126 SYLVA FLORIFEEA. 



when contrasted with other natives of the 

 forest. It carries the mind of the man of 

 letters back to early days ; for, 



. 



" Thus is nature's vesture wrought, 

 To instruct our wandering thought." 



. 



The bark of this tree consists of an accu- 

 mulation of ten or twelve skins, which are 

 white and thin, like paper ; the use of which 

 it supplied to the ancients, and of its im- 

 perishable nature let us 



" Ask, now, of history's authentic page, 

 And call up evidence from every age/' 



The books which Numa composed about 

 700 years before Christ, were written on the 

 bark of the birch-tree; and, if we may depend 

 on the testimony of Pliny and of Plutarch, 

 they were found in the tomb of that great 

 king, where they had remained four hundred 

 years. Numa had forbidden his body to be 

 burnt, according to the custom of the Romans; 

 but he ordered it to be buried near Mount 

 Janiculum, with many of the books which he 

 had written. The body of this philosophical 

 monarch was entirely consumed by time; but 

 the books, which treated of philosophy and 

 religion, were in such a state of preservation, 

 that Petilius, the praetor, undertook to read 



