e
will not be extreamly forward to Oblige such a Man.

[Footnote 1: The Rev. Henry Grove was a Presbyterian minister, who kept
school at Taunton. He was born there in 1683, became a teacher at the
age of 23 (already married), and worked for the next 18 years in the
Taunton Academy, his department Ethics and Pneumatology. He spent his
leisure in religious controversy, writing an 'Essay on the Terms of
Christian Communion,' a Discourse on Saving Faith, an Essay on the
Soul's Immortality, and miscellanies in prose and verse, including Nos.
588, 601, 626, and 635, of the _Spectator_. He received also L20 a year
for ministering to two small congregations in the neighbourhood of
Taunton. His wife died in 1736, and he in the year following. His works
appeared in 1740 in 4 vols. 8vo.]

* * * * *

No. 589. Friday, September 3, 1714.

'Persequitur scelus ille suum: labefactaque tandem
Ictibus innumeris adductaque funibus arbor
Corruit.'

Ovid.

_SIR_,

'I am so great an Admirer of Trees, that the Spot of Ground I have
chosen to build a small Seat upon, in the Country, is almost in the
midst of a large Wood. I was obliged, much against my Will, to cut
down several Trees, that I might have any such thing as a Walk in my
Gardens; but then I have taken Care to leave the Space, between every
Walk, as much a Wood as I found it. The Moment you turn either to the
Right or Left, you are in a Forest, where Nature presents you with a
much more beautiful Scene than could have been raised by Art.

'Instead of _Tulips_ or _Carnations_, I can shew you _Oakes_ in my
Gardens of four hundred Years standing, and a Knot of _Elms_ that
might shelter a Troop of Horse from the Rain.

'It is not without the utmost Indignation, that I observe several
prodigal young Heirs in the Neighbourhood, felling down the most
glorious Monuments of their Ancestors Industry, and ruining, in a Day,
the Product of Ages.

'I am mightily pleased with your Discourse upon Planting, which put me
upon looking into my Books to give you some Account of the Veneration
the Ancients had for Trees. There is an old Tradition, that _Abraham_
planted a _Cypress_, a _Pine_, and a _Cedar_, and that these three
incorporated into one Tree, which was cut down for the building of the
Temple of _Solomon_.

'_Isidorus_, who lived in the Reign of _Con