OCR Text |
Show 232 A Difcourfe of Foreft-Trees. and Imam. Chap.XXXV. Perhaps fucha hollow Tree was that Afjlum of our Poets Hero, when he fled from his burning Troy — an antient CyprefJe near Kept by Religious Patents many a year. ; juxtags antiqua Cupreffus Religione Patrum multos fervata per annos. is For that they were places of Protections and priviledg'd like rsy iss appear Gowrie: eeu s outuce ofae Lzvy and other good AuthoSatibd es encouraging hisumuee y Colony, oon asere the Grove he had immur’d —— ete fax0 Lucumcircuindedit alte : Quilibet, huc, dicit, Confuge, tutus eris. [. Haft hither (fays he) here youare fecur’d. i ; Such'a San@tuary was the Ariciza, and Suburban Diana , calld the Nemorale Templum, and divers more which we {hall reckon up te . : 9. The Myfteries which the famous Druids celebrated in their Woods and Forefts, are at large to be found in Ca/ar, Pliny y Stras bo, Diodorus, Adela, Apuleius Ammianus, Lucan, Aventi nus, and in- numerable other Writers, where you will fee that theych ofe Woods and the Groves, not onely for all their Religious Exerci the fes, but their Courts of Fuftice; as the whole Inftitution and Difci- pline is recordedby Cafar , 1. 6. andas he it feems foundit in our Countrey of Britaiz , from whence it was afterwards tranflated into Gallia: Forheattributes the firft rife of it to this once happy Iland of Groves, and Oaks ; and affirms that the antient Gauls travelled hither for theirinitiation, To this Tacitus aflents, 14 Annal, and our moft Learned Critics whe vindicate it both from the Greeks and French , who frequently challenge it: But the very Name it felf, whichis purely Celtic, does beft decide the Controverfie : For though és be Quercus, yet Volfius skilfully proves thatthe Druids were altogether ftrangers to the Greeks 5 but what comes yet nearer tous, Dru, fides ( as one oblerves ) begetting our nowantiquated Trow, or I rxe, makes ourtitle the ftronger : Addto this, that among{t the Germans it fignified no leffe than Goditfelf, and we find Drutin or Trudin to import Divine or Faithfulinthe Othfridian Gofpely both of them Sacerdotal expreffions.” But that inthis J/azd of ours menfhould be fo extreamly devoted to Trees, and efpecially to the 02k, the ftrength and defence of all our enjoyments, inviron'd as we are by the Se@yand Martial Neighbours, is leffe to be wonder'd, i vain intent, tifh DraidsJ not with )hout Providence did the Oke frequent 3 bion did that Tree fo much advance as, Hor ignorance 2 even then, befpoke jumphs of the Reyal Oake. 1¢ Seay Empire with like boundleffe fam RLES the Son of CHARLES ae ¢ Ton iv tr Dryada Nonig Z fine con luto Nec con{ul Chap.XXXV. A Difcourfe of Foreft-Trees, as we mayfind the Prediction glor iouf Ous Poet, where his Dryad configne ly followed by our ingenjs that Sacred Depofitumto this Mona rch of the Foref?the Oak, than which nothing canbe more v fublime and rapturous. 10. From thofe sylvan Philofopbers and much of the Indian Brachmans defcende Divixes (notto {peak d ofthe antient GymnoJophifis) ’tis believedthat the grea t Pythagoras might Inftitute his filent Afonafferie ; and weread that peeres ; Plato entertain’d his Audiany athongtt his Walks of Trees, which were afterward defae’d by the inhumanityof Sa, when as Appian tells us, he cut down thofe venerable fhadesto build Forts againft Pyreus > And anos ther we find he had, Planted near Anicerides with hisown hands, wherein grew that celebrated Platanus under his Mafter Socrates difcourfing ‘with Phedo which he introduces n de Pulebro + nother place was the Athenian Cephifia as Agelins deferiSach a+ bes it = Democritus alfo taught in a Grove, as we find in that of Hippocra7es to Damagetus, where there is a partic ular Tree defign’d ad Otiume literarum ; and lremember Tertullian calls thele Places dia opaca : 1 could here tell you ofPalemoxn, Timon, Apollo Sti- a4 Mart: nius, Theophraftus, and many morethat erected their School s tn fuