SYLVA 265 



like number, and so on by geometrical progression in 

 squares and cubes, Gfc. At what a loss must the most 

 enlarged human capacity be at so stupendous a con- 

 sideration ! 



One single seed of tobacco would produce 1296000 

 ooooooooo, &c. and every one of these how many 

 more, let those who have leisure compute. 



22. Let us again examine with what care the seeds, 

 those little souls of plants, Quorum exilitas (as one says) 

 <vix locum inveniat (in which the whole and compleat 

 tree, though invisible to our dull sense, is yet perfectly 

 and entirely wrapp'd up) are preserved from avolation, 



diminution aud detriment ; expos'd, as they seem to 

 be, to all those accidents of weather, storms, and 

 rapacious birds, in their spiny, arm'd and compacted 

 receptacles ; where they sleep as in their causes, till 

 their prisons let them gently fall into the embraces of 

 the earth, now made pregnant with the season, and 

 ready for another burthen : For at the time of year 

 she fails not to bring them forth. And with what 

 delight have I beheld this tender and innumerable 

 off-spring, repullulating at the feet of an aged tree ! 

 from whence the suckers are drawn, transplanted and 

 educated by human industry, and forgetting the ferity 

 of their nature, become civiliz'd to all his employ- 

 ments. 



23. Can we look on the prodigious quantity of 

 liquor, which one poor wounded birch will produce 

 in a few hours, and not be astonished how some trees 

 should in so short a space, weep more than they 

 weigh ? And that so dry, so feeble and wretched a 

 branch, as that which bears the grape, should yield a 

 juice that cheers both God and man ? That the pine, 

 fir, larch, and other resinous trees, planted in such 



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