Iviii INTRODUCTION 



to these suggestions. Evelyn's recommendations concluded 

 with the exhorting that * the further exhorbitant encrease of 

 Tenements, poor and nasty Cottages near the City, be pro- 

 hibited, which disgrace and take off from the sweetness and 

 amoenity of the Environs of London, and are already become 

 a great Eye-sore in the grounds opposite to His Majesty's 

 Palace of White-hall ; which being converted to this use, 

 might yield a diversion inferior to none that could be 

 imagined for Health, Profit, and Beauty, which are the three 

 Transcendencies that render a place without all exception. 

 And this is what (in short ) I had to offer, for the improve- 

 ment and Melioration of the Aer about London, and with which 

 I shall conclude this discourse. ' 



Besides dedicating his pamphlet especially to the King, as 

 well as proposing, on the title-page, the remedy " To His 

 Sacred Majestic, and To the Parliament now Assembled ", 

 Evelyn likewise adresses himself " To the Reader " by way 

 of a second introduction; and he does so in these plainer 

 and rather contemptuous terms : * I have little here to 

 add to implore thy good opinion and approbation, after I 

 have submitted this Essay to his Sacred Majesty : But as 

 it is of universal benefit that I propound it; so I expect a civil 

 entertainment and reception.... * Confessing himself ' fre- 

 quently displeased at the small advance and improvement of 

 Publick Works in this nation, ' he further expresses him- 

 self as ' extremely amazed, that where there is so great 

 affluence of all things which may render the People of this 

 vast City the most happy upon Earth; the sordid and 

 accursed Avarice of some few Particular Persons should be 

 suffered to prejudice the health and felicity of so many: 

 That any Profit (besides what is absolute necessity) should 

 render men regardlesse of what chiefly imports them, when it 

 may be purchased upon so easie conditions, and with so 

 great advantages : For it is not happiness to possesse 

 Gold, but to enjoy the Effects of it and to know how 

 to live cheerfully and in health, Non est vivere, sed valere 

 vita. That men whose very Being is Aer, should not 

 breath it freely when they may; but (as that Tyrant us'd 

 his Vassals) condemn themselves to this misery and Fumo 

 pr<efocari, is strange stupidity : yet thus we see them walk 



