24 



A DISCOURSE 



BOOK II. to Rome ; nor grew they nearer than Persia, whence first they travelled. 



"''"'-^r'^ into Greece, as Athen£eus tells us. But to return to that of China, and 

 give some account of its propagation in Europe : The first was sent for 

 a present to the old Conde Mellor, then prime-minister to the King 

 of Portugal ; but of that whole case that came to Lisbon, there was but 

 one only plant which escaped the being so spoiled and tainted, that with 

 great care it hardly recovered, to be since become the parent and pro- 

 genitor of all those flourishing trees of that name, cultivated by our 

 gardeners, though not without sensibly degenerating. Receiving this 

 account from the illustrious son of the Conde, (successor in title and 

 favour,) upon his being recalled, (then an exile at our court, where I had 

 the honour to be known to him,) I thought fit to mention it in this place, 

 for an instance of what the industry we have recommended would, 

 questionless, in less than half an age, produce of wonders, by intro- 

 duction, if not of quite different, yet of better kinds, and such variety for 

 pulchritude and sweetness, that when, by some princely example, our 

 late pride, effeminacy, and luxury, (which has, to our vast charges, 

 excluded all the ornaments of timber, &c, to give place to hangings, 

 embroideries, and foreign leather,) shall be put out of coimtenance, we 

 may hope to see a new face of things, and the natural, wholesome, and 

 ancient use of timber restored, for the more lasting occasions, and 

 furniture of our dwellings. And though I do not speak all this for the 

 sake of joined-stools, benches, cup-boards, massy tables, and gigantic 

 bedsteads, the hospitable utensils of our forefathers ! yet I would be 

 glad to encourage the carpenter and the joiner, and rejoice to see that 

 their work and skill do daily improve ; and that by the example and 

 application of his Majesty's Universities, and Royal Society, the restora- 

 tion and improvement of shipping, mathematical and mechanical arts, the 

 use of timber grows daily in more reputation. And it were well if great 

 persons only might be indulged to enrich and adorn their palaces with 

 tapestry, damask, velvet, and Persian furniture, whilst by some wholesome 

 sumptuary laws, the universal excess of those costly and luxurious 

 moveables were prohibited meaner men for divers politic considerations 

 and reasons, which it were easy to produce ; but by a less influence than 

 severer laws, it will be very difficult, if not altogether impossible, to 

 recover ourselves from a softness and vanity, which will in time not only 

 effeminate, but undo the nation, 



