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ftem, we fuppofe, grows (lately and erect; 

 but when the root meets with a rocky ftratum, 

 a hard and gravelly bed, or any other difficulty, 

 through which it is obliged, in a zigzag courfe 

 to pick it's way, and ftruggle for a pafTage ; 

 the fympathetic ftem, feeling every motion, 

 purfues the fame indirect courfe above, which 

 the root does below : and thus the fturdy plant, 

 through the means of thefe fubterraneous en- 

 counters, and hardy conflicts, afTumes form and 

 character, and becomes, in a due courfe of 

 centuries, a picturefque tree* 



Virgil has given us the picture of an oak, 

 in which its principal characteriftics are well 

 touched. 



Efculus imprimis, quae quantum vertice ad auras 

 ./Ethereas, tantum radice in Tartara tendit. 

 Ergo non hiemes illam, non flabra, neque imbres 

 Convcllunt : immota manet, multofque per annos 

 Multa virum volvens durando secula vincit. 

 Turn fortes late ramos, et brachia tendens 

 jHuc illuc, media ipfa ingeqtem fuftinet umbram *. 



I mail not enter into a criticifm on the 

 word efcuhtS) which cannot on any good 

 authority, I believe, fignify the beech; and 



* Georg. ii, 290, 



Pliny's 



