THE GARDEN OF C Y R V S. OR, The Quincunciall, Lozenge, or Net-work Plantations of the Ancients, Artificially Naturally, Myftically Confidered. BY Thomas Brown D. of Physick Printed in the Year, 1658. 89 The Garden of Cyrus. OR. The Quincunciall, Lozenge, or Net-work Plantations of the Ancients, Artificially, Naturally, Myftically confidered. CHAPTER I. Hat Vulcan gave arrows unto Apollo and Diana the fourth day after their Nativities, according to Gentile Theology, may paffe for no blinde apprehenfion of the Creation of the Sunne and Moon, in the work of the fourth day; When the diffused light contracted into Orbes, and Timan. and fhooting rayes, of thofe Luminaries. Plainer Descriptions there are from Pagan pens, of the creatures of • Plato in the fourth day; While the a divine Philofopher nnhappily omitteth the noblest part of the third; And Ovid (whom many conceive to have borrowed his defcription from Mofes) coldly deserting the remarkable account of the text, in three words b, defcribeth this work of the third day; the vegetable creation, and first ornamentall Scene of nature; the primitive food of animals, and first story of Phyfick, in Dietetical confervation. b fronde tegi flvas. For though Phyfick may pleade high, from that medicall act of God, in cafting fo deep a fleep upon our firft Parent; And Chirurgery finde its whole • διαίρεσις, in opening art, in that one paffage concerning the the flesh. Rib of Adam, yet is there no rivality ἐξαίρεσις, with Garden contrivance and Herbery. out the rib. For if Paradife were planted the third in day of the Creation, as wifer Divinity concludeth, the Nativity thereof was too early for Horoscopie; Gardens were before Gardiners, and but fome hours after the earth. in taking v clofing up the part again. Of from the Of deeper donbt is its Topography, and locall defignation, yet being the primitive garden, and without much d con- For fome troverfie feated in the Eaft; it is there is more then probable the first curiofity, ambiguity and cultivation of plants, moft flourish- of the word Mikedem, ed in thofe quarters, And fince the Ark whether ab of Noah first toucht upon fome moun- oriente or a tains of Armenia, the planting art arose principio. again in the Eaft, and found its revolution not far from the place of its Nativity, about the Plains of thofe Regions. And if Zoroafter were either Cham, Chus, or Mizraim, they were early proficients therein, who left (as Pliny delivereth) a work of Agriculture, However the account of the Penfill or hanging gardens yf Babylon, if made by Semiramis, the third or fourth from Nimrod, is of no flender antiquity; which being not framed upon ordinary levell of ground, but raised upon pillars, admitting under-paffages, we cannot accept as the fitft Babylonian Gardens; But a more eminent progrefs and advancement in that art, then any that went before it Somewhat answering or hinting the old Opinion concerning Paradise it felf, with many |