STUDY V. 



293 



" works, did they acknowledge the Work-mafler: 

 " but deemed either fire, or wind, or fwift air, or 

 " the circle of the ftars, or the violent water, or 

 *' the lights of Heaven, to be the Gods which 

 ** govern the world." 



All thefe phyfical caufes, united, could not have 

 determined the port of one fingle mofs. In order 

 to be convinced of this, let us begin with exa- 

 mining the circulation of plants. It has been laid 

 down as an indubitable principle, that their faps 

 afcend through the wood, and re-defcend through 

 the rind. To the experiments which have been 

 detailed in proof, 1 fliall oppofe only the in- 

 flance of a great chefnut-tree, in the garden of the 

 Thuilleries, near the terrace of the Feuillants, 

 which, for twenty years paft, has had no bark 

 round it's under part, and which, notwithftand- 

 ing, is in perfeâ: vigor. Many elms on the Bou- 

 levards are in the fame flate. On the other hand, 

 we have feen old hollowed willows, which have 

 not a bit of good wood left. Befides, how is it 

 pofTible to apply this principle of vegetation to a 

 multitude of plants, feme of which are compofed 

 entirely of tubes, and to others which have no 

 rind, being enclofed only in dry pellicles ? 



Neither is there more truth in the fuppofitioti 

 that they rife in a perpendicular line, and that to 



u 3 this 



