THE GARDEN OF CYRUS 

 BY SIR THOMAS BROWNE 



I 



THAT VULCAN GAVE ARROWS UNTO Gard ? n 



contriv- 

 ApolloandDianathe fourth day after their nati- an ce and 



vities, according to Gentile theology, may pass herber y 

 for no blind apprehension of the creation of the 

 sun and moon, in the work of the fourth day: 

 when the diffused light contracted into orbs, 

 and shooting rays of those luminaries. Plainer 

 descriptions there are from Pagan pens, of the 

 creatures of the fourth day. While the divine 

 philosopher unhappily omitteth the noblest 

 part of the third, and Ovid (whom many con- 

 ceive to have borrowed his description from 

 Moses), coldly deserting the remarkable ac- 

 count of the text, in three words describeth this 

 work of the third day, the vegetable creation, 

 andfirst ornamental scene of nature, the pri- 

 mitive food of animals, and first story of physic 

 in dietetical conservation. 



For though Physic may plead h igh , from that 

 medical act of God, in casting so deep a sleep 

 upon our first parent, and Chirurgery find its 

 whole art, in that one passage concerning the rib 

 of Adam; yet is there no rivality with Garden 

 contrivance and Herbery; for if Paradise were 

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