LITERATURE OF S0CTTI6H AEBOMCULTUEE. 219 



the work has received many improvements ; hut its own intrinsic 

 merit is shown hy its popularity during nearly two hundred years. 

 Professing to he a discourse on forest trees, and the propagation of 

 timber in Britain, in reply to certain queries propounded to the 

 Royal Society by the Honourable the principal Officers and Commis- 

 sioners of the Navy, at a time when the necessity for an adequate 

 supply of oak and other timber for such national purposes was of 

 the very highest importance, the treatise of Evelyn was admirably 

 calculated to meet the requirements of the case, and to stimulate any 

 nagging zeal in the pursuit of practical arboriculture in the land. 

 Living, as Evelyn did, to a good old age, with a singleness of eye 

 and purpose for the good of mankind, his motto and aim seemed 

 to be, in the words of Tacitus — "Ad utilitatem vitce omnia facta 

 consiliaqne nostra sunt diregencla ;" and in doing so it appears to have 

 been to him rather a relaxation and amusement than an imposed 

 task, so deeply did he love trees and the pursuit of natural know- 

 ledge. To the publication of this work, and to the royal patronage 

 extended to it in a very gracious degree by the reigning monarch, 

 King Charles II. , we are indebted for many millions of timber trees, 

 chiefly oaks, " besides infinite others," propagated and planted 

 throughout England, and the royal example of cultivating " decay- 

 ing woods," besides forming new forests, was productive of the 

 highest benefit to the cause of arboriculture. 



Evelyn's " address to the reader " shows well the spirit that ani- 

 mated his work, and the good he desired — the publication of it to 

 extend over the length and breadth of the land. He desired to 

 address himself to his " hetter-natureit countrymen," " that such 

 woods as do yet remain entire might be carefully preserved, and 

 such as are destroyed sedulously repaired. It is what all persons 

 who are owners of land may contribute to, and with infinite delight 

 as well as profit, who are touched with that laudable ambition of 

 imitating their illustrious ancestors, and of worthily serving their 

 generation. To these, my earnest and humble advice should be, 

 that at their first coming to their estates, and as soon as they get 

 children, they would seriously think of this work of propagation also, 

 for I observe there is no part of husbandry which men commonly 

 more fail in, neglect, and have cause to repent of, than that they did 

 not begin planting betimes, without which they can expect neither 

 fruit, ornament, or delight from their labours. Men seldom plant 

 trees till they begin to be wise, that is, till they grow old, and find 

 by experience the prudence and necessity of it. When Ulysses, 



