158 PLANTS AND PLANETS. [CHAP. 



nor ^Esculapius ; 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. E ccelum Mars solus habct" 



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 I. Their ignorance, 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 



