HAE MeV Il. BOOKE OF 
THE HISTORIE OF NATVRE, 
WRITTEN BY C. PLINIVS 
SECVNDVS. 
g The Proeme, 
Cuap, Yo 
= Kites, the farther chat! proceed in this difcourfe andhiftory of mine,the more 
P-<SSNA|| am I forced to admite our fore-fathers and men of old time : for, confidering 
Sy ax((|| as [doe, what a number of Simples thete yet remaine behind to be written of 
I cannot fufficiently adore either their carefull indifttie, in fearching and fin 
@|. ding them out; or their liberal] bountie, in impatting them fo friendly to po- 
fteritie, And verely, if this knowledge of Heatbs had proceeded from mans 
invention, doubtleffe 1 muft needs have thought, that the munificenfe of thofe ouraunceftors 
had furpaffed the goodneffe of Nature her felfe. But now apparent and well knowne it is, That 
the gods were authors of that skill and cunning, or at leaftwife there was fome divinitic and hea- 
veuly inftin& therein, even when it feemed to come from the brain and head of man: and to fay 
a trath,confefle we muft, That Nature (the mother and nource of all things) both in bringing 
D forth thefe Simples, and alfo in revealing them with their vertues to mankind, hath fhewedher 
admirable power as much as in any other worke of hers whatfoever. The hearbe Scythica is, 
brought hither atthisday out of the great fennsand meers of Moeotis, where it groweth: Bu- 
phorbia commerh from the mountaine Atlas, farre beyond Hercules pillarsand the ftreights of 
Gibraleat,and thofe are the very utmoft bounds of the earth: From another coatt alfo, the herb 
Britannica we have, tranfported unto us out of Britaine, and the Iflands lying without the con- 
tinent,and divided from the reft of the world; likeas AEthiopis outas faras A:thiopia, aclimat 
dire&tly under the Sun, and burnt with continuall heat thereof: Befides other plants and drugs 
neceffarie for the Jife and health of man, for which merchants paffe from all parts tooand fro, 
and by reciprocall commerce, impart them to the whole world; andall by the meanes of that 
E_happie peace which (through the infinit majeftic of the Romane Empite) the earth enjoyeth: 
in {uch fort, as not onely people of fundrie lands and nations have recourfe one unto another 
in their trafficke 2nd mutuall trade, but high mountains alfo and the clitfes furpailing the verie 
clouds, meet as it were togither, and have means tocommunicatthe commodities, even the ve- 
rie hearbs which they yeeld, oneto the benefit of another: Long may this bleffing hold, I pray 
the gods, yea and continue world without end :for furely it is their heavenly vifts, that the Ro- 
mans as af{econd Sun fhould give light and fhine to the whole world. 
Cap. 11. 
ee Of the poifon Aconite, and the Panther which is killed thereby. 
Comite alone, if there were nothing els, is fufficientto induce any mantoan endleffe ad- 
Weeeslivlion and reverence of thatinfinit care and diligence which our auncients emploied 
in fearching outthe fecrets of Nature;confidering how by their means we know there is no 
poifon in the world fo quicke in operations it, info muchasif the fhap or nature of any living 
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