A SPANISH AUTHORESS.—HOW THE DOCTOR OBTAINED HER WORKS FROM MADRID.—THE PLEASURE AND ADVANTAGES WHICH THE AUTHOR DERIVES FROM HIS LANDMARKS IN THE BOOKS WHICH HE HAD PERUSED.
ALEX. Quel es D. Diego aquel Arbol,
que tiene la copa en tierra
y las raizes arriba?
DIEG. El hombre.
EL LETRADO DEL CIELO.
Man is a Tree that hath no top in cares,
No root in comforts.1
This is one of the many poetical passages in which the sound is better than the sense;—yet it is not without its beauty. The same similitude has been presented by Henry More in lines which please the ear less, but satisfy the understanding.
The lower man is nought but a fair plant
Whose grosser matter is from the base ground.
“A plant,” says Jones of Nayland, “is a system of life, but insensitive and fixed to a certain spot. An animal hath voluntary motion, sense, or perception, and is capable of pain and pleasure. Yet in the construction of each there are some general principles which very obviously connect them. It is literally as well as metaphorically true, that trees have limbs, and an animal body branches. A vascular system is also common to both, in the channels of which life is maintained and circulated. When the trachea, with its branches in the lungs, or the veins and arteries, or the nerves, are separately represented, we have the figure of a tree. The leaves of trees have a fibrous and fleshy part; their bark is a covering which answers to the skin in animals. An active vapour pervades them both, and perspires from both, which is necessary for the preservation of health and vigour. The vis vitæ, or involuntary, mechanical force of animal life, is kept up by the same elements which act upon plants for their growth and support.”2
1 CHAPMAN.
2 The reader of Berkeley will naturally turn to the Siris of that author—called by Southey in his life of Wesley “one of the best, wisest, and greatest men whom Ireland, with all its fertility of genius, has produced.” Vol. ii. 260., 2nd Edit.