A DISCOURSE

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book i. in thirty years, borne a stem of a foot diameter. Generally, copse-wood'should be cut close, and at such intervals as the growth requires, which;being seldom constant, depends much on the places and the kinds, themould and the air; and for which there are extant particular statutesto direct us ; of all which more at large hereafter. Oak for tan-bark maybe felled from April to the last of June, by a statute in 1ft Jacobi; andthere are some for the disbarking of Oaks, and so- to let them stand:before they fell.

Uses, *7- To enumerate now the incomparable uses of Oak were needlefs >

but so precious was the esteem of it,. that of old there was an exprefslaw amongst the twelve tables concerning the very gathering of theacorns, though they should be found fallen in another man’s ground.The land and the sea do sufficiently speak for the improvement of thisexcellent material; houses and ships, cities and navies are built withit, and there is a kind of it so tough, and. extremely compact, that oursharpest tools will hardly enter it, and scarcely the very fire itself,in which it consumes but slowly, as seeming to partake of a ferruginousand metalline shining nature, proper for sundry robust uses. It is doubt-lefs, of all timber hitherto known, the most universally useful and strong;for though some trees be harder, as Box, Cornus,. Ebony, and diversof the Indian woods, yet we find them more fragil, and not so wellqualified to support great incumbencies and weights; nor is there anytimber more lasting, which way so ever used. There has, we know,been no-little stir amongst learned men, of what material the crofs wasmade on which our blefsed Saviour suffered : Venerable Bede , inCollectaneis, affirms it to have been, framed of several woods, namely,Cyprefs, Cedar , Pine, and Box .; And to confirm it, St. Hierom has citedIsaiah lx.. 13. Gloria Libani ad te veniet, et Buxus et Pinus simul adornandum locwn sanctificationis mece, et locum pedum meorum glorificabo ±but, following the version of the LXX, be reads, Cuprefsus, Pinus , etCedrus , Sfc. Others insert the Palm, and so compose the crofs of no lefsthan four different timbers, according to the old verse :

Quatuor ex lignis Domini crux dicitur efse.

Pes crucis est Cedrus , corpus tenet alta Cuprefsus;

Palma manus retinet, titulo Icetatur Oliva.

Nail’d were his feet to Cedar , to Palm his hands,

Cyprefs his body bore, title on Olive stands.