THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY.
TO MY WORTHY AND HONOURED FRIEND
NICHOLAS BACON, of GILLINGHAM, ESQUIRE.[B 1]
Had I not observed that purblind[A 1] men have discoursed well of sight, and some without issue,[A 2] excellently of generation; I, that was never master of any considerable garden, had not attempted this subject. But the earth is the garden of nature, and each fruitful country a paradise. Dioscorides made most of his observations in his march about with Antonius; and Theophrastus raised his generalities chiefly from the field.
Besides, we write no herbal, nor can this volume deceive you, who have handled the massiest[A 3] thereof: who know that
- ↑ Plempius, Cabeus, &c.
- ↑ Dr. Harvey.
- ↑ Besleri Hortus Eystetensis.
- ↑ Nicholas Bacon, of Gillingham, Esq.] Created a baronet, Feb. 7, 1661, by Charles II. His father was the sixth son of Sir Nicholas Bacon, who was created premier baronet of England, May 22, 1611, by James I, and was the eldest son of the Lord Keeper of Q. Elizabeth, and half-brother of Francis, Lord Bacon, the Lord Keeper's youngest son by a second marriage.
This gentleman was a man of letters, and a patron of learning; and intimately acquainted with Browne, several of whose Miscellany Tracts were addressed to him: as we are informed by Evelyn.—(See vol. iv, p. 121, note 1.) He is mentioned by Wood as having published a work of Dr. Thomas Lushington's, which had come into his hands in MS. from the author, entitled, Logica Analytica, de Principiis, Regulis, et Usu Rationis rectæ, lib. 3, Lond. 1650, 8vo.; and gave this as his motive:—"Propter operis perfectionem, in quo nihil dictum, quod non statin probatum est, vel a principiis, primo et per se notis, vel a propositionibus inde demonstrate: deinde etiam propter ejus usum, vel fructum eximiam—Wood's Athenæ, by Bliss, iii, 530. He died in his 43rd year in 1666, leaving two sons, Sir Edmund and Sir Richard, who both succeeded to the Gillingham baronetcy; but, both dying s. p., it became extinct.
