444 OF PLANTS AND ANIMALS. borrow it but from the leaves of the mulberry-tree, which® was planted and nourished for this purpose by the country swain ? May I ask again, how came Therina by those ornaments of fine finen which she is pleased to appear in, and the costly lace of Flanders that surrounds it ? Was it not all made of the stalks of flax that grew up in the field like other vegetables ? And are sot the finest of your muslins owing to the Indian cotton-tree. Nor can you tell me, Theron, one upper garment you have, whe- ther coat, cloak, or night-gown, from your shoulders to your very feet, as rich and as new as you think it, which the sheep, or the poor silk-worm had not worn before you. It is certain, the beaver bore your hat on his skin ; that soft fur was his covering before it was yours ; and the materials of your very shoes, both the upper part and the soles of them, covered the calf or the heifer, before they were put on your feet : all this was grass at fist, for we have seen that all the animal world owes its being to vegetables. The company seemed strangely surprized, and thought they had been led-into fairy -land ; they imagined themselvesdecoyed into the midst of inchantments, while their fancy roved through all these transformations. Yet the discourse seemed to carry such evidence and conviction with it, that though they retained their wonder, they could not withhold their assent. When Crito had given them leave to muse a little he took up the argument again. Give me leave, madam, said he to Therina, without offence, to lead you into further wonders. You base seen that the furniture of the place where we are, as well as the precious attire in whichyou are drest, were lately the pro- duction, and the ornaments of the forest, the meadow or the gar- den. But could you forgive me, madam, if I should attempt to persuade you, that that beautiful body of yours, those features, and those limbs, were once growing also in the fields and the meadows ? I see, lady, you are a little shocked and surprized at the thought. I confess the ideas and sentiments of philosophy are not always so courtly and so favourable to human nature as tobe addrcst to the tender sex : But pardon me, Therina, if I enquire, was not your infancy nursed with milk and bread-corn ? Have you not been feti with wheat, though it was of the finest kind ? And your drink, what has it been but either the infusion of barley, or the juice of the grape, or,tfor variety, perhaps the cyder-grove has supplied you ? The flesh with which you have been nourished to such a well-proportioned stature belonged to four-footed animals, or to the fowlsof the air ; and each of these have 'either been fed with corn or grass : Whence then, madam, has your own body been supported, and what do you think it is made of? But it is safer to transfer the argument to myself. These
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