218 



A DISCOURSE 



I know it is an objection, or rather an unreasonable excuse of the 

 slothful neglect of successive and continual planting, that the expec- 

 tation is tedious of what is not likely to be timber in our time : but 

 this is quite otherwise, provided men would be earlier at the work, for 

 they might have sufficient of their own planting (nay from the very ru- 

 diment and seeds) abundantly to recompense their patience and attend- 

 ance, living to the age men usually attain by the common course of na- 

 ture ; and with how much improvement to their children and posterity. 

 This minds me of what is reported of the emperor JNIaximilian II. who 

 by chance finding an ancient husbandman setting Date-stones, he asked 

 him what his meaning was to plant a tree that required an hundred years 

 before it bore fruit ? " Sir," replies the good man, " I have children, and 

 they may have more come after them." At which the emperor was so 

 well pleased, that he gave him an hundred florins. Was not this like 

 that of Laertes to Ulysses ? — But to return to felling. 



Such as we shall perceive to decay, should first be picked out for the 

 axe, and then those which are in their state, or approaching to it ; but 

 the very thriving, and manifestly improving, should be indulged as 

 much as possible. To explore the goodness and sincerity of a standing 

 tree, is not the easiest thing in the world : we shall anon have occasion 

 to mention my Lord Bacon's experiment to detect the hollowness of 

 timber : but there is, doubtless, none more infallible than the boring it 

 with a middling piercer made auger-fashion, and by frequent pulling 

 out, and examining what substance comes along with it, as those who 

 bore the earth to explore what minerals the place is impregnated with, 

 and as sound cheeses are tasted : some again, there are, who, by digging 

 a little about the roots, will pronounce shrewdly concerning the state of 

 a tree ; and if they find him perished at the top, (for trees die upwards, 

 as men do from the feet,) be sure the cause lies deep, for it is ever a mark 

 of great decay in the roots. There is also a swelling vein, which disco- 

 vers itself eminently above the rest of the stem, though, like the rest, 

 invested with bark, and which frequently circles about and embraces 

 the tree, like a branch of Ivy ; this is an infallible indication of hollow- 

 ness and hypocrisy within. 



The time of the year for this destructive work is not usually till about 

 the end of April, (at which season the sap does commonly rise freely,) 

 though the opinions and practice of men have been very different. 



HOOK III. 



