ir_, that _Encouragement_ (together with the
_Success_ of the _Book_ it self, and of the former _Editions_ of _this_)
has animated me still to continue my _Oblation_ to Your _Majesty_ of these
_Improvements_: Nor was it certainly without some _Provident_ Conduct,
that we have been thus solicitous to begin, as it were, with _Materials_
for Building, and _Directions_ to _Builders_; if due Reflection be made on
that Deplorable _Calamity_, the _Conflagration_ of Your _Imperial City_;
which nevertheless, by the Blessing of _God_, and Your _Majesty's_
Gracious _Influence_, we have seen _Rise_ again, a _New_, and much more
_Glorious_ PHOENIX.

This TRIBUTE I now once more lay at the _Feet_ of our ROYAL FOUNDER.

May Your _Majesty_ be pleas'd to be Invok'd by that no _Inglorious_ TITLE,
in the profoundest _Submission_ of

Gracious Sir,
Your _Majesty's_
Ever _Loyal_, most _Obedient_ and
_Faithful Subject_ and _Servant_,
J. EVELYN.

_Sayes-Court,
5 Decemb.
1678._

FOOTNOTES:

{lxxv:1} Cato _de R. R. cap. 73._ Aurel. Vict. Class. Phil. apud.
Tranquill. _And so_ Nemestinus Deus Nemorum. _Arnob. l. 4._

{lxxvi:1} Argon, _lib._ 1. That Famous Ship built of the _Dodonaean_
Oak.

TO THE
READER.

After what the _Frontispiece_ and _Porch_ this _Wooden Edifice_ presents
you, I shall need no farther to repeat the _Occasion_ of this following
_Discourse_; I am only to acquaint you, That as it was delivered to the
_Royal Society_ by an unworthy _Member_ thereof, in Obedience to their
_Commands_; by the _same_ it is now _Re-publish'd_ without any farther
Prospect: And the _Reader_ is to know, That if these dry _sticks_ afford
him any _Sap_, it is one of the _least_ and _meanest_ of those _Pieces_
which are every day produc'd by that _Illustrious Assembly_, and which
enrich their _Collections_, as so many _Monuments_ of their accurate
_Experiments_, and publick Endeavours, in order to the production of
_real_ and _useful Theories_, the Propagation and Improvement of
_Natural Science_, and the honour of their _Institution_. If to _this_
there be any thing subjoyned _here_, which may a while bespeak the
Patience of the _Reader_, it is only for the encouragement of an
_Industry_, and worthy _Labour_, much in our days _neglected_, as haply
reputed a _Consideration_ of too sordid and vulgar a nature for _Noble
P