217 



add new charms to the wide level of our plains, and 

 sheltei, like a feci'eeu, the warn! lap of our vales. 



" W ho is not charmed with t!ie delicious fruits of 

 summer emd autumn? But were all our trees and shrubs 

 t -roducc such fruits, what would become of the birds 1 

 .itn-ili a part would voracious man resign to their 

 ekiJTrvHicnt ? To provide therefore for each vagrant of 

 the air, as well as for the sovereign of a nation, there is 

 in all places a large growth of shrubs, annually covered 

 with course and hardy berries : so coarse -in tiieir taste, 

 that they are unworthy of the acceptance of man : so 

 hardy in their make, that they endure the utmost seve- 

 rity of the weather, and furnish the feathered tribes 

 with a standing repast amidst all the desolatious of 

 "winter. 



" The Hr, the beech, the elm, are stately decorations 

 of our rural seats. But if there were no entangling 

 thickets, no prickly thorns, where would the farmer pro- 

 cure fences ? How could he secure his vegetable wealth 

 from the flocks and the herds ? Those roving plunder- 

 ers, which submit to no laws, but those of the coercive 

 kind. 



" We spare no toil, to have useful herbs and plants 

 in our gardens, and upon our tables. But there are in- 

 numerable herbs, which pass under the contemptible 

 character of weeds, and yet are full as desirable to other 

 classes of creatures, as these are to mankind. Yet who 

 will be at the pains to plant, to water, to cultivate, such 

 despicable productions ? Man would rather extirpate 

 than propagate, these incumbrances of his land. There- 

 fore providence vouchsafes to be their gardener, and has 

 wrought off their seeds with such a lightness, that they 

 are transported to and fro, by the mere undulations of 

 the air. Or, if too heavy, to be wafted by the breeze, 

 they are fastened to \viugs of down : or else inclosed 

 in a springy case, which forcibly bursting, shoots them 

 out on every side. By some such means, the reprodu- 



