INTRODUCTION xxxi 



and the superb subdivisions of " Compactile, sutile, 

 and plectile " and again the proud procession of 

 triumphal adjectives, " they were convivial, festive, 

 sacrificial, nuptial, honorary, funebrial." In the con- 

 test between Latin rhetorical grandeur and Anglo- 

 Saxon naivete, the battle is not always entirely to the 

 simple and direct forms of expression. Hear Browne's 

 measured march once more " Their honorary crowns, 

 triumphal, ovary, civical, obsidional." l 



I am fully conscious of the disadvantages of giving 

 extracts only (however long and representative) of Sir 

 Thomas Browne's " Garden of Cyrus " and " Plants 

 mentioned in Scripture." But if they had been printed 

 in full, the quotations from Evelyn would have had 

 to be omitted or curtailed. I hope therefore I have 

 chosen the lesser evil. By printing the full Synopsis 

 and Argument at the head of each chapter of the 

 " Garden of Cyrus," the reader, who would have liked 

 more text, will be enabled to follow the thread of the 

 argument ; and in view of its extraordinary diffusecess, 



1 If Sir L. Alma-Tadema had Browne's tract in his mind 

 (in addition to Athenius) when he painted his "Helio- 

 gabalus *' and his other Roman Coronary re-incarnations, 

 it is possible we have Browne's sonorous and trumpet- 

 toned adjectives translated into their equivalents of glowing 

 and richly harmonised colour ! 



