94 THE GARDEN OF CYRUS 



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 philo- 

 sopher unhappily omitteth the noblest part of the third, 

 and Ovid (whom many conceive to have borrowed 

 his description from Moses), coldly deserting the 

 remarkable account of the text, in three words 

 describeth this work of the third day, the vegetable 

 creation, and first ornamental scene of nature, the 

 primitive food of animals, and first story of physic in 

 dietetical conservation. 



For though Physic may plead high, 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 planted the third day of the 

 creation, as wiser divinity concludeth, the nativity 

 thereof was too early for horoscopy : gardens were 

 before gardeners, and but some hours after the earth. 



Of deeper doubt is its topography and local design- 

 ation ; yet being the primitive garden, and without 

 much controversy seated in the east, it is more than 

 probable the first curiosity, and cultivation of plants, 



