32 



TO THE READER. 



That famous answer alone which the Persian Monarch gave to 

 rSS Ly Sander, wdll suffi<?iently justify that which I have said, besides what 

 Tu)T might add out of our writings and examples of the rest ; but since 

 57. these may suffice, after due reproofs of the late impolitic waste and uni- 

 versal sloth amongst us, we should now turn our indignation into prayers, 

 and address ourselves to our better-natured countrymen, that such woods, 

 as do yet remain entire, might be carefully preserved, and such as are 

 destroyed, sedulously repaired : It is what all persons who are owners of 

 land may contribute to, and with infinite delight, as well as profit, who 

 are touched with that laudable ambition of imitating their illustrious 

 ancestors, and of worthily serving their generation. To these my earnest 

 and humble advice should be ; that at their first coming to their estates, 

 and as soon as they get children, they would seriously think of this work 

 of propagation also : for I observe there is no part of husbandry which 

 men commonly more fail in, neglect, and have cause to repent of, than 

 that they did not begin planting betimes, without which they can expect 

 neither fruit, ornament, or delight from their labours. Men seldom plant 

 trees till they begin to be wise, that is, till they grow old, and find, by 

 experience, the prudence and necessity of it. When Ulysses, after a ten 

 years absence, was returned from Troy, and coming home, found his aged 

 father in the field planting of trees, he asked him, " Why, being now so 

 *' far advanced in years, he would put himself to the fatigue and labour 

 " of planting that, of which he was never likely to enjoy the fruits ?" The 

 good old man, taking him for a stranger, gently replied: "I plant against 

 " my son Ulysses comes home." The application is obvious, and in- 

 structive for both old and young ; and we have a more modern in- 

 stance almost like that of the good old Laertes. — Upon the complaint of 

 learned persons and great travellers deploring the loss of many rare and 

 precious things, trees and plants, especially instancing the Balsam-tree of 

 Gilead, (now almost, if not altogether, failing, and no more to be found 

 where it grew in great plenty,) application is made to young men, to 

 consider it seriously, and to fall a planting while time is before them, 

 with this encouraging exclamation, " Agite, 6 Adolescentes, et antequam 

 " canities vobis obrepat, stirpes jam alueritis, quas vobis, cum insigni 

 " utilitate, delectationem etiam adferent : Nam quemadmodum canities 

 " temporis successu, vobis insciis, sensim obrepit: Sic natura vobis 

 " inserviens educabit quod telluri vestree concredetis, modo prima initia 



