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had obtained the boon, he ufed it in felling 

 the whole. 



In very early days this devaftation began. 

 When Jofhua divided the land of promife 

 among the Ifraelites, the children of Jofeph 

 made complaint, that their lot was infufficient 

 for their numbers : " Get thee up to the 

 wood-country, faid Joftiua, and cut down 

 for thyfelf there, in the land of the Perizzites : 

 the mountain mail be thine ; for it is a wood ; 

 and thou malt cut it down -, and the out-goings 

 ofitfhallbethine*." 



The cedars of Lebanon, which once found 

 employment for eighty thoufand hewers -}-, are 

 now dwindled to a dozen trees. The woods, 

 which covered the ifland of Delos, had intirely 

 difappeared even in the time of Herodotus. 

 In Cyprus you look for the traces of it's forefts 

 in vain. In all the new peopled parts of 

 America, it was the fole employment of 

 each colony to cut down wood; and it is 

 aftonifhing what devaflation the woods of 

 thofe countries have fuffered during thefe two 

 laft centuries. In the Weft-Indies the fame 



* Jofli. xvii. 15. f i Kings v. 15. 



havoc 



