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The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton
page 135 of 2094 (06%)
shall be appointed for that purpose, to see what reformation ought to be
had in all places, what is amiss, how to help it, _et quid quaeque ferat
regio, et quid quaeque recuset_, what ground is aptest for wood, what for
corn, what for cattle, gardens, orchards, fishponds, &c. with a charitable
division in every village, (not one domineering house greedily to swallow
up all, which is too common with us) what for lords, [619]what for tenants;
and because they shall be better encouraged to improve such lands they
hold, manure, plant trees, drain, fence, &c. they shall have long leases, a
known rent, and known fine to free them from those intolerable exactions of
tyrannizing landlords. These supervisors shall likewise appoint what
quantity of land in each manor is fit for the lord's demesnes, [620]what
for holding of tenants, how it ought to be husbanded, _ut [621]magnetis
equis, Minyae gens cognita remis_, how to be manured, tilled, rectified,
[622]_hic segetes veniunt, illic felicius uvae, arborei foetus alibi, atque
injussa virescunt Gramina_, and what proportion is fit for all callings,
because private professors are many times idiots, ill husbands, oppressors,
covetous, and know not how to improve their own, or else wholly respect
their own, and not public good.

Utopian parity is a kind of government, to be wished for, [623]rather than
effected, _Respub. Christianopolitana_, Campanella's city of the Sun, and
that new Atlantis, witty fictions, but mere chimeras; and Plato's community
in many things is impious, absurd and ridiculous, it takes away all
splendour and magnificence. I will have several orders, degrees of
nobility, and those hereditary, not rejecting younger brothers in the mean
time, for they shall be sufficiently provided for by pensions, or so
qualified, brought up in some honest calling, they shall be able to live of
themselves. I will have such a proportion of ground belonging to every
barony, he that buys the land shall buy the barony, he that by riot
consumes his patrimony, and ancient demesnes, shall forfeit his honours.
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