CHAP. 1.—THE PROPERTIES OF PLANTS.
Nature and the earth might have well filled the measure of
our admiration, if we had nothing else to do but to consider
the properties enumerated in the preceding Book, and the numerous varieties of plants that we find created for the wants
or the enjoyment of mankind. And yet, how much is there
still left for us to describe, and how many discoveries of a still
more astonishing nature! The greater part, in fact, of the
plants there mentioned recommend themselves to us by their
taste, their fragrance, or their beauty, and so invite us to
make repeated trials of their virtues: but, on the other hand.
the properties of those which remain to be described, furnish
us with abundant proof that nothing has been created by Nature
without some purpose to fulfil, unrevealed to us though it
may be.