In a word , here may you view the enamelled Robe of the Universe , Lady like , spotted with its rosy-locks ; whose hair doth not more adorn than profit ; whose ruby cheeks are not more admired for their beauty , than for their salubrious virtues desired ; whose frank , free , fragrant , and fruitfull Breasts do nourish her own Children sprung from her never resting womb , affording nourishment both to Man and Beast . Insomuch that we may well cry out with Du Bartas ; ‛ Good Lord ! how many gasping Souls have scap't ‛ By th' aid of Herbs , for whom the Grave hath gap't ; ‛ Who even about to touch the Stygian Strand , ‛ Have yet beguil'd grim Pluto's greedy hand . ‛ O sacred Simples , that our Life sustain , ‛ And when it flyes , can call it back again ; ' 'T is not alone your Liquor inly tane , ‛ That oft defends us from so many a bane ; ‛ But even your savour , yea , your neighbourhood , ‛ For some diseases is exceeding good . ‛ O great is the powerfull Good that lyes ‛ In Herbs , Trees , Stones , and their true qualities : ‛ For nought so vile , that on the Earth doth live , ‛ But to the Earth some secret good doth give ; ‛ And nought so rich , on either Rock or Shelf , ‛ But , if unknown , lyes useless to it self , ‛ Therefore who thus doth make his Secrets known , ‛ Doth profit others , but not hurt his own .

Sirs , Communication is the primo-genito of Goodness ; and why should so singular a benefit longer lye hid ? Doth not the immense Excellency of Eternity delight himself in expanding the beams of his Goodness ? and why should the younger Sister , the Sun-burned beauty of Knowledge , and Science sublunar , be encloystered within the obscure verge of a forreign Language , barbarous , and almost inexplicable Idiome ? Undoubtedly ( Brethren ) Heaven will follow it with a correspondency of Blessings .

We desire not ( Sirs ) to degrade , or go about to darken the splendour , or obstruct the luster of the Oriency of that never fading Crown due to the Seraphick Founts of Learning ; but to exclaim ( and not without cause ) against the Saturnine tyrannie of such , whose endeavours are to monopolize all Arts and Sciences in an uncouth Magazine , and to inhance them , as by Letter-Patent , locking them up , with the feculent bolts of Self-exaltation , beyond the usual extension of vulgar Capacities , not allowing them the priviledge to peep within the veil .

How many thousands of poor Wretches that are arrested by the virulent malignity of a distemper , and by its creeping Gangrena , preposterously hurried into the boats of Charon ; whereas a small matter , and it may be , a Plant sprouting at their own doors , might dissipate its vehemency at its first onset , if throughly understood , and rightly applyed .

Was it not the practice of the Heathens Magi , Damones , and Sophoi , to captive the People under the hatches of blindness ? and did they not receive the just Guerdon of fallacy ? Shall Science be a peculiar mans property ? God forbid .

Is not Salus Populi the Pallisado of Republicks ? and Experience Corona Scientiarum ? It importeth you , Sirs , whom God hath called in a peculiar manner to be as it were his Vice-gerents , to operate in things about life and death , to endeavour a promotion of the former , by preparing fitly Natures Offspring for convenient and suitable Nutriment to so sublime a subject ; and to increase the latter , by making confused things ( every where occurrent ) distinct ; and abstruse , obvious .

Sirs , you live in a City , which the Eternal Being hath bedubbed and adorned with variety of blessings , clarified Intellectuals , and well polished Judgements ; you are subservient to the refinedst Artists under the Cope of Heaven , crowned with never-fading-Palms , for their boundless knowledge in the Botannick Art . What Plant is there in the fertile womb of the Earth , that is not now found out , and known ? What glistering and shining Stars do daily , appear in your Horizon ? Can every age boast of a Gerard , Parkinson , or Johnson ? what an incomparable * * Cheapside . Garden have you hourly access unto , which may contend with the greatest part of the World for Glory , Beauty , and Variety ! and shall not these Considerations alarm you ? you that are called Opiferque per Orbem , to demonstrate your zeal to your Native Countrey , by discovering in intelligible Characters , the virtues , properties and qualities of such Simples as this Climate is luxuriant with ; which ( Sirs ) would be an overflourishing Herald to emblazon your Escutcheons without Star , half Moon , spot , or blemish ; and eternize your names in indelible stamps , upon the pinnacle of Fame ; and when your Works shall redeem sick consumed persons from their expected Coffins , you shall be adored as so many Deities adumbrated in bodies of flesh .

