[s»] 
thefe pctrific particles in fo exadt a manner would 
inevitably render the whole hard enough, in the 
courfe of its growth. Is not the fhell of a common 
egg hard enough ? and yet its membrane, into the cel- 
lules of which the teflaceous particles were fecreted 
and ranged, in order to produce that hardnefs, was 
foft enough before. 
If we were to make tranfverfe fedtions of the ge- 
nerality of thefe bodies, we fhould fee a regular ra- 
diated order of pores from their central medullary 
pipes, fome foliated, others more tubular, others 
barely porous, all differing from one another only ac- 
cording to their own natures. What more is there 
in the order of the fibres of trees or plants ? Tranf- 
verfe fedtions of any of thefe will fhew you the mod: 
beautiful figures, in fuch orders, that can be conceiv’d; 
which, long ago, that accurate and learned naturalift 
Dr. Grew has ingenioufly obferv’d, in his Anatomy 
of Plants , where he has given elegant figures of fuch 
fedtions in a variety of examples. And altho’ fome 
of thefe bodies have their pipes and pores quite flopp’d 
up, as they grow, yet their external appearance will 
fhew them fibrofe. 
In like manner fome trees are fo very hard, from 
the ffrong connedtion of their parts, that, in a tranf- 
verfe fedtion, neither pores nor fibres can be diftin- 
guifh'd ; and they are as fufceptible of a fine polifh 
as any {tone. And indeed it would feem to me much 
more difficult to conceive, that fo fine an arrange- 
ment of parts, fuch maffes as thefe bodies confift of, 
and fuch regular ramifications in fome, and fuch well- 
contriv’d organs to ferve for vegetation in others, 
fhould be the operations of little, poor, helplefs. 
