158 PLANTS AND PLANETS. [CHAP. 
nor A‘sculapius ; and if he were so choleric as you 
make him to be, he would have drawn his sword for 
anger, to see the ill-conditions of those people that 
can spy his vices, and not his virtues. The eternal 
God, when he made Mars, made him for public good, 
and the sons of men shall know it in the latter end 
of the world. £ celum Mars solus habet.” 
There are two institutions for which old Culpepper 
cherished a bitter dislike—the College of Physicians 
and the Papacy. Wherever the smallest opportunity 
occurs he satirises one or the other. Referring to the 
Sea Wormwood and its various names, he says: “A 
Papist got the toy by the end, and he called it Holy 
Wormwood ; and in truth, I am of opinion, their 
giving so much holiness to herbs is the reason there 
remains so little in themselves.” He also supposes 
that the Holy Thistle had its name “put upon it by 
some that had little holiness in themselves.’ When 
describing the virtues of the various species of Persi- 
caria or Water-pepper, he tells us: “ Our College of 
Physicians, out of the learned care of the publick 
good, Anglice, their own gain, mistake the one for 
the other in their ‘New Master-piece, whereby they 
discover—1. Theirignorance, 2. Their carelessness ; 
and he that hath but half an eye may see their pride 
without a pair of spectacles.” 
If a good handful of this plant (Persicaria) be put 
under a horse’s saddle, it will make him travel faster, 
although he were half tired before. 
But returning to Wormwood, he continues: “ You 
say Mars is angry, and it is true enough he is angry 
with many countrymen for being such fools to be led 
eee 
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5 
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7 
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