106 SYLVA BOOK i 



ravishing object, to behold their amenities in this 

 particular : With us, says he (speaking of France) 

 they make a jest at such political ordinances, by 

 ruining these publick and useful ornaments, if haply 

 some more prudent magistrate do at any time intro- 

 duce them. Thus in the reign of Henry the Fourth, 

 (during the superintendency of Monsieur de Sulli) 

 there was a resolution of adorning all the highways 

 of France with elms, Gfc. but the rude and mischiev- 

 ous peasants did so hack, steal and destroy what they 

 had begun, that they were forced to desist from the 

 thorough prosecution of the design ; so as there is 

 nothing more expos'd, wild, and less pleasant than 

 the common roads of France for want of shade, and 

 the decent limits which these sweet and divertissant 

 plantations would have afforded. Not to omit that 

 political use, as my Lord Bacon hints it, where he 

 speaks of the statues and monuments of brave men, 

 and such as had well deserv'd of the publick, erected 

 by the Romans even in their highways ; since doubt- 

 less, such noble and agreeable objects would exceed- 

 ingly divert, entertain, and take off the minds and 

 discourses of melancholy people, and pensive travel- 

 lers, who having nothing but the dull and enclosed 

 ways to cast their eyes on, are but ill conversation to 

 themselves, and others, and instead of celebrating, 

 censure their superiors. It is by a curious person, 

 and industrious friend of mine, observ'd, that the sap 

 of this tree rises and descends with the sun's diurnal 

 course (which it visibly slackens in the night) and 

 more plentifully at the root on the south side, though 

 those roots cut on the north were larger, and less 

 distant from the body of the tree ; and not only 

 distill'd from the ends, which were next the stem, 