Be ye the Golden Heliotropes of Gods right hand , shutting and opening at his good will and pleasure , not wrapping your Talents in the Napkin of secresy , but rather laying out your endeavours for the good of your Countrey . Then would exotical Plants submit to the excellency of domestick Simples ; and homebred remedies be sought after for home-bred diseases .

You cannot be ignorant what calumnies of late have been hurled upon both Physicians and Apothecaries ; the cause of such detraction is Ignorance . Successit odium in Literas ab Ignorantia vulgi . Which Junius well perceived . And can these men judge of a Scholars worth and pains , that are not acquainted with study-labours ? That long since unforked dilemma of Pliny hath often been revived , and to this day fostered ; which is thus stated ; Every Disease is either curable or incurable ; a man either recovers of it , or is killed by it ; both wayes Physick is to be rejected ; if it be deadly , it cannot be cured ; if it may be helped , it requires no Physick , Nature will expell it of it self . Doubtless ( Sirs ) it concerns you to dispell such Clouds , seeing some have been so impudent to hold , that it is no Art at all , nor worthy the name of a Liberal Science , as Pet , and Canouherius , a Patrician of Rome , and a famous Doctor , goes about to prove by 16 Arguments ; because it is mercenary , as now adayes used , as Fidlers play for a reward ; and that the Devil himself was the first Inventor of it . Inventum est Medicina meum , said Apollo .

Neither have the Paracelsian Order ( as so many Promethei that would fetch Fire from Heaven ) the least share in these Contumelacies : how are Galen and Hippocrates ( who were the first that ever writ of Physick to any purpose ) censured by them , for immethodical and obscure , terming their Medicines obsolete , and their Precepts confused , and for the most part rejected by them , calling them Mountebanks , Empericks , Impostors , Infants , Idiots , Sophisters , and such like , not worthy the name of Physicians , who were not versed in the knowledge of such Remedies as they had , boasting that he himself could make a man live 160 years by his Alexipharmacums , Panacea's , Mumia's , Unguentum Armarium , and such Magnetical Cures ; Lampas vitae & mortis , Balneum Dianae , Balsamum , Electrum , Magieo-Physicum , Amulets , Martiala . What will not he ( who stiles himself Theophrastus , Hariolum , Bombastum , Hohanhein ) and his Disciples effect ? He proclaims himself to be Primus Medicorum , and did more famous Cures than all Physicians in Europe , vapouring that a drop of his Preparations should go further than an ounce of theirs .

How is Galen taxed by Cardan ( without a due consideration of his worth ) for presuming out of his Ambition ( as he terms it ) to correct Theriacum Andromachi ? and why there must be just so many Simples in Mithridate ; and why such and such a quantity . How are the Receipts of Myrepsius , Mesue , Celsus , Scribanius , Actuarius , and others , for the most part now condemned and neglected ? Every private man must have his own Compositions and Magisterials , as if he scorned Antiquity ; each fellow must correct and alter , to shew his skill , and maintain his own Paradox , be it what it will , and in the mean time the Patients must pay for their new Experiments .

But we will not urge these cavilling Arguments any further , we hope ( Sirs ) you understand the frothiness of such Positions , and that you will be ready to vindicate it from such Aspersions , and acknowledge it to be a noble and divine Science ; insomuch that Apollo , Esculapius , and the first Founders of it , merito pro diis habiti , were worthily accounted Gods by succeeding ages .

Are we not enjoyned to honour the Physician for necessity sake ? Ecclesiasticus 18.3 . The knowledge of the Physician lifteth up his head , and in the sight of great men he shall be admired ; the Lord hath created Medicines of the earth , and he that is wise will not abhor them .

Let such prattle what they will , mixed Diseases must have mixed Remedies . It is a most noble invention , saith Quercitan , found out and brought into Physick with great judgement , counsel , wisdome and discretion , so that the greatness of the Composition bespeaks the elegancy of the Medicine . For Brass vola and Cardan maintain , Nullum Medicamentum simplex esse sine no●a : Therefore in every Composition such Simples are mixed as have affinity to the part affected , some to qualify , the rest to roborate , some one part , Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy . some another . It 's true of old , Physicians were compelled in the Infancy of this Art , to make use of ordinary Simples ; but now necessity compells us to make use of new Remedies , and to make Compounds of Simples ; as well to correct their nocumental qualities , if cold , dry , hot , thick , thin , in sipid , noysome to smell , to make them savoury to the palate , pleasant to the gust ; as also to preserve them for continuance , by admixtion of Sugar and Honey , to make them last months and years for many futine uses .

