?-34 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



Trees are the real monuments of Nations. Time, 

 which fpeedily impairs the Works of Man, onl/ 

 increafes the beauty of thofe of Nature. It is to 

 the trees, that our favourite walk, the Boulevards, 

 is indebted for it's principal charm. They delight 

 the eye by their verdure ; they elevate the foul to 

 Heaven, by the loftinefs of their ftems ; they com- 

 municate refpeâ: to the monuments which they 

 fhade, by the majefty of their forms. They con- 

 tribute, more than we are aware of, to rivet our 

 attachment to the places which we have inhabited. 

 Our memory fixes on them, as on points of union, 

 which have lecret harmonies with the foul of Man. 

 They poffefs a commanding influence over the 

 events of our life, like thofe which rife by the 

 fliore of the Sea, and which frequently ferve as a 

 diredion to the pilot. 



I never fee the linden tree, but I feel myfeif 

 tranfported into Holland ; nor the fir, without re- 

 prefenting to my imagination the forefts of Rufïia. 



fo as to drefs a whole ox, which they frequently did ? I have ap- 

 plied to more than one pretended man of genius for a folution of 

 this difficulty, but to no purpofe. As to myfeif, I was long puz- 

 zled, I acknowledge, in deviling a method by which water might 

 be made to boil, in kettles made of wood, which were frequently 

 large enough to contain lèverai hundred gallons. Nothing, how- 

 ever, could be eafier to Savages: they heated pebbles and flints 

 till they were red-hot, and call: them into the water in the pot, 

 till it boiled. Confult Cbam'^lain. 



Trees 



