OF EARTH. 81 



time, of all waters, that which descends from heaven we find to be the 

 richest and properest in our work, as having been already meteorized, 

 and circulated in that great digestory, enriched and impregnated with 

 astral influences from above, at those propitious seasons; whence that say- 

 ing, annus fructificat, non tellus, has just title to a truth we every year's 

 revolution behold and admire, when the sweet dews of spring and autumn 

 (hitherto constipated by cold, or consumed with too much heat) begin to 

 be loosened, or moderately condensed, by the more benign temper of the 

 air, impregnating the prepared earth to receive the nitrous parts descend- 

 ing with their balmy pearls, yet with such difference of more or less 

 benign, (as vapours haply, which the earth sends up, may be sometimes 

 qualified,) that nothing is more uncertain. And this we easily observe 

 from the labours of the industrious bee, and her precious elixir, when 

 for some whole months she gathers little, and at other times stives her 

 v/axen city with the harvest of a few propitious days. But I am gone 

 too far, and therefore now shall set down only a few directions concern- 

 ing watering, and so dismiss the subject and your patience. 



1. It is not good to water new-sown seeds immediately, as frequently 

 we do, and which commonly bursts them, but to let them remain eight- 

 and forty hours in their beds, till they be a little glutted with the natural 

 juice of the earth : but then neither must you so neglect their beds, as to 

 become totally dry ; for if once the seeds crack through the heat, their 

 little souls exhale " : therefore till they peep, you must ever keep them in 

 a just temper for moisture, and be sure to purge them of predatious 

 weeds betimes : in a word, these irrigations are to be conducted accord- 

 ing to the quality of the seeds, those of hard integuments requiring 

 more plentiful refreshings. 



2. Never give much water at one time ; for the surface of the earth 

 will often seem very dry when it is wet enough beneath ; and then the 

 fibres rot about autumn, especially in pots and cases wintered in the 

 green-house. To be the more secure, we have already cautioned gar- 



"= This expression has an uncommon degree of simplicity and beauty. 



Volume 11. 3 Q 



