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Show To the Reader. on why His in my Opinion has given us the crue reaf more improv’d bandry, and particularly Planting , is no Perfons are Lords in this Age-of ours : efpecially, where s he, and Owners of much Land, Thetruthis, faye r when men have acquired any confiderable Fortune by thei greatgood Husbandry, and experience (forgetting that the s, belong’d eft Patriarchs, Princes, their Sons and Daughter foame to to the Plougb,and the Flock.) they account Ita breed up their Children in the fame Calling in which they m for themfelves were educated, but prefently defign the Gentlemen : They muft forfooth, have a Coat of Arms, d and live upon their E/fates; So as by that time his Bear grows, he begins to be afham’d of his Father, and would be ready to defie him, that fhould upon any occalion mind himof his boneft Extraétion : Andif it chance that the sood-manhave other Children to provide for; This muft be the Darling, be bred at School, and the Univer= fity, whilft the reft mult to Plow with the Father, &c. This isthe Caufe, fays my Authour, that our Lands are fo ill Cultivated. Every body will fubfift upon their own Revenue, and take their Pleafure, whilft they Refign their Eftates to be manag’d by the moft Ignorant, (which are the Children whom they leave at home, or the Hinds to whomthey commit them. } Whenas in truth,and inreajfon, the more Learning the better Philofopbers, and the greater Abilities they poffefle, the more, and the better are they qua- lified, toCultivate, and improve their Eftates; Methinks this is well and rationally argued. And now you have in part what 1 had to produce in extenuation of this my Adventure; that Animated with a Command, and Affifted by divers Worthy Perfons ( whofe Names amprone to celebratewith all juft ReSPecis) I have prefumedto caft in my Symbol; and which, with the reft that are to follow, may (1 hope ) be infome degree ferviceable to bim (who e’re the happy Perfor be) which fhall oblige To the Reader, oblige the World with chat compleat Syfeme of Agriculture; whichas yet feems a defiderate , and wantingtoits perfedion, It is (I affure you) what is one ofthe Principal Defigns of the ROYAL SOCIETY. norin this Par: ticular only , but throughall the Liberal and, moreufeful Arts; and for which(in the eftimationofall equal Judges) it will merit the greateft of Encouragements ; that fo, at laft, what the Learned Columella has wittily reproach’d, and complain’d of, as a defect in that Age of bis, concerning Agriculture in general, andis applicable here, may attain its defired Remedy and Confummation in This of Ours. Prafat. ad P, Sola enim Res Ruflica , que fine dubitatione proxima, ty Sylvium 3 which I earquaft confanguinea Sapientia eft, tam difcentibus eget, quam neltly recommend to the magiftris: Adbuc in Scholis Rhetorum, to Geometrarum ferious peruMuficorumque, Vel quod magis mirandum eft, contemptiffimo- rum vitiorum officinas, gulofius condiendi cibos , do luxuriofius fercula Struendi , capitumque (9 capillorum concinnatores non folum efe audivi, fed te ipfe vidi; Agricolationis neque Dotiores qui fe profiterentur , neque Difcipulos cognovi, Butthis I leave for our Gallants to Interpret, and fhould now apply my felf to the Diredlive Part , which I am all this while befpeaking , if after what I havefaid in the feveral Paragraphs of the enfuing Difcourfe upon the Argument of Bod, (and whichin this Second Edition coming Abroad with innumerable Jmprovements, to at the lealt , a full-half Augmented , and that with fuch Advantages, as 1 am not afraid, to pronounceit almoft altogether a New-Work,, fo furnifh’d, as I hope fhall neither reproach the Author, or repent the Reader) it might noc feem fuperfiuous to have pramifed any thing bere for the Encouragementoffo becoming an Indufiry. There are divers Learned, and judicious Men who have praceded Me in this Argument; as many,at leaft, as have undertaken to Write and Compile vaft Herbals, and Theaters of Plants; of which we have fome of our own Country.men, who have (1 dare boldly € afhrm fal of our Gentry. Et mihi ad fapientis vitam proximé videtar ac= cedere. Cic.de SeneBute: |