Sylva; Or, A Discourse of Forest Trees. Vol. 1 (of 2)Evelyn, John
History
Sylva; Or, A Discourse of Forest Trees. Vol. 1 (of 2)
Evelyn, John
Forests and forestry -- Early works to 1800; Gardening -- Early works to 1800; Trees -- Early works to 1800
My next _Advice_ is, that they do not easily commit themselves to the
_Dictates_ of their ignorant _Hinds_ and _Servants_,{lxxix:1} who are
(generally speaking) more fit to Learn than to Instruct. _Male agitur cum
Domino quem Villicus docet_, was an Observation of old _Cato_’s; and ’twas
_Ischomachus_ who told _Socrates_ (discoursing one day upon a like
subject) _That it was far easier to _Make_, than to _Find_ a good
Husband-man_: I have often prov’d it so in _Gardeners_; and I believe it
will hold in most of our _Country_ Employments: Country People
universally know that all Trees consist of _Roots_, _Stems_, _Boughs_,
_Leaves_, &c. but can give no account of the _Species_, _Virtues_, or
farther Culture, besides the making of a Pit or Hole; casting, and
treading in the Earth, &c. which require a deeper search, than they are
capable of: We are then to exact _Labour_, not _Conduct_ and _Reason_,
from the greatest part of them; and the business of _Planting_ is an _Art_
or _Science_ (for so _Varro_ has solemnly defined it;{lxxx:1}) and that
exceedingly wide of Truth, which (it seems) many in his time accounted of
it; _facillimam esse, nec ullius acuminis Rusticationem_,{lxxx:2} namely
that it was an easie and insipid Study. It was the simple _Culture_ only,
with so much difficulty retrieved from the late confusion of an intestine
and bloody _War_, like that of _Ours_, and now put in _Reputation_ again,
which made the noble _Poet_ write,
........How hard it was
Low Subjects with illustrious words to grace.
........_Verbis ea vincere magnum
Quam sit, & angustis hunc addere rebus honorem._
Georg. 3.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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