Thus it has continued to happen that until the [x] last half-century Herbal Physic has remained only speculative and experimental, instead of gaining a solid foothold in the field of medical science. Its claims have been merely empirical, and its curative methods those of a blind art:-- "Si vis curari, de morbo nescio quali, Accipias herbam; sed quale nescio; nec qua Ponas; nescio quo; curabere, nescio quando." Your sore, I know not what, be not foreslow To cure with herbs, which, where, I do not know; Place them, well pounc't, I know not how, and then You shall be perfect whole, I know not when." Happily now-a-days, as our French neighbours would say, _Nous avons change tout cela_, "Old things are passed away; behold all things are become new!" Herbal Simples stand to-day safely determined on sure ground by the help of the accurate chemist. They hold their own with the best, and rank high for homely cures, because of their proved constituents. Their manifest healing virtues are shown to depend on medicinal elements plainly disclosed by analysis. Henceforward the curtain of oblivion must fall on cordial waters distilled mechanically from sweet herbs, and on electuaries artlessly compounded of seeds and roots by a Lady Monmouth, or a Countess of Arundel, as in the Stuart and Tudor times. Our Herbal Simples are fairly entitled at last to independent promotion from the shelves of the amateur still-room, from [xi] the rustic ventures of the village grandam, and from the shallow practices of self styled botanical doctors in the back streets of our cities. "I do remember an apothecary,-- And hereabouts he dwells,--whom late I noted In tatter'd weeds, with overwhelming brows, _Culling of Simples_; meagre were his looks; And in his needy shop a tortoise hung, An alligator stuff'd, and other skins Of ill-shap'd fishes; and about his shelves A beggarly account of empty boxes, Green earthen pots, bladders, and musty seeds, Remnants of packthread, and old cakes of roses Were thinly scattered to make up a show." _Romeo and Juliet_, Act V. Sc. 1. Chemically assured, therefore, of the sterling curative powers which our Herbal Simples possess, and anxious to expound them with a competent pen, the present author approaches his task with a zealous purpose, taking as his pattern, from the _Comus_ of Milton:-- "A certain shepherd lad Of small regard to see to, yet well skilled In every virtuous plant, and healing herb; He would beg me sing; Which, when I did, he on the tender grass Would sit, and hearken even to constancy; And in requital ope his leathern scrip, And show me _Simples_, of a thousand names, Telling their strange, and vigorous faculties."