46 Proce:kdings 0^ TH^ 



ground, and the good portion of the grain grown 

 by the peasants upon it. To this argument PaUissy 

 replies : "1 cannot enough detest this thing, and I call 

 it not an error hut a curse and calamity to all Prance; 

 for when the forests shall be cut all arts shall cease, and 

 they who practice them shall be driven out to eat 

 grass with Nebuchadnezzar and the beasts of the field. 

 I have divers times thought to set down in writing the 

 arts that shall perish when there shall be no more 

 wood, but when I had written down a great number, 

 I did perceive that there could be no end of my writing, 

 and having diligently considered, I found there was 

 not any which could be followed without wood. ^ * * 

 And truly I could well allege to thee a thousand 

 reasons, but 'tis so cheap a philosophy that the very 

 chamber wenches, if they do but think, may see that 

 without wood it is not possible to exercise any manner 

 of human art or cunning." 



G. P. Marsh, in his valuable work "Man and Nature," 

 page 232, says: ''There are parts of Asia Minor, of 

 Northern Africa, of Greece, and even of Alpine 

 Europe, where the operations of causes set in action 

 by man has brought the face of earth to a desolation 

 almost as complete as that of the moon; and though, 

 within that brief space of time men call the 'historical 

 period' they are known to have been covered with 

 luxuriant woods, verdant pastures and fertile meadows, 

 they are now too far deteriorated to be reclaimable by 

 man ; nor can they become again fitted for human use 

 except through great geological changes, or other 

 mysterious influences or agencies of which we have no 

 present knowledge, or over which we have no pros- 

 pective control. 



"The destructive changes occasioned by the agency 

 of man upon the flanks of the Alps, the Appennines, 



