every walk, as much a wood as I found it. The moment you turn either to the right or left, you are in a forest, where nature prefents you with a 'much more beautiful scene than could have been raifed by art. Inftead of Tulips or Carnations, I can fhew you Oaks in my gardens, of four hundred years standing, and a knot of Elms that might fhelter · a troop of horfe from the rain. It is not without the utmost indignation, that I ⚫ obferve feveral prodigal young heirs in the neighbourhood, felling down the moft glorious monuments of their ancestors induftry, and ruining in a day the product of ages. I am mightily pleased with your discourse upon planting, which put me upon looking into my 'books to give you fome account of the veneration the ancients had for trees. There is an old tradition,, that Abraham planted a Cyprefs, a Pine, and a Cedar, and that thefe three incorporated into one tree, which was cut down for the building of the temple of Solomon. Ifidorus, who lived in the reign of Conftantius, affures us, that he faw, even in his time, that 'famous Oak in the plains of Mambre, under which Abraham is reported to have dwelt, and adds, that the people looked upon it with a great veneration, and preferved it as a facred tree. The heathens ftill went farther, and regarded it as the highest piece of facrilege to injure certain trees which they took to be protected by fome deity. The story of Erifthon, the grove at Donoda, and that at Delphi, are all inftances of this kind. If we confider the machine in Virgil, fo much • blamed by several criticks in this light, we fhall 'hardly think it too violent. Eneas, when he built his fleet in order to fail ' for Italy, was obliged to cut down the grove on 'mount 145 'mount Ida, which however he durft not do until he had obtained leave from Cybele, to whom it was dedicated. The goddefs could not but think herself obliged to protect thefe fhips, which were 'made of confecrated timber, after a very extraordinary manner, and therefore defired Jupiter that they might not be obnoxious to the power of waves or winds. Jupiter would not grant this, but promised her, that as many as came safe to Italy fhould be tranformed into goddeffes of the fea; which the poet tells us was accordingly • executed. And now at length the number'd hours were come,Prefix'd by fate's irrevocable doom, When the great mother of the Gods was free O Trojan race, your needlefs aid forbear; VOL. VIII. N As As many beauteous maids the billows fweep, The common opinion concerning the nymphs, whom the ancients called Hamadryads, is more to the honour of trees than any thing yet men. tioned. It was thought the fate of thefe nymphs had fo near a dependence on fome trees, more especially oaks, that they lived and died together. For this reafon they were extremely grateful to 'fuch perfons who preferved thofe trees with which their being fubfifted. Apollonius tells us a very remarkable ftory to this purpose, with which I fhall conclude my letter. A certain man, called Rheeus, obferving an old oak ready to fall, and being moved with a fort of compaffion towards the tree, ordered his fervants to pour in fresh earth at the roots of it, and fet it upright. The Hamadryad, or nymph, who must neceffarily have perithed with the tree, appeared to him the next day, and after having returned him her thanks, told him, fhe was 'ready to grant whatever he should ask. As the was extremely beautiful, Rhacus defired he might be entertained as her lover. The Hamadryad not much difpleafed with the requeft, promifed to give him a meeting, but commanded him for fome days to abftain from the embraces of all other women, adding that he would fend a bee to him, to let him know when he was to be happy. Rhecus was, it feems, too much addicted to gaming, and happened to be in a run of ill-luck when the faithful bee came buzzing about him; fo that instead of minding his kind invitation, he had like to have killed him for his pains. The Hamadryad was fo provoked at her own difapDointment, and the ill-ufage of her meffenger, that the deprieved Rhacus of the ufe of his 6 limbs. However, fays the ftory, he was not fo much a cripple, but he made a fhift to cut down the tree, and confequently to fell his • mistress. No 590. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 6. Afiduo labuntur tempora motu Non fecus ac flumen. Neque enim confiftere flumen, Nec levis hora poteft: fed ut unda impellitur unda, Urgeturque prior venienti, urgetque priorem, Tempora fic fugiunt pariter, pariterque fequuntur;Et nova funt femper. Nam quod fuit ante, relictum eft; Fitque quod haud fuerat: momentaque cuncta novantur. OVID. Met. 1. xv. ver. 179. E'en times are in perpetual flux, and run, DRYDEN. The following difcourfe comes from the fame hand with the effays upon infinitude. WE E confider infinite fpace as an expanfion without a circumference: We confider eternity, or infinite duration, as a line that has neither a beginning nor an end. In our fpeculations of infinite fpace, we confider that particular place in which N 2. we we exift, as a kind of centre to the whole expanfion. In our fpeculations of eternity, we confider the time which is prefent to us as the middle, which divides the whole line into two equal parts. For this reafon, many witty authors compare the prefent time to an ifthmus, or narrow neck of land. that rifes in the midft of an ocean, immeafurably diffused in either fide of it. Philosophy, and indeed common fenfe, naturally throws eternity under two divifions; which we may call in English, that eternity which is past, and that eternity which is to come. The learned terms of Eternitas a parte ante, and Eternitas a parte post, may be more amusing to the reader, but can have no other idea affixed to them than what is conveyed to us by those words, an eternity that is paft, and an eternity that is to come. Each of these extreamities is bounded at the one extreme; or, in other words, the former has an end, and the latter a beginning. Let us firft of all confider that eternity which is paft, referving that which is to come for the fubject of another paper. The nature of this eternity is utterly inconceivable by the mind of man: Our reafon demonftrates to us that it has been, but at the fame time can frame no idea of it, but what is big with abfurdity and contradiction. We can have no other conception of any duration which is past, than that all of it was once prefent; and whatever was once prefent, is at fome certain distance from us, and whatever is at any certain distance -from us, be the distance never fo remote, cannot be eternity. The very notion of all duration's being paft, implies that it was once prefent; for the idea of being once prefent, is actually included in the idea of its being paft. This therefore is a depth not to be founded by human upderstanding, We are fure that there has been an eternity, and yet contradict ourfelves when we meafure |