172 THE OLD ENGLISH HERBALS 



them, the one for Heat the other for Moisture ; wherein the being 

 of Plants consists." 



The most attractive parts of the Art of Simpling are the 

 chapters devoted to the " Joys of Gardening." Coles tells 

 us that " A house, though otherwise beautifull, if it hath no 

 garden is more like a prison than a house." Of what he has 

 to say about gardens and the happiness to be found in gardening 

 I quote much because it is all so pleasant. 



" That there is no place more pleasant [than a garden] may 

 appear from God himselfe, who after he had made Man, planted 

 the Garden of Eden, and put him therein, that he might contem- 

 plate the many wonderful Ornaments wherewith Omnipotency 

 had bedecked his Mother Earth. ... As for recreation, if 

 a man be wearied with over-much study (for study is a weariness 

 to the Flesh as Solomon by experience can tell you) there is no 

 better place in the world to recreate himself than a Garden, 

 there being no sence but may be delighted therein. If his sight 

 be obfuscated and dull, as it may easily be, with continuall poring, 

 there is no better way to relieve it, than to view the pleasant 

 greennesse of Herbes, which is the way that Painters use, when 

 the}/ have almost spent their sight by their most earnest contem- 

 plation of brighter objects : neither doe they onely feed the Eyes 

 but comfort the wearied Braine with fragrant smells. The Eares 

 also (which are called the Daughters of Musick, because they 

 delight therein) have their recreation by the pleasant noise of 

 the warbling notes, which the chaunting birds accent forth from 

 amongst the murmuring Leaves. ..." 



" Of the profits " [of a garden] he says, " First for household 

 occasions, for there is not a day passeth over our heads but we 

 have of one thing or other that groweth within their circum- 

 ference. We cannot make so much as a little good Pottage 

 without Herbes, which give an admirable relish and make them 

 wholsome for our Bodies. . . . Besides this inestimable Profit 

 there is another not much inferior to it, and that is the wholsome 

 exercise a man may use in it. . . . If Gentlemen which have 



