rden to the number of
three hundred or four hundred of them, if not more, of the half of
whose names within forty years past we had no manner of knowledge. But
herein I find some cause of just complaint, for that we extol their
uses so far that we fall into contempt of our own, which are in truth
more beneficial and apt for us than such as grow elsewhere, sith (as I
said before) every region hath abundantly within her own limits
whatsoever is needful and most convenient for them that dwell therein.
How do men extol the use of tobacco in my time, whereas in truth
(whether the cause be in the repugnancy of our constitution unto the
operation thereof, or that the ground doth alter her force, I cannot
tell) it is not found of so great efficacy as they write. And beside
this, our common germander or thistle benet is found and known to be
so wholesome and of so great power in medicine as any other herb, if
they be used accordingly. I could exemplify after the like manner in
sundry other, as the _Salsa parilla, Mochoacan_, etc., but I forbear
so to do, because I covet to be brief. And truly, the estimation and
credit that we yield and give unto compound medicines made with
foreign drugs is one great cause wherefore the full knowledge and use
of our own simples hath been so long raked up in the embers. And as
this may be verified so to be one sound conclusion, for, the greater
number of simples that go unto any compound medicine, the greater
confusion is found therein, because the qualities and operations of
very few of the particulars are thoroughly known. And even so our
continual desire of strange drugs, whereby the physician and
apothecary only hath the benefit, is no small cause that the use of
our simples here at home doth go to loss, and that we tread those
herbs under our feet, whose forces if we knew, and could apply them to
our necessities, we would honour and have in reverence as to their
case behoveth. Alas! what have we to do with such Arabian and Grecian
stuff as is daily brought from those parties which lie in another
clime? And therefore the bodies of such as dwell there are of another
constitution than ours are here at home. Certes they grow not for us,
but for the Arabians and Grecians. And albeit that they may by skill
be applied unto our benefit, yet to be more skilful in them than in
our own is folly; and to use foreign wares, when our own may serve the
turn, is more folly; but to despise our own, and magnif