Chap. 79.] 
THE DURABILTTT OP WOOD. 
423 
wise injurious effects of age — the cypress, the cedar, the ebony, 
the lotus, the box, the yew, the juniper, and both the wild and 
cultivated olive. Among the others, the larch, the robur, the 
cork-tree, the chesnut, and the walnut are also remarkably 
durable. The cedar, cypress, olive, and box are never known 
to split or crack spontaneously. 
CHAP. 79. HISTOEICAL EACTS CONNECTED WITH THE DURABILITY 
or WOOD. 
Of all the woods, the ebony, the cypress, and the cedar are 
considered to be the most durable, a good proof of which is to 
be seen in the timber of which the Temple of Diana at Ephesus 
is built : it being now four hundred years since it was erected, 
at the joint expense of the whole of Asia and, what is a well- 
known fact, the roof is wholly constructed of planks of cedar. 
As to the statue of the goddess, there is some doubt of what 
wood it is made ; all the writers say that it is ebony, with; the 
exception of Mucianus, who was three times consul, one of 
the very latest among the writers that have seen it ; he de- 
clares that it is made of the wood of the vine, and that it has 
never been changed all the seven times that the temple has 
been rebuilt. He says, too, that it was Endseus who made 
choice of this wood, and even goes so far as to mention the 
artist's name, a thing that really surprises me very much, see- 
ing that he attributes to it an antiquity that dates before the 
times of Eather Liber, and of Minerva even. He states, also, 
that, by the aid of numerous apertures, it is soaked with 
nard, in order that the moist nature of that drug may preserve 
the wood and keep the seams^^ close together ; I am rather 
surprised, however, that there should be any seams in tlie 
statue, considering the very moderate size it is. He informs 
us, also, that the doors are made of cypress, and that the 
wood, which has now lasted very nearly four hundred years, 
has all the appearance of new.^"^ It is worthy of remark, too, 
that the wood of these doors, after the pieces had been glued 
together, was left to season four years before they were j)ut 
•■^^ Asia Minor, namely. See B. xxxv. c. 21. 
^'^ The junctures where the pieces of wood are united by glue. This is 
to be observed very easily in the greater part of the oaken statuary that is 
so plentiful in the churches of Belgium. 
Cypress is perhaps the most lasting of all woods. 
