INTRODUCTION. 9 



the man who can forbear to join 



" the general smile 



Of Nature ? Can fierce passions vex his soul, 



While every gale is peace, and every grove 



Is melody?" 



Thomson. 



" Where every breeze shall medicine every wound." 



Shenstone. 



Rapin says, 



" Thrice happy they who these delights pursue ; 

 For whether they their plants in order view, 

 Or overladen boughs with props relieve, 

 Or if to foreign fruits new names they give, 

 If they the taste of every plum explore, 

 To eat at second course, what would they more? 

 What greater happiness can be desired, 

 Than what by these diversions is acquired ?" 



The Chinese have no school for the study 

 of physic ; but they make use of simples 

 and roots, and are generally well experi- 

 enced in the knowledge of the several vir- 

 tues of all the herbs growing in their coun- 

 try ; and which every master of a family 

 teaches his servant. Lewis and Clark, and 

 other travellers up the Mississipi, observe, 

 that the native Americans always carried 

 with them roots and herbs, of which they 

 had discovered the use. 



The predilection of the ancient Syrians 

 for gardening gave rise to the proverb of the 



