28 EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 



that sacred Oak which you consecrated with your 

 Presence, and we celebrate, with just acknowledg- 

 ment to God, for your Preservation. 



I need not acquaint your Majesty how many mil- 

 lions of timber-trees, besides infinite others, have been 

 propagated and planted throughout your vast domi- 

 nions, at the instigation, and by the sole direction of 

 this work ; because your gracious Majesty has been 

 pleased to own it publickly for my encouragement, 

 who, in all that I here pretend to say, deliver only 

 those precepts which your Majesty has put into prac- 

 tice ; as having, like another Cyrus, by your own 

 royal example, exceeded all your predecessors in the 

 plantations you have made, beyond, I dare assert it, 

 all the monarchs of this nation, since the conquest 

 of it. And, indeed, what more august, what more 

 worthy your Majesty, or more becoming our imita- 

 tion, than, whilst you are thus solicitous for the 

 public good, we pursue your Majesty's great ex- 

 ample, and, by cultivating our decaying woods, con- 

 tribute to your power, as to our greatest wealth and 

 safety ; since whilst your Majesty is furnished to send 



