ilded without and
within: And the Goddess in the famous Ephesine temple, was said to be
of this material also, as was most of the timber-work of that glorious
structure: Though as to the idol +tou Diopetous+ mention'd in the Acts,
(when the mob rose up against the apostle) some will have to be of
ebony, others of a vine-tree, the most unlikely of all the rest fit for
the carver. The _sittim_ mention'd in Holy Writ, is thought to have been
a kind of cedar of which most precious utensils were formed.

As to the magnitude of cedar-trees: We read of divers whose bodies eight
or nine persons could not embrace, (as we shall shew hereafter) not here
to let pass what Josephus relates Solomon planted in Judea, who
doubtless try'd many experiments of this nature, none being more kingly
than of planting for posterity: I do not speak of those growing on the
mountains of Libanon, in the northern and colder tracts of Syria; or
what store those forests of them then afforded: But, as we are inform'd
by that curious traveller{258:1} Ranwolsius, (since confirm'd also by
the _virtuoso_, Monconys) there were not remaining above twenty five of
those stately trees, and since they were there, but sixteen of that
small number, as the ingenious Mr. Mandevill reports in his journey from
Aleppo to Jerusalem: There was yet, he says, abundance of young trees,
and a single old one of prodigious size, twelve yards and six inches in
the girth; I suppose the same describ'd by the late traveller Bruyn, who
speaking of the shadow of this umbragious tree, alludes to that of
Hosea, Cap. XIV. Ver. 5. which 'tis not improbable might be one of those
yet remaining, where that heroick prince employ'd fourscore thousand
hewers at work, for the materials of one only temple, and the palace he
built in the city; a pregnant instance what time, negligence and war
will bring to ruin. But to return to what is said of their present
number, Le Bruyn (whom just now we mention'd) makes them 35 or 36, for
he could not exactly tell, and pretends (like our Stonedge on Salisbury
Plain) none could ever yet agree of their number.

In short, upon reflection of what we have hitherto concerning the
universal waste and destruction of timber trees, (where due regard is
not taken to propagate and supply them) whole countries have suffer'd,
as well as particular provinces: Thus the Apennines are stripp'd of
their goodly pine and fir-trees (which formerly the naturalist commends
those