260 S Y L V A BOOK iv 



hapning in the Indies ; so that if their woods were 

 once destroyed, they might perish for want of rains ; 

 upon which account Barbadoes grows every year 

 more torrid, and has not near the rain it formerly 

 enjoyed when it was better furnished with trees ; 

 and so in Jamaica at Gunaboa, the rains are observed 

 to diminish, as their plantations extend : The like I 

 could tell you of some parts of England not far from 

 hence. 



And now lastly, to encourage those to plant that 

 have opportunity, and those who innocently, and 

 with reluctancy are forced to cut down, and endeavour 

 to supply the waste with their utmost industry : 'Tis 

 observed that such planters are often bless'd with 

 health and old age, according to that of the prophet 

 LX Isa. 22: " The days of a tree are the days of my 

 people": Instances of whose extraordinary longoevity, 

 we have given abundance in this discourse, and seems 

 to be so universally remarked, that as Paulus Venetus 

 (that great traveller) reports, the Tartarian astrologers 

 affirm, nothing contributes more to mens long lives, 

 than the planting of many trees: Haec scripsi octogen- 

 arius^ and shall, if God protract my years, and continue 

 health, be continually planting, till it shall please him 

 to transplant me into those glorious regions above, 

 the ccelestial Paradise, planted with perennial groves 

 and trees, bearing immortal fruit ; for such is the 

 tree of life, which they who do his commandments 

 have right to, XXII Apoc. 20: New, epx ^ ra X^ ^ v 



vat, px ov KvfOte 'Iijaov ajurjv. 



19. Thus my reader sees, and I acknowledge, how 

 easie it is to be lost in the woods, and that 1 have 

 hardly power to take off my pen whilst I am on this 

 delightful subject : For what more august, more 



