to decay, adds to the soil, and also, assists the next
generation, which in a short time follows the same course.
The author of the History of Sutton says, "The poor inhabitants are
supplied with fuel from a magazine of peat, near the Roman road,
composed of thousands of fir trees cut down by the Romans, to enable
them to pass over a morass. The bodies of the trees are sometimes dug up
found, with the marks of the axe upon them."
Are we then to suppose, by this curious historical anecdote, that the
inhabitants of Sutton have run away with this celebrated piece of
antiquity? That the cart, instead of rolling _over_ the military way,
has rolled _under_ it, and that they have boiled the pot with the
Roman road?
Upon inquiry, they seemed more inclined to credit the fact, than able to
prove it; but I can find no such morass, neither is the road any where
broken up. Perhaps it would be as difficult to find the trees, as the
axe that cut them: Besides, the fir is not a native of Britain, but of
Russia; and I believe our forefathers, the Britons, were not complete
masters of the art of transplanting. The park of Sutton was probably a
bed of oaks, the natural weed of the country, long before Moses figured
in history.
Whilst the political traveller is contemplating this extraordinary
production of antiquity, of art, and of labour, his thoughts will
naturally recur to the authors of it.
He will find them proficients in science, in ambition, in taste: They
added dominion to conquest, 'till their original territory became too
narrow a basis to support the vast fabric acquired by the success of
their arms: The monstrous bulk fell to destruction by its own
weight.--Man was not made for universality; if he grasps at little, he
may retain it; if at much, he may lose all.
The confusion, natural on such occasions, produced anarchy: At that
moment, the military stept into the government, and the people
became slaves.
Upon the ruins of this brave race, the Bishop of Rome founded an
ecclesiastical jurisdiction. His power increasing with his votaries, he
found means to link all christendom to the triple crown, and acquired an
unaccountable ascendency over the human mind: The princes of Europe were
harnessed, like so many coach horses. The pontiff directed the bridle.
He sometimes used the whip, and sometimes the curse. The thunder of his
throne rattled through the world with astonishing effect, 'till that
most useful discover
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