SILVA.
BOOK THE FOURTH.
An Historical Account of the SACREDNESS and USE ofSTANDING GROVES.
■ And thus we have finished what we esteemed necefsary for the direc- book ivtion of planting, and the culture of trees and woods in general ; whetherfor the raising of -new, or preservation of the more antient and venerableshades, crowning the brows of lofty hills, or furnishing and adorning themore fruitful and humble plains, groves, and forests, such as were neverprophaned by the inhumanity of edge-tools : Woods, whose original areas unknown as the Arcadians; like the goodly Cedars of Libanus,
Psalm civ. Arbores Dei , according to the Hebrew , for something doubt-lefs which they noted in the genius of -those venerable plants, besidestheir mere bulk and stature : And, verily, I cannot think to have wellacquitted myself of this useful subject, till I shall have in some sort vindi-cated the honour of trees and woods, by showing my reader of whatestimation they were of old for their divine, as well as civil uses; or atleast refreshed both him and myself with what occurs of historical andinstructive amongst the learned concerning them. And first, standingwoods and forests were not only the original habitations of men, for de-fence and fortrefses, but the first occasion of that speech, polity, andsociety which made them differ from beasts. This, the ArchitectVitruvius * ingeniously describes, where he tells us, that the violent per-cufsion of one tree against another, forced by an impetuous wind, setting
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* Vilruv, I. ii,”cap. 1.
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