THE more highly esteemed plants of which I am now about to speak, and which are produced by the earth for medicinal purposes solely, inspire me with admiration of the industry and laborious research displayed by the ancients. Indeed there is nothing that they have not tested by experiment or left untried; no discovery of theirs which they have not disclosed, or which they have not been desirous to leave for the benefit of posterity. We, on the contrary, at the present day, make it our object to conceal and suppress the results of our labours, and to defraud our fellow-men of blessings even which have been purchased by others. For true it is, beyond all doubt, that those who have gained any trifling accession of knowledge, keep it to themselves, and envy the enjoyment of it by others; to leave mankind uninstructed being looked upon as the high prerogative of learning. So far is it from being the habit with them to enter upon new fields of discovery, with the view of benefitting mankind at large, that for this long time past it has been the greatest effort of the ingenuity of each, to keep to himself the successful results of the experience of former ages, and so bury them for ever!
And. yet, by Hercules! a single invention before now has
elevated men to the rank of gods; and how many an individual
has had his name immortalized in being bestowed upon some
plant which he was the first to discover, thanks to the
gratitude which prompted a succeeding age to make some
adequate return! If it had been expended solely upon the
plants which are grown to please the eye, or which invite
us by their nutrimental properties, this laborious research on
the part of the ancients would not have been so surprising;
but in addition to this, we find them climbing by devious
tracts to the very summit of mountains, penetrating to the very