ The writer little thought, that in lefs tlian one age, his prc- 

 diflion would come to pais. 



