Gerard's Herbal Vol. 1
TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
HIS SINGULAR GOOD LORD & MASTER,
SIR WILLIAM CECIL
Knight, Baron of Burghley, Master of the Court of Wards & Liveries, Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, Knight of the most noble Order of the Garter, one of the Lords of her Majesty's most honourable Privy Council, and Lord High Treasurer of England.
AMONG the manifold creatures of God (right Honourable, and my singular good Lord) that have all in all ages diversly entertained many excellent wits, and drawn them to the contemplation of the divine wisdom, none have provoked men's studies more, or satisfied their desires so much as plants have done, and that upon just and worthy causes: for if delight may provoke men's labour, what greater delight is there than to behold the earth apparelled with plants, as with a robe of embroidered work, set with Orient pearls and garnished with great diversity of rare and costly jewels? If this variety and perfection of colours may affect the eye, it is such in herbs and flowers, that no Apelles, no Zeuxis ever could by any art express the like: if odours or if taste may work satisfaction, they are both so sovereign in plants, and so comfortable that no confection of the apothecaries can equal their excellent virtue. But these delights are in the outward senses: the principal delight is in the mind, singularly enriched with the knowledge of these visible things, setting forth to us the invisible wisdom and admirable workmanship of Almighty God. The delight is great, but the use greater, and joined often with necessity. In the first ages of the world they were the ordinary meat of men, and have continued ever since of necessary use both for meats to maintain life, and for medicine to recover health. The hidden virtue of them is such, that (as Pliny noteth) the very brute beasts have found it out: and (which is another use that he observes) from thence the dyers took the beginning of their art.
Furthermore, the necessary use of those fruits of the earth doth plainly appear by the great charge and care of almost all men in planting & maintaining of gardens, not as ornaments only, but as a necessary provision also to their houses. And here beside the fruit, to speak again in a word of delight, gardens, especially such as your Honour hath, furnished with many rare simples, do singularly delight, when in them a man doth behold a flourishing show of summer beauties in the midst of winter's force, and a goodly spring of flowers, when abroad a leaf is not to be seen. Besides these and other causes, there are many examples of those that have honoured this science: for to pass by a multitude of the philosophers, it may please your Honour to call to remembrance that which you know of some noble princes, that have joined this study with their most important matters of state: Mithridates the great was famous for his knowledge herein, as Plutarch noteth. Euax also King of Arabia, the happy garden of the world for principal simples, wrote of this argument, as Pliny showeth. Diocletian likewise, might have had his praise, had he not drowned all his honour in the blood of his persecution. To conclude this point, the example of Solomon is before the rest, and greater, whose wisdom and knowledge was such, that he was able to set out the nature of all plants from the highest cedar to the lowest moss. But my very good Lord, that which sometime was the study of great philosophers and mighty princes, is now neglected, except it be of some few, whose spirit and wisdom hath carried them among other parts of wisdom and counsel, to a care and study of special herbs both for the furnishing of their gardens, and furtherance of their knowledge: among whom I may justly affirm and publish your Honour to be one, being myself one of your servants, and a long time witness thereof: for under your Lordship I have served, and that way employed my principal study and almost all my time, now by the space of twenty years. To the large and singular furniture of this noble island I have added from foreign places all the variety of herbs and flowers that I might any way obtain, I have laboured with the soil to make it fit for plants, and with the plants, that they might delight in the soil, that so they might live and prosper under our climate, as in their native and proper country: what my success hath been, and what my furniture is, I leave to the report of they that have seen your Lordship's gardens, and the little plot of mine own especial care and husbandry. But because gardens are private, and many times finding an ignorant or a negligent successor, come soon to ruin, there be that have solicited me, first by my pen, and after by the press to make my labours common, and to free them from the danger whereunto a garden is subject: wherein when I was overcome, and had brought this History or report of the nature of plants to a just volume, and had made it (as the reader may by comparison see) richer than former herbals, I found it no question unto whom I might dedicate my labours; for considering your good Lordship, I found none of whose favour and goodness I might sooner presume, seeing I have found you ever my very good lord and master. Again, considering my duty and your Honour's merits, to whom may I better recommend my labours, than to him unto whom I owe myself, and all that I am able in your service or devotion to perform? Therefore under hope of your honourable and accustomed favour I present this Herbal to your Lordship's protection; and not as an exquisite work (for I know my meanness) but as the greatest gift and chiefest argument of duty that my labour and service can afford: whereof if there be no other fruit, yet this is of some use, that I have ministered matter for men of riper wits and deeper judgements to polish, and to add to my large additions where anything is defective, that in time the work may be perfect. Thus I humbly take my leave, beseeching God to grant you yet many days to live to his glory, to the support of this state under her Majesty our dread sovereign, and that with great increase of honour in this world, and all fullness of glory in the world to come.
Your Lordship's most humble and obedient Servant,
JOHN GERARD.
