assed its roots under the bed
of the river, and obtains aliment from the soil on the other side; but
an apple or pear-tree will take no such trouble--it will not even avoid
what is noxious. Plant one of these trees in the mould three or four
feet above the marl or clay; so long as the roots remain in the mould,
the tree will flourish, but so soon as the tap root pierces down to the
marl or clay below the mould, the tree will canker and die. To prevent
this, it is the custom to dig first down to the marl and put a layer of
tiles upon it, which turn the roots of the trees from a perpendicular to
a horizontal direction, and then they do well; but leave the tree
without assistance, and the fool will commit suicide, blindly rushing to
its own destruction; while the vine will not only avoid it, but use
every exertion to procure what is necessary for its continuing in health
and vigour. The vine is therefore certainly the more intellectual plant
of the two.

CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR.

Strasbourg.

There certainly is an impulse implanted in our natures to love
something; our affections were never intended to lie in abeyance, and if
they cannot be placed upon the other sex or our own children, they still
seek something as an object. This accounts for old bachelors being fond
of their nephews and nieces, for blood relationship has nothing to do
with it; and for old ladies, who have not entered into wedlock, becoming
so attached to dogs, cats, and parrots. Sometimes, indeed, the
affections take much wilder flights in the pursuit of an object, and
exhibit strange idiosyncrasies; but still it proves by nature we are
compelled to love something. I have been reflecting how far this
principle may not be supposed to pervade through the universe, and
whether we cannot trace it in the inferiors of the animal creation:
whether we cannot trace a small remnant of Paradise in the beasts who
enjoyed it with man, as well as in man himself. It is well known that
animals will take very strong and very strange attachments towards other
animals. It is, perhaps, more apparent in domestic animals, but is not
that because they are more brought together and more under our immediate
eye? in some instances, as in the case when maternal feelings are
roused, the strongest antipathies and habit will be controlled. A cat
losing her kittens has been known to suckle a brood of young rats, but
in this case I consider instinct to have been the most po