Note 8 — CHAP. III. Of Pasture of Plants.

When Writers of Husbandry, in discoursing of Earth and Vegetation, come nearest to the Thing, that is, the Pasture of Plants, they are lost in the Shadow of it, and wander in a Wilderness of obscure Expressions, such as Magnetism, Virtue, Power, Specific Quality, Certain Quality, and the like; wherein there is no manner of Light for discovering the real Substance, but we are left by them more in the Dark to find it, than Roots are when they feed on it: And when a Man, no less sagacious than Mr. Evelyn, has trac’d it thro’ all the Mazes of the Occult Qualities, and even up to the Metaphysics, he declares he cannot determine, whether the Thing he pursues be Corporeal or Spiritual.