Part 2

To the Right Honourable

JOHN

Lord Somers

of Evesham

Lord High-Chancellor of England,

and President of the Royal-Society.

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My Lord,

The Idea and Plan of the Royal-Society having been first conceiv'd and delineated by a Great and Learned Chancellor, which High Office your Lordship deservedly bears; not as an Acquisition of Fortune, but your Intellectual Endowments; Conspicuous (among other Excellencies) by the Inclination Your Lordship discovers to promote Natural Knowledge: As it justifies the Discernment of that Assembly, to pitch upon Your Lordship for their President, so does it no less discover the Candor, yea, I presume to say, the Sublimity of your Mind, in so generously honoring them with your Acceptance of the Choice they have made.

A Chancellor, and a very Learned Lord, was the First who honoured the Chair; and a no less Honorable and Learned Chancellor, resigns it to Your Lordship: So as after all the Difficulties and Hardships the Society has hitherto gone through; it has thro' the Favour and Protection of its Presidents, not only preserv'd its Reputation from the Malevolence of Enemies and Detracters, but gone on Culminating, and now Triumphantly in Your Lordship: Under whose propitious Influence, I am perswaded, it may promise it self That, which indeed has hitherto been wanting, to justifie the Glorious Title it bears of a ROYAL SOCIETY. The Emancipating it from some Remaining and Discouraging Circumstances, which it as yet labours under; among which, that of a Precarious and unsteady Abode, is not the least.

This Honor was reserv'd for Your Lordship; and an Honor, permit me to call it, not at all unworthy the Owning of the Greatest Person living: Namely, the Establishing and Promoting Real Knowledge; and (next to what is Divine) truly so called; as far, at least, as Humane Nature extends towards the Knowledge of Nature, by enlarging her Empire beyond the Land of Spectres, Forms, Intentional Species, Vacuum, Occult Qualities, and other Inadequate Notions; which, by their Obstreperous and Noisy Disputes, affrighting, and (till of late) deterring Men from adventuring on further Discoveries, confin'd them in a lazy Acquiescence, and to be fed with Fantasms and fruitless Speculations, which signifie nothing to the specifick Nature of Things, solid and useful knowledge; by the Investigation of Causes, Principles, Energies, Powers, and Effects of Bodies, and Things Visible; and to improve them for the Good and Benefit of Mankind.

My Lord, That which the Royal Society needs to accomplish an entire Freedom, and (by rendring their Circumstances more easie) capable to subsist with Honor, and to reach indeed the Glorious Ends of its Institution, is an Establishment in a more Settl'd, Appropriate, and Commodious Place; having hitherto (like the Tabernacle in the Wilderness) been only Ambulatory for almost Forty Years: But Solomon built the First Temple; and what forbids us to hope, that as Great a Prince may build Solomon's House, as that Great Chancellor (one of Your Lordship's Learned Predecessors) had design'd the Plan; there being nothing in that August and Noble Model impossible, or beyond the Power of Nature and Learned Industry.

Thus, whilst King Solomon's Temple was Consecrated to the God of Nature, and his true Worship; This may be Dedicated, and set apart for the Works of Nature; deliver'd from those Illusions and Impostors, that are still endeavouring to cloud and depress the True, and Substantial Philosophy: A shallow and Superficial Insight, wherein (as that Incomparable Person rightly observes) having made so many Atheists: whilst a profound and thorow Penetration into her Recesses (which is the Business of the Royal Society) would lead Men to the Knowledge, and Admiration of the Glorious Author.

And now, My Lord, I expect some will wonder what my Meaning is, to usher in a Trifle, with so much Magnificence, and end at last in a fine Receipt for the Dressing of a Sallet with an Handful of Pot-Herbs! But yet, My Lord, this Subject, as low and despicable as it appears, challenges a Part of Natural History, and the Greatest Princes have thought it no Disgrace, not only to make it their Diversion, but their Care, and to promote and encourage it in the midst of their weightiest Affairs: He who wrote of the Cedar of Libanus, wrote also of the Hysop which grows upon the Wall.

