EARLY EXPERIMENTS. 
27 
the formal inquiry thus quaintly detailed, 
now excite a smile, it may be recollected 
that they display the early application of 
the Baconian method, by the employment of 
which so much of certainty has been subse¬ 
quently attained in natural history. 
‘^Wedidin chap. 21, mention certain 
subterranean trees, which Mr. Cambden 
supposes grew altogether under the ground: 
and truly, it did appear a very paradox to 
me, till I both saw and diligently examin’d 
that piece (plank, stone, or both shall I 
name it) of lignum fossile taken out of a 
certain quarry thereof at Aqua Sparta, not 
far from Rome, and sent to the most incom¬ 
parably learned Sir George Ent, by that 
obliging Virtuoso Cavalier dal Pozzo. He 
that shall examine the hardnesse, and feel 
the ponder ousnesse of it, sinking in 
water, &c., will easily take it for a stone; 
but he that shall behold its grain so exquis¬ 
itely uiiQulated, and varied together with 
its colour, manner of hewing, chips, and 
other most perfect resemblances, will never 
scruple to pronounce it arrant wood. 
^^But, whiles others have philosophiz’d 
