Part 13

'The Use of Plants (says he) is all our Life long of that universal Importance and Concern, that we can neither live nor subsist in any Plenty with Decency, or Conveniency or be said to live indeed at all without them: whatsoever Food is necessary to sustain us, whatsoever contributes to delight and refresh us, are supply'd and brought forth out of that plentiful and abundant store: and ah, how much more innocent, sweet and healthful, is a Table cover'd with these, than with all the reeking Flesh of butcher'd and slaughter'd Animals: Certainly Man by Nature was never made to be a Carnivorous Creature; nor is he arm'd at all for Prey and Rapin, with gag'd and pointed Teeth and crooked Claws, sharp'ned to rend and tear: But with gentle Hands to gather Fruit and Vegetables, and with Teeth to chew and eat them: Nor do we so much as read the Use of Flesh for Food, was at all permitted him, till after the Universal Deluge, &c.

To this might we add that transporting Consideration, becoming both our Veneration and Admiration of the infinitely wise and glorious Author of Nature, who has given to Plants such astonishing Properties; such fiery Heat in some to warm and cherish, such Coolness in others to temper and refresh, such pinguid Juice to nourish and feed the Body, such quickening Acids to compel the Appetite, and grateful vehicles to court the Obedience of the Palate, such Vigour to renew and support our natural Strength, such ravishing Flavour and Perfumes to recreate and delight us: In short, such spirituous and active Force to animate and revive every Faculty and Part, to all the kinds of Human, and, I had almost said Heavenly Capacity too. What shall we add more? Our Gardens present us with them all; and whilst the Shambles are cover'd with Gore and Stench, our Sallets scape the Insults of the Summer Fly, purifies and warms the Blood against Winter Rage: Nor wants there Variety in more abundance, than any of the former Ages could shew.

Survey we their Bills of Fare, and Numbers of Courses serv'd up by Athenæus, drest with all the Garnish of Nicander and other Grecian Wits: What has the Roman Grand Sallet worth the naming? Parat Convivium, The Guests are nam'd indeed, and we are told,

----Varias, quas habet hortus opes? How richly the Garden's stor'd:

In quibus est Luctuca sedens, & tonsile porrum, Nee deest ructatrix Mentha, nec herba salax, &c.

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A Goodly Sallet!

Lettuce, Leeks, Mint, Rocket, Colewort-Tops, with Oyl and Eggs, and such an Hotch-Pot following (as the Cook in Plautus would deservedly laugh at). But how infinitely out-done in this Age of ours, by the Variety of so many rare Edules unknown to the Ancients, that there's no room for the Comparison. And, for Magnificence, let the Sallet drest by the Lady for an Entertainment made by Jacobus Catsius (describ'd by the Poet Barlæus) shew; not at all yet out-doing what we every Day almost find at our Lord Mayor's Table, and other great Persons, Lovers of the Gardens; that sort of elegant Cookery being capable of such wonderful Variety, tho' not altogether wanting of old, if that be true which is related to us of Nicomedes a certain King of Bithynia, whose Cook made him a Pilchard (a Fish he exceedingly long'd for) of a well dissembl'd Turnip, carv'd in its Shape, and drest with Oyl, Salt, and Pepper, that so deceiv'd, and yet pleased the Prince, that he commended it for the best Fish he had ever eaten. Nor does all this exceed what every industrious Gardiner may innocently enjoy, as well as the greatest Potentate on Earth.

Vitellius his Table, to which every Day All Courtiers did a constant Tribute pay, Could nothing more delicious afford Than Nature's Liberality. Help'd with a little Art and Industry, Allows the meanest Gard'ners Board, The Wanton Taste no Fish or Fowl can chuse, For which the Grape or Melon she would lose. Tho' all th' Inhabitants of Sea and Air. Be lifted in the Glutton's Bill of Fare; Yet still the Sallet, and the Fruit we see Plac'd the third Story high in all her Luxury.

So the Sweet Poet, whom I can never part with for his Love to this delicious Toil, and the Honour he has done me.

Verily, the infinite Plenty and Abundance, with which the benign and bountiful Author of Nature has stor'd the whole Terrestrial World, more with Plants and Vegetables than with any other Provision whatsoever; and the Variety not only equal, but by far exceeding the Pleasure and Delight of Taste (above all the Art of the Kitchen, than ever Apicius knew) seems loudly to call, and kindly invite all her living Inhabitants (none excepted) who are of gentle Nature, and most useful, to the same Hospitable and Common-Board, which first she furnish'd with Plants and Fruit, as to their natural and genuine Pasture; nay, and of the most wild, and savage too ab origine: As in Paradise, where, as the Evangelical Prophet adumbrating the future Glory of the Catholick Church, (of which that happy Garden was the Antitype) the Wolf and the Lamb, the angry and furious Lion, should eat Grass and Herbs together with the Ox. But after all, latet anguis in herba, there's a Snake in the Grass; Luxury, and Excess in our most innocent Fruitions. There was a time indeed when the Garden furnish'd Entertainments for the most Renown'd Heroes, virtuous and excellent Persons; till the Blood-thirsty and Ambitious, over-running the Nations, and by Murders and Rapine rifl'd the World, to transplant its Luxury to its new Mistriss, Rome. Those whom heretofore two Acres of Land would have satisfied, and plentifully maintain'd; had afterwards their very Kitchens almost as large as their first Territories: Nor was that enough: Entire Forests and Parks, Warrens and Fish-Ponds, and ample Lakes to furnish their Tables, so as Men could not live by one another without Oppression: Nay, and to shew how the best, and most innocent things may be perverted; they chang'd those frugal and inemptas Dapes of their Ancestors, to that Height and Profusion; that we read of Edicts and Sumptuary Laws, enacted to restrain even the Pride and Excess of Sallets. But so it was not when the Pease-Field spread a Table for the Conquerors of the World, and their Grounds were cultivated Vomere laureato, & triumphali aratore: The greatest Princes took the Spade and the Plough-Staff in the same Hand they held the Sceptre; and the Noblest Families thought it no Dishonour, to derive their Names from Plants and Sallet-Herbs; They arriv'd, I say to that Pitch of ingrossing all that was but green, and could be vary'd by the Cook (Heu quam prodiga ventris!) that, as Pliny tells us (non sine pudore, not without blushing) a poor Man could hardly find a Thistle to dress for his Supper; or what his hungry Ass would not touch, for fear of pricking his Lips.

