THE CHERRY. 313 



The transplantation of fruit-trees from one distant 

 locality to another has been employed by Hume as 

 an argument to prove " the youth, or rather infancy 

 of the world," in opposition to the opinions of those 

 who maintain that this earth has existed, in its pre- 

 sent condition, from countless ages: 



" Lucullus was the first that brought cherry-trees 

 from Asia to Europe; though that tree thrives so 

 well in many European climates, that it grows in the 

 woods without any culture. Is it possible, that, 

 throughout a whole eternity, no European had ever 

 passed into Asia, and thought of transplanting so 

 delicious a fruit into his own country? Or if the 

 tree was once transplanted and propagated, how 

 could it ever afterwards perish ? Empires may rise 

 and lall ; liberty and slavery succeed alternately; 

 ignorance and knowledge give place to each other; 

 but the cherry-tree will still remain in the woods of 

 Greece, Spain, and Italy, and will never be affected 

 by the revolutions of human society. 



"It is not two thousand years since vines were 

 transplanted into France; though there is no climate 

 in the world more favourable to them. It is not three 

 centuries since horses, cows, sheep, swine, dogs, 

 corn, were known in America. Is it possible, that, 

 during the revolutions of a whole eternity, there 

 never arose a Columbus, who might open the com- 

 munication between Europe and that continent ? We 

 may as well imagine that all men would wear stock- 

 ings for ten thousand years, and never have the sense 

 to think of garters to tie them. All these seem con- 

 vincing proofs of the youth, or rather, infancy, of the 

 world; as being founded on the operation of princi- 

 ples more constant and steady than those by which 

 human society is governed and directed. Nothing 

 less than a total convulsion of the elements will ever 



VOL. II. 9* 



