LONGEVITY OF PLANTS. 305 



atmosphere, might not the ordinary methods employed for the 

 recovery of drowned persons be assisted by the application 

 of warm ashes or chalk 1 The structure of a Hy and that of a 

 man, it is allowed, are very different. But in desperate cases, 

 when every other method fails, no fact should be overlooked, 

 and no analogy despised. 



Plants differ as much in the periods of their existence as 

 animals. Many plants perish yearly ; others are biennial, 

 triennial, &,c. But the longevity and magnitude of particular 

 trees are prodigious. We are informed by Mr. Evelyn, that 

 in the bodies of some English oaks, when cut transversely, 

 three and even four hundred rings of wood have been distin- 

 guished. A ring of wood is added annually to the trunks of 

 trees; and, by counting the rings, the age of any tree may be 

 pretty exactly ascertained. With regard to the magnitude 

 of oaks, some of them are huge masses. Dr. Hunter, in his 

 notes upon Evelyn's Sylva, remarks, that none " of the oaks 

 mentioned by Mr. Evelyn bear any proportion to one now 

 growing at Cowthorpe, near Wetherby, upon an estate belong- 

 ing to the Right Hon. Lady Stourton. The dimensions are 

 almost incredible. Within three feet of the surface, it meas- 

 ures sixteen yards ; and close by the ground twenty-six yards. 

 Its height, in its present and ruinous state (1776) is about 

 eighty-five feet, and its principal limb extends sixteen yards 

 from the bole. When compared to this, all other trees are 

 but children of the forest." 



From the facts which have been enumerated, it appears, 

 that all animals, as well as vegetables, have stated periods of 

 existence, and that their dissolution is uniformly accomplished 

 by a gradual hardening and desiccation of their constituent 



farts. No art, no medicine, can retard the operations of nature, 

 t is, therefore, the wisdom and the duty of every human 

 being to sail down the irresistible current of nature with all pos- 

 sible tranquillity and resignation. Life, whether short or long, 

 whether fortunate or unfortunate, when the fatal period arrives, 

 is of little consequence to the individual. Society, knowledge, 

 virtue, and benevolence, are our only rational enjoyments, and 

 ought to be cultivated with diligence. 



With regard to animals in general, the actual duration of 

 their lives is very different. But the comparative shortness 

 or length of life, in particular animals, probably depends on 

 the quickness or slowness of the ideas which pass in their 

 minds, or of the impressions made upon their senses. A rapid 

 succession of ideas or impressions makes time seern proper 

 26* 