Verily the Luxury of the East ruin'd the greatest Monarchies; first, the Persian, then the Grecian, and afterwards Rome her self: By what Steps, see elegantly describ'd in Old Gratius the Faliscian, deploring his own Age compar'd with the former:

O quantum, & quoties decoris frustrata paterni! At qualis nostris, quam simplex mensa Camillis! Qui tibi cultus erat post tot, serrane, triumphos? Ergo illi ex habitu, virtutisq; indole priscæ, Imposuere orbi Romam caput:----

Neighb'ring Excesses being made thine own, How art thou fall'n from thine old Renown! But our Camilli did but plainly fare, No Port did oft triumphant Serran bear: Therefore such Hardship, and their Heart so great Gave Rome to be the World's Imperial Seat.

But as these were the Sensual and Voluptuous, who abus'd their Plenty, spent their Fortunes and shortned their Lives by their Debauches; so never did they taste the Delicaces, and true Satisfaction of a sober Repast, and the infinite Conveniences of what a well-stor'd Garden affords; so elegantly describ'd by the Naturalist, as costing neither Fuel nor Fire to boil, Pains or time to gather and prepare, Res expedita & parata semper: All was so near at hand, readily drest, and of so easie Digestion; as neither to offend the Brain, or dull the Senses; and in the greatest Dearth of Corn, a little Bread suffic'd. In all Events,

Panis ematur, Olus, Vini Sextarius adde Queis humana sibi doleat natura negatis.

Bread, Wine and wholsome Sallets you may buy, What Nature adds besides is Luxury.

They could then make an honest Meal, and dine upon a Sallet without so much as a Grain, of Exotic Spice; And the Potagere was in such Reputation, that she who neglected her Kitchen-Garden (for that was still the Good-Woman's Province) was never reputed a tolerable Hus-wife: Si vespertinus subitò te oppresserit hospes, she was never surpriz'd, had all (as we said) at hand, and could in a Trice set forth an handsome Sallet: And if this was Happiness, Convictus facilis sine arte mensa (as the Poet reckons) it was here in Perfection. In a Word, so universal was the Sallet, that the Un-bloody Shambles (as Pliny calls them) yielded the Roman State a more considerable Custom (when there was little more than honest Cabbage and Worts) than almost any thing bessides brought to Market.

They spent not then so much precious time as afterwards they did, gorging themselves with Flesh and Fish, so as hardly able to rise, without reeking and reeling from Table.

----Vides ut pallidus omnis Coena desurgat dubia? quin corpus onustum Hesternis vitiis, animum quoque prægravat unà, Atque affigit humo divinæ particulam auræ.

See but how pale they look, how wretchedly, With Yesterday's Surcharge disturb'd they be! Nor Body only suff'ring, but the Mind, That nobler Part, dull'd and depress'd we find. Drowsie and unapt for Business, and other nobler Parts of Life.

Time was before Men in those golden Days: Their Spirits were brisk and lively.

----Ubi dicto citius curata sopori Membra dedit, Vegetus præscripta ad munera surgit.

With shorter, but much sweeter Sleep content, Vigorous and fresh, about their Business went.

And Men had their Wits about them; their Appetites were natural, their Sleep molli sub arbore, sound, sweet, and kindly: That excellent Emperour Tacitus being us'd to say of Lettuce, that he did somnum se mercari when he eat of them, and call'd it a sumptuous Feast, with a Sallet and a single Pullet, which was usually all the Flesh-Meat that sober Prince eat of; whilst Maximinus (a profess'd Enemy to Sallet) is reported to have scarce been satisfied, with sixty Pounds of Flesh, and Drink proportionable.

There was then also less expensive Grandure, but far more true State; when Consuls, great Statesmen (and such as atchiev'd the most renown'd Actions) sup'd in their Gardens; not under costly, gilded, and inlaid Roofs, but the spreading Platan; and drank of the Chrystal Brook, and by Temperance, and healthy Frugality, maintain'd the Glory of Sallets, Ah, quanta innocentiore victu! with what Content and Satisfaction! Nor, as we said, wanted there Variety; for so in the most blissful Place, and innocent State of Nature, See how the first Empress of the World Regal's her Celestial Guest:

With sav'ry Fruit of Taste to please True Appetite, ---- and brings Whatever Earth's all-bearing Mother yields ----Fruit of all kinds, in Coat Rough, or smooth-Rind, or bearded Husk, or Shell. Heaps with unsparing Hand: For Drink the Grape She crushes, inoffensive Moust, and Meaches From many a Berry, and from sweet Kernel prest, She temper'd dulcid Creams.----

Then for the Board.