true reason why _Husbandry_, and particularly _Planting_, is no more improved in this Age of ours; especially, where Persons are _Lords_ and Owners of much _Land_. The truth is, says he, when Men have acquired any considerable _Fortune_ by their _good Husbandry_, and _experience_ (forgetting that the greatest _Patriarchs_, _Princes_, their _Sons_ and _Daughters_, belonged to the _Plough_, and the _Flock_) they account it a _shame_ to breed up their _Children_ in the same Calling which they themselves were educated in, but presently design them _Gentlemen_: They must forsooth, have a _Coat_ of _Arms_, and live upon their _Estates_; So as by the time his _Sons_ Beard is grown, he begins to be asham’d of his _Father_, and would be ready to defie him, that should upon any occasion mind him of his _honest Extraction_: And if it chance that the good Man have other _Children_ to provide for; _This_ must be the Darling, be bred at _School_, and the _University_, whilst the rest must to _Cart_ and _Plow_ with the _Father_, &c. This is the _Cause_, says my _Author_, that our _Lands_ are so ill _Cultivated_ and neglected. Every body will subsist upon their own _Revenue_, and take their _Pleasure_, whilst they resign their _Estates_ to be manag’d by the most _Ignorant_, which are the _Children_ whom they leave at home, or the _Hinds_ to whom they commit them. When as in _truth_, and in _reason_, the more _Learning_, the better _Philosophers_, and the greater _Abilities_ they possess, the _more_, and the _better_ are they _qualified_, to _Cultivate_, and improve their _Estates_: Methinks this is well and rationally argued. And now you have in part what I had to produce in extenuation of this _Adventure_; that _Animated_ with a _Command_, and Assisted by divers _Worthy Persons_ (whose _Names_ I am prone to _celebrate_ with all just _Respects_) I have presumed to cast in my _Symbol_; which, with the rest that are to follow, may (I hope) be in some degree serviceable to _him_ (who ere the happy _Person_ be) that shall oblige the _World_ with that compleat _Systeme_ of _Agriculture_, which as yet seems a _desideratum_, and wanting to its full perfection. It is (I assure you) what is one of the Principal designs of the _ROYAL SOCIETY_, not in this _Particular_ only, but through all the _Liberal_ and more useful _Arts_; and for which (in the estimation of all equal _Judges_) it will merit the greatest of _Encouragements_; that so, at last, what the Learned _Columella_ has wittily reproached, and complained of, as a defect in that _Age_ of _his_, concerning _Agriculture_ in general, and is applicable _here_, may attain its desired _Remedy_ and _Consummation_ in _This_ of _Ours_.