To verifie this, how much might I say of Gardens and Rural Employments, preferrable to the Pomp and Grandeur of other Secular Business, and that in the Estimate of as Great Men as any Age has produc'd! And it is of such Great Souls we have it recorded; That after they had perform'd the Noblest Exploits for the Publick, they sometimes chang'd their Scepters for the Spade, and their Purple for the Gardiner's Apron. And of these, some, My Lord, were Emperors, Kings, Consuls, Dictators, and Wise Statesmen; who amidst the most important Affairs, both in Peace and War, have quitted all their Pomp and Dignity in Exchange of this Learned Pleasure: Nor that of the most refin'd Part of Agriculture (the Philosophy of the Garden and Parterre only) but of Herbs, and wholesom Sallets, and other plain and useful Parts of Geoponicks, and Wrote Books of Tillage and Husbandry; and took the Plough-Tackle for their Banner, and their Names from the Grain and Pulse they sow'd, as the Marks and Characters of the highest Honor.

But I proceed no farther on a Topic so well known to Your Lordship: Nor urge I Examples of such Illustrious Persons laying aside their Grandeur, and even of deserting their Stations; (which would infinitely prejudice the Publick, when worthy Men are in Place, and at the Helm) But to shew how consisent the Diversions of the Garden and Villa were, with the highest and busiest Employment of the Commonwealth, and never thought a Reproch, or the least Diminution to the Gravity and Veneration due to their Persons, and the Noble Rank they held.

Will Your Lordship give me Leave to repeat what is said of the Younger Pliny, (Nephew to the Naturalist) and whom I think we may parallel with the Greatest of his time (and perhaps of any since) under the Worthiest Emperor the Roman world ever had? A Person of vast Abilities, Rich, and High in his Master's Favour; that so Husbanded his time, as in the Midst of the weightiest Affairs, to have Answer'd, and by his Example, made good what I have said on this Occasion. The Ancient and best Magistrates of Rome allow'd but the Ninth Day for the City and Publick Business; the rest for the Country and the Sallet Garden: There were then fewer Causes indeed at the Bar; but never greater Justice, nor better Judges and Advocates. And 'tis hence observed, that we hardly find a Great and Wise Man among the Ancients, qui nullos habuit hortos, excepting only Pomponius Atticus; wilst his Dear Cicero professes, that he never laid out his Money more readily, than in the purchasing of Gardens, and those sweet Retirements, for which he so often left the Rostra (and Court of the Greatest and most flourishing State of the World) to visit, prune, and water them with his own Hands.

But, My Lord, I forget with whom I am talking thus; and a Gardiner ought not to be so bold. The present I humbly make your Lordship, is indeed but a Sallet of Crude Herbs: But there is among them that which was a Prize at the Isthmian Games; and Your Lordship knows who it was both accepted, and rewarded as despicable an Oblation of this kind. The Favor I humbly beg, is Your Lordship's Pardon for this Presumption. The Subject is mean, and requires it, and my Reputation in danger; should Your Lordship hence suspect that one could never write so much of dressing Sallets, who minded anything serious, besides the gratifying a Sensual Appetite with a Voluptuary Apician Art.

Truly, My Lord, I am so far from designing to promote those Supplicia Luxuriæ, (as Seneca calls them) by what I have here written; that were it in my Power, I would recall the World, if not altogether to their Pristine Diet, yet to a much more wholsome and temperate than is now in Fashion: And what if they find me like to some who are eager after Hunting and other Field-Sports, which are Laborious Exercises? and Fishing, which is indeed a Lazy one? who, after all their Pains and Fatigue, never eat what they take and catch in either: For some such I have known: And tho' I cannot affirm so of my self, (when a well drest and excellent Sallet is before me) I am yet a very moderate Eater of them. So as to this Book-Luxury, I can affirm, and that truly what the Poet says of himself (on a less innocent Occasion) Lasciva pagina, vita proba. God forbid, that after all I have advanc'd in Praise of Sallets, I should be thought to plead for the Vice I censure, and chuse that of Epicurus for my Lemma; In hac arte consenui; or to have spent my time in nothing else. The Plan annext to these Papers, and the Apparatus made to superstruct upon it, would acquit me of having bent all my Contemplations on Sallets only. What I humbly offer Your Lordship, is (as I said) Part of Natural History, the Product of Horticulture, and the Field, dignified by the most illustrious, and sometimes tilled Laureato Vomere; which, as it concerns a Part of Philosophy, I may (without Vanity) be allow'd to have taken some Pains in Cultivating, as an inferior Member of the Royal Society.

But, My Lord, wilst You read on (if at least You vouchsafe me that Honor to read at all) I am conscious I rob the Publick of its most Precious Moments.

I therefore Humbly again Implore Your Lordship's Pardon: Nor indeed needed I to have said half this, to kindle in Your Breast, that which is already shining there (Your Lordship's Esteem of the Royal Society) after what You were pleas'd to Express in such an Obliging manner, when it was lately to wait upon Your Lordship; among whom I had the Honor to be a Witness of Your Generous, and Favourable Acceptance of their Addresses, who am,

_My Lord, Your Lordship's Most Humble and Most Obedient Servant,

JOHN EVELYN_.

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THE PREFACE

The Favourable Entertainment which the Kalendar has found, encouraging the Bookseller to adventure upon a Ninth Impression, I could not refuse his Request of my Revising, and Giving it the best Improvement I was capable, to an Inexhaustible Subject, as it regards a Part of Horticulture; and offer some little Aid to such as love a Diversion so Innocent and Laudable. There are those of late, who have arrogated, and given the Glorious Title of Compleat and Accomplish'd Gardiners, to what they have Publish'd; as if there were nothing wanting, nothing more remaining, or farther to be expected from the Field; and that Nature had been quite emptied of all her fertile Store: Whilst those who thus magnifie their Discoveries, have after all, penetrated but a very little Way into this Vast, Ample, and as yet, Unknown Territory; Who see not, that it would still require the Revolution of many Ages; deep, and long Experience, for any Man to Emerge that Perfect, and Accomplish'd Artist Gardiner they boast themselves to be: Nor do I think, Men will ever reach the End, and far extended Limits of the Vegetable Kingdom, so incomprehensible is the Variety it every Day produces, of the most Useful, and Admirable of all the Aspectable Works of God; since almost all we see, and touch, and taste, and smell, eat and drink, are clad with, and defended (from the Greatest Prince to the Meanest Peasant) is furnished from that Great and Universal Plantation, Epitomiz'd in our Gardens, highly worth the Contemplation of the most Profound Divine, and Deepest Philosopher.

I should be asham'd to acknowledge how little I have advanced, could I find that ever any Mortal Man from Adam, Noah, Solomon, Aristotle, Theophrastus, Dioscorides, and the rest of Nature's Interpreters, had ever arriv'd to the perfect Knowledge of any one Plant, or Vulgar Weed whatsoever: But this perhaps may yet possibly be reserv'd for another State of Things, and a longer Day; that is, When Time shall be no more, but Knowledge shall be encreas'd.

We have heard of one who studied and contemplated the Nature of Bees only, for Sixty Years: After which, you will not wonder, that a Person of my Acquaintance, should have spent almost Forty, in Gathering and Amassing Materials for an Hortulan Design, to so enormous an Heap, as to fill some Thousand Pages; and yet be comprehended within two, or three Acres of Ground; nay, within the Square of less than One (skilfully Planted and Cultivated) sufficient to furnish, and entertain his Time and Thoughts all his Life long, with a most Innocent, Agreeable, and Useful Employment. But you may justly wonder, and Condemn the Vanity of it too, with that Reproach, This Man began to build, but was not able to finish! This has been the Fate of that Undertaking; and I dare promise, will be of whosoever imagines (without the Circumstances of extraordinary Assistance, and no ordinary Expence) to pursue the Plan, erect, and finish the Fabrick as it ought to be.