ISIDORUS, who lived in the Reign of Conftantius, affures us, that he faw, even in his Time, that famous Oak in the Plains of Mambré, 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 higheft Piece of Sacrilege to injure certain Trees which they took to be protected by fome Deity. The Story of Erifthon, the Grove at Dodona, and that at Delphi, are all Inftances of this Kind.

IF we confider the Machine in Virgil, fo much 'blamed by feveral Criticks, in this Light, we shall hardly think it too violent.

6

ENEAS, when he built his Fleet in order to fail for Italy, was obliged to cut down the Grove on Mount Ida, which however he durft not do till he had obtained leave from Cybele, to whom it was dedicated. The Goddefs could not but think her felf obliged to protect thefe Ships, 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 fafe to Italy fhould be transformed into Goddeffes of the Sea; which the Poet tells us was accordingly executed.

6

6

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
To fave her Ships, and finish Jove's Decree.
First, from the Quarter of the Morn, there Sprung
A Light that fign'd the Heavens, and fhot along:
Then from a Cloud, fring'd round with Golden Fires,
Were Timbrels heard, and Berecynthian Quires:
And last a Voice, with more than Mortal Sounds,
Both Hofts in Arms oppos'd, with equal Horror wounds.
O Trojan Race, your needlefs Aid forbear;
And know my Ships are my peculiar Care.

With

With greater Eafe the bold Rutulian may,
With biffing Brands, attempt to burn the Sea,
Than finge my facred Pines. But you my Charge,
Loos'd from your crooked Anchors lanch at large,
Exalted each a Nymph: Forfake the Sand,
And fwim the Seas, at Cybele's Command.
No fooner had the Goddess ceas'd to speak,
When lo, th' obedient Ships their Haulfers break;
And frange to tell, like Dolphins in the Main,
They plunge their Prows, and dive, and Spring again:
As many beauteous Maids the Billows fweep,
As rode before tall Veffels on the Deep.

Dryden's Virg.

THE common Opinion concerning the Nymphs, 'whom the Ancients called Hamadryads, is more to 'the Honour of Trees than any thing yet mentioned. 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 Reason they were extremely grateful to fuch Perfons who preferved those Trees with which their Being fubfifted. Apollonius tells us a very remarkable Story 6 to this Purpose, with which I fhall conclude my

'Letter.

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• A certain Man, called Rhecus, obferving an old Oak ready to fall, and being moved with a fort of Compaffion towards the Tree, ordered his Servants to pour in fresh Earth at the Roots of it, and fet it upright. The Hamadryad or Nymph, who muft neceffarily have perished 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 fhould ask. As fhe was extremely Beautiful, • Rhacus defired he might be entertained as her Lover. The Hamadryad, not much displeased with the Requeft, promis'd to give him a Meeting, but commanded him for fome Days to abstain from the Em⚫ braces of all other Women, adding that fhe would fend a Bee to him, to let him know when he was to be happy. Rhacus was, it seems, too much addicted

'to

to Gaming, and happened to be in a Run of ill Luck when the faithful Bee came buzzing about him; fo that inftead of minding his kind Invitation, he had like to have killed him for his Pains. The Hamadryad was fo provoked at her own Difappointment, and the ill Ufage of her Meffenger, that the deprived • Rhacus of the Ufe of his Limbs. However, fays the Story, he was not so much a Cripple, but he made a 'fhift to cut down the Tree, and confequently to fell his < Mistress.

N° 590.

Monday, September 6.

Affiduo labuntur tempora motu

Non fecus ac flumen. Neque enim confiftere flumen,
Nec levis hora poteft: fed ut unda impellitur undâ,
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.
Ov. Met,

The following Difcourfe comes from the fame Hand with the Effays upon Infinitude.

W

E confider infinite Space 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 Speculations of infinite Space, we confider that particular Place in which we exift, as a kind of Centre to the whole Expanfion. In our Speculations of Eternity, we confiderthe Time which is prefent to us as the Middle, which divides the whole Line into two equal Parts. For this Reason, many witty Authors compare the prefent Time to an Ifthmus or narrow Neck of Land, that rifes in the midst of an Ocean, immeasurably diffused on either Side of it.

PHILOSOPHY, and indeed common Senfe, 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 à Parte ante, and Eternitas à Parte poft, may be more amufing 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 past, and an Eternity that is Each of thefe Eternities is bounded at the one Extreme; or, in other Words, the former has an End, and the latter a Beginning.

to come.

LET us first of all confider that Eternity which is paft, referving that which is to come for the Subject of another Paper. The Nature of this Eternity is utterly inconceivable by the Mind of Man: Our Reason 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 paft, than that all of it was once prefent; and whatever was once present, is at fome certain Distance from us, and whatever is at any certain Diftance from us, be the Distance never fo remote, cannot be liternity. The very Notion of any 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 Underftanding. We are fure that there has been an Eternity, and yet contradict our felves when we measure this Eternity by any Notion which we can frame of it.

IF we go to the bottom of this Matter, we fhall find, that the Difficulties we meet with in our Conceptions of Eternity proceed from this fingle Reafon, That we can have no other Idea of any kind of Duration, than that by which we our felves, and all other created Beings, do exift; which is, a fucceffive Duration made up of paft, prefent, and to come. There is nothing which exifts after this Manner, all the Parts of whofe Exiftence were not once actually prefent, and confequently may be reached by a certain Number of Years applied to it. We may afcend as

high as we pleafe, and employ our Being to that Eternity which is to come, in adding Millions of Years to Millions of Years, and we can never come up to any Fountain-Head of Duration, to any Beginning in Eternity But at the fame time we are fure, that whatever was once prefent does lie within the reach of Numbers, though perhaps we can never be able to put enough of them together for that Purpofe. We may as well fay, that any thing may be actually prefent in any Part of infinite Space, which does not lie at a certain Distance from us, as that any Part of infinite Duration was once actually prefent, and does not alfo lie at fome determined Distance from us. The Distance in both Cases may be immeasurable and indefinite as to our Faculties, but our Reafon tells us that it cannot be fo in it felf. Here therefore is that Difficulty which Human Understanding is not capable of furmounting. We are fure that fomething must have existed from Eternity, and are at the fame Time unable to conceive, that any thing which exifts, according to our Notion of Existence, can have exifted from Eternity.

IT is hard for a Reader, who has not rolled this Thought in his own Mind, to follow in fuch an abftracted Speculation; but I have been the longer on it, because I think it is a demonftrative Argument of the Being and Eternity of a God: And though there are many other Demonftrations which lead us to this great Truth, I do not think we ought to lay afide any Proofs in this Matter, which the Light of Reafon has fuggefted to us, especially when it is fuch a one as has been urged by Men famous for their Penetration and Force of Understanding, and which appears altogether conclufive to thofe who will be at the pains to examine it.

HAVING thus confidered that Eternity which is paft, according to the best Idea we can frame of it, I fhall now draw up those several Articles on this Subject, which are dictated to us by the Light of Reason, and which may be looked upon as the Creed of a Philofopher in this great Point.