MAECENAS AND HIS HAPPENINGS 157 



every possible novelty or difficulty, one is reminded of the 

 legendary person quoted by the eulogist of King Solomon : 

 " He was wiser than all men ; than Ethan the Ezrahite ; 

 and Heman, and Chalcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol ; 

 and his fame was in all nations round about. ... He 

 spake of trees, from the cedar tree that is in Lebanon 

 even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall : he 

 spake also of beasts, and of fowl, and of creeping things, 

 and of fishes." 



This reputation for universal wisdom becomes a 

 reality after minute examination of the Banks corre- 

 spondence. Look, for example, at the following list 

 of some few of the matters placed before him from time 

 to time, each of them implying a special knowledge, 

 together with a certainty in the mind of the querist 

 that Sir Joseph was equal to the task placed before him : 



All matters connected with the vegetable kingdom, 

 as botanical novelties, horticulture, the cultivation of 

 hemp, cotton, wheat, potatoes, apples, strawberries ; 

 experiments in fertilization and the treatment of garden 

 pests : these things were peculiarly Banks's concern. 

 We find, besides, farming, drainage, docks, and canals ; 

 hydraulics and engineering ; vital statistics ; tanning 

 and currying ; " the tricks of millers and bakers " ; 

 the plucking of geese ; taxation ; coinage ; earthquakes, 

 magnetism and electricity ; geological gropings ; latitude 

 and longitude. Exploration was a thoroughly live 

 topic. 



Some of these queries would be accompanied by 

 samples or models ; as when an East India Company's 

 official would submit a vermiculus or a cimex newly 

 arrived in a parcel from the Indies. The contents of 

 Banks's spacious cabinets were prodigiously augmented 

 by these and other out-of-the-way offerings. Captains 

 from the Eastern seas were entrusted with Japanese 

 boxes, curious woods and minerals, wild beasts and birds 



