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A DISCOURSE

fine myself to my more proper element, the Earth , which, though thelowest and most inferior of them all, yet is so subservient and necefsary tovegetation, as without it there could hardly be any such thing in nature.

To begin: I shall in the first place describe what I mean by Earth :then I shall endeavour to shew you the several sorts and kinds of Earth :and lastly, how we may best improve it to the uses of the husbandman,the forester, and the gardener; which is indeed of large and profitableextent, though it be but poor and mean in sound, compared to mines ofgold and silver, and other rich ores, which likewise are the treasures ofthe Earth , but lefs innocent and useful.

I intend not here to amuse this noble audience, or myself, with thosenice inquiries concerning what the real form of that body or substance iswhich we call Earth , denudated and stripped of all Heterogeneity, andreduced to its principles : as whether it be composed of sandy, central,nitrous, or other salts, atoms, and particles t whether void of all qualitiesbut drynefs, and the like, (as they commonly enter into the several de-finitions of Philosophers) nor of what figure and contexture it consists,which causes it to adhere and combine together, so as to affirm any thingdogmatically thereupon ; much lefs shall I contend whether it be a planetmoving about the sun, or be fixed in the centre of the universe ; all whichhave been the curious researches and velitations of our later Theorifts;but content myself with that body or mafs of glebe which we both dwellon and every day cultivate for our necefsary subsistence, as it affords uscorn, trees, plants, and vegetables of all sorts, useful for human life, orthe innocent refreshment of it.

Those who have written de Arte Combinatorial reckon up no fewer thanone hundred seventy-nine millions one thousand and sixty different sortsof Earths ; but of all this enormous number, as of all other good things,it seems they do not acquaint us with above eight or nine eminently use-ful to our purpose ; and truly I can hardly yet arrive at so many. Suchas I find naturally and usually to rise from the pit, I shall here spreadbefore you in their order.

The most beneficial sort of Mould or Earth , appearing on the surface,(for we fhall not at present penetrate lower than is necefsary for the plant-