204 S Y L V A BOOK in 



those materials infinite store, even from the very 

 acorn and seminary, a competent advance of the most 

 useful timber for the building of ships, (as I think 

 is sufficiently made out) since his late Majesty's 

 Restoration : The want of timber, and the necessity 

 of being supply 'd by foreign countries, if not prevented 

 by better and more industrious instruments, may prove 

 in a short time a greater mischief to the publick, than 

 the late diminution of the coin. I wish I prove no 

 prophet, whilst I cannot for my life but often think 

 of what the learned Melanchthon above a hundred 

 years since was wont to say (long before those bar- 

 barous wars had made these devastations in Germany), 

 that the time was coming, when the want of three 

 things would be the ruin of Europe, lignum^ probam 

 monetam^ probos amicos ; timber, good money, and 

 sincere friends : How far we see this prediction already 

 verify 'd, let others judge : And if what I here have 

 touch'd with some resentment in behalf of the publick 

 and my country, in this rustick discourse, and us'd 

 the freedom of a plain forester, seems too rude ; it is 

 the person I was commanded to put on, and my 

 plea is ready, 



Tra/ooiforifc, ?rac avrjp v 



Praesente quercu, ligna quivis colligit. 



For who could have spoken less upon so ample a 

 subject ? and therefore I hope my zeal for it in these 

 papers, will excuse the prolixity of this digression, 

 and all other the imperfections of my services. 



Si canimus silvas, silvae sunt consule dignae. y 



