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a There are, I confess, who fancy that this long exposure of earth, before 
it come into employ, causes it to exhale the little virtue it already possessed; 
but, provided nothing be suffered to grow on it whilst it lies fallow, there is 
no danger of this, for, in fact, no comport or lastation whatever is comparable 
to the influences of the heavens, which does, m a great measuie, fertdize the 
earth alone. For, verily, it is almost a miracle to see how the same land, 
without any other manure or culture, which before was almost effete, will 
bring forth and even luxuriate, and that by the bare raking and combing of 
the earth, now one way, and then another, as to the regions of heaven and 
polar aspects, which is indeed a secret worthy to be considered. 5 ’ 
“ Take,” says he, “ the most barren earth you can find, drained, if you 
please, of all its nitrous salts and masculine parts; reduce it to a fine powder 
(which may be done even in large proportions, by a rude engine, letting fall 
a kind of hammer or beetle at the motion of a wheel); let this pulverised 
earth, which may be frequently agitated, be exposed for a summer and winter 
to the vicissitudes and changes of the seasons, and influences of the heavens; 
by this labour, and rest from vegetation, you will find it to have obtained 
such a generous and masculine pregnancy within that period as to make good 
your highest expectation; for the earth has a certain magnetism in it, by 
which it attracts the salt, power, or virtue, call it what you please, which 
gives it life, and is explanatory of the reason of the ploughing, digging, and 
the advantages arising from incessant labour, confirming the old proverb,” 
“ Annus fructificat non tellus;” 
“ f° r the earth, when once impregnated with the influences of the heavens, 
becomes so fitted for vegetation, that it receives the seeds committed to its 
bosom with a passion and fervency, as it were, of animal love.” 
Sir Kenelm Digby, in his discourse on Sympathetic Powders , affirms, 
that the earth, in the years of repose, recovers its vigour by the attraction of 
the vital spirits which it receives from the air, and those superior irradiations 
which endow simple earth with qualities productive of fermentation.” 
To this belongs Sir Hugh Platt s contrition, or philosophical sifting of 
earth, “ which, by this process alone, without manure of soil, will in time 
create a rich, mellow earth, fitted to receive every plant, even from the far¬ 
thest Indies, and cause all vegetables to prosper in a most exalted degree,” 
and, to speak as magnificently as the illustrious author, “ occasion them to 