Truly ( Sirs ) 't is a general fault ( as Severinus the Dane complained ) in Physick . Unhappy men , we spend our dayes in unprofitable questions and disputations , intricate subtilties , de Lana Caprina , about Moon-shine in the water , leaving in the mean time the chiefest of Natures Secrets untouched , wherein the best Medicines for all manner of diseases are to be found , and do not onely neglect them our selves , but hinder , condemn , forbid , and scoff at others that are willing to enquire after them . Yet I presume few of you but are affected with a passionate speech , a well penn'd and elegant Poem , Burton's Melancholy . or some pleasant and bewitching discourse . We presume ( Brethren ) that is an extraordinary delight for you to study , and to swallow down the Ambrosian sweetness of Natures Arcana , let the World taste of the fruits of your labours ; fear not the gurmundizing jaws of Zoilus , that with the Mastives of Cyrum , bark against the Moon . What an infinite number of Books offer themselves in all subjects , Arts and Sciences , even to allure your minds to seek complacency in their contemplation ? in Arithmetick , Geometry , Burton's Melancholy . Perspective , Astronomy , Optick , Architecture , Scalpture , Picture ; in Musick , Metaphysick , Natural and Moral Philosophy , Philology , in Mechanicks , and their Mysteries , Military matters , Navigation , riding of Horses , Fencing , Gardning , Hunting , Fishing , Fowling ; in Policy , Heraldry , Genealogy , Chronology . What vast Tomes are extant in Law , Physick , and Divinity , for profit , pleasure , speculation , and practice ?

Which of you will not be ravished to reade the description of that Geometrical Tower of Gorzenda at Bologn ? to see the Steeple and Clock at Strasburgh , and will not thence admire the effects of Art ? Or that Engine so much talked of by Archimedes , to remove the Earth it self , if he had but a place to fasten his Instrument in .

What greater pleasure , Loco citato . Sirs , can there be to ingenuous persons , than to view those elaborate Maps of Ortelius , Mercator , Hondius , &c. to peruse Bellonius his Observations , Gillius his Surveys , Harvey's Circulation of the Blood , America set out and cut in Pictures by Fratres A Bry ; to see a well cut Herbal , Herbs , Trees , Flowers , Plants , all Vegetables , expressed in their proper colours to the life ; as that of Matthiolus upon Dioscorides , Delacampius , Lobel , Bauhinus , and that voluminous Herbal of Beslar , where every Plant is described to his own bigness ; to see all Creatures deciphered by the same art , with an exact description of their names , natures , virtues , and qualities , as hath been accurately perform'd by Elian , Gesner , &c. and truly the like pleasure there is in all other studies to such as are addicted to them .

Who can reade over the Elogiums of other mens praises of certain Herbs , and not be amazed at their occult qualities ? Plin. l. 25. c. 22. l. 26. c. 13. L. 24. c. 17. As Nepenthe , in expelling sadness ; Hippuriu , in stenching blood ; Nictegretum , or Nyctilops , that shines like a Lamp in the night , and above all other Creatures , scareth the Geese . Collicia turns water into ice ; Hemlock meat to Storks , but poyson to Men ; Flabia , if cut , sends forth warm blood .

The Herb Achimedis , Bu Bartas Summary . if it be applyed to any thing locked or bolted , it will presently open it . Who cannot but stand amazed at the Herb Sentida , growing in India , which if any come near unto it , or touch it , or throw any thing upon it , it presently withers , ( Purchas Pilgrim . lib. 5. c. 12. )

Which of you can give a reason of the diversity of Meteors , that it should rain Stones , Frogs , Mice , and Rats ? Who would not but examine the truth of Astronomers reasons , Burton's Mel. whether the Stars be of that bigness and distance as they relate , 29000 Myriads , Loco citato . as Galilee discovers by his glasses , and some Rabbies stifly maintain ? Who would not but know whether the least visible Star in the eighth Sphere , be 18 times bigger than the Earth , and 14000 semidiameters distant from it ?

Is it not worth the inquiry ( Sirs ) whether the Sun be 140 times bigger than the Earth , as Tycho would have it , Swan 's Speculum Mundi . and the Moon to be lesser than any Star ? For he makes Mercury 19 times lesser than the Earth , and the Moon lesser than he 42 times ? Who would not but know how the Stars move in the Heavens ? Doth one Sphear cut another ? Or are there no solid Orbs ? Are not the Planets now higher , then lower ? Mars sometime lower than the Sun , and anon in Jupiter's Sphear ? Are the Heavens not impenetrable , as some maintain ? Or do they differ from the Air we live in ?

