57 



stricture ; yet, at a more advanced period, 

 it seems not only unnecessary, but hurtful. 



So the food that is necessary for the 

 young animal, is not only unnecessary, but 

 unfit fof the old. And it may be observed, 

 that the transverse bark, which is the prin- 

 cipal cause of almost all the maladies of 

 fruit trees, is always destroyed by nature, 

 and never replaced. 



We do not suppose that nature gives any 

 thing in vain ; but we see, as in the trans- 

 verse bark, and in the blossom, that when 

 she has served her purpose, she throws them 

 aside ; and when we observe her too weak, 

 or too tardy, it is 4 our duty to assist her. 

 But the vanity of man makes him think that 

 nothing is of use in nature but what is for 

 his own. He fancies the earth was made 

 H 