Are they living Creatures , as some of late do maintain , and endowed with sense and reason , as others would have them ? Are the Stars of such a nature and substance that they should stand in need of sustentation , as some judge ? Or can they give light no otherwise than as a lamp replenished with Oil ? Which is not altogether unconsonant to reason , for the Heavens are subject to change and alteration .

Which of you that would not dive into that main paradox of the Earths Motion ? Loco citato . For if the Earth being the center of the World , stand still , and the Heavens move , by what power is the Heavens carried about with such an incommprehensible celerity in 24 hours ? which as * * Comment. 2. Ch. Spher . Io. de sac . Bosc . Clavius calculates , every point of the Firmament must needs move 176650 leagues in one 24th part of an hour .

Who can determine what becomes of Cranes , Cuckoes , Burtonus . Swallows , Nightingales , Storks , Red-starts , that some are seen onely in Summer , some in Winter ? do they sleep ? or do they lye hid in the bottoms of Lakes and Rivers ? or do they follow the Sun , as Peter Martyr believes ?

Who is not desirous to know whether Mount Atlas , Athos , Loco citato . Caucasus , Olympus , and Ossa , beso high as Pliny relates , above both Clouds and Meteors 1250 paces high ? or as Mazonius calculates them , 78 miles perpendicularly high ?

Why doth Africa breed so many venemous Beasts ? Ireland none ? Athens Owls ? Crete none ? Why hath Thebes no Martins ? Pontus no Asses ? Ithaca no Hares ? and Scythia no Swine ?

Why so many strange Birds found in America alone , as Acosta demands , insomuch that neither Greek , Latine , or Hebrew ever heard of them before ? Why are the Spaniards white ? and yet the Inhabitants of Caput bonae spet black ? and both alike distant from the Equator .

We would also traverse the Thickets of the Woods , and finde out where the Phaenix builds her nest , and where the Unicorn lodges , or whether there be any such Creatures .

We would also post to Lebanus , to see whether there be any Cedars yet growing of Salomon's planting , as some maintain ; and also enquire of the Indians , whether their Territories bear any such a Tree as is called Arbor-de Rais , which is by some averred to be the Tree of Adam's transgression , yielding many boughs , which put forth certain threads of a golden colour , which growing downwards to the Earth , there take root again .

We would also dive into the bowels of the Earth , and there see the Generation of Minerals , Fossiles and Metals ; and would also know , whether the Mountains of Jamaica afford more Metal than the Valleys of Peru. But whether doth the clue of our thoughts leade us ? We have too long roved in the depths of Nocturnus , we profess our selves not to be able to fathom with the Plummet of our Juvenility , these profundities ; we leave the determination of these things to stronger Wits , that have better leisure to wade into such Phylosophical mysteries ; neither do they tend much to our present purpose .

Therefore ( Sirs ) we will not detain you too long in the Portal of the Rows of our own cogitations , but enode the knot , and throw open the gates ; onely tender you a preparatory advertisement of such specifications , whose precognition must be absolutely requisite to your satisfactory Lecture .

And first , we crave a due and equitable consideration of our defects and impediments , to the refraction and lopping off the rigour of your censures ; and to ruminate with an unprejudicial ratiocination upon that known Canon , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , That one may sooner finde a fault , than mend it .

We confess our selves to have been more than ordinarily conversant in an uncouth stile , in Pleonasms , Aliquando bonus dormitat Homerus . Tautologies , perturbations of senses , Printers Errata so our Translation in many places being not ad verbum , but sometimes Paraphrases , rather than Interpretations . We acknowledge with the Sciolist , Feci nec quod potai , nec quod volui , It is neither as we would , nor as it should .

The minority of our * * XXIII . years proclaims the nerves of our Intellect to be too slender and feeble to answer the curious expectation of every ones fancy , in rendring a perfect illustration of every Ambiguity couched in the whole , and our Pencil too rude and gross to express in our idiome in draughts respondent to the nicety of the subject ; not onely in regard of our too frequent submission and stooping of our most serious cogitations below the dignity and due height of the Authors strain , but also the vast contrariety between our Granium , and the obscurity ( by reason of the wide admission of variety of Interpretations ) of the stile , stuffed with many long Parenthesis , and clouded with dark Enigma's , which we presume will draw this construction from the Oracle of your Impartial Censures , that we had the visible appearance of more than one disadvantage to encounter with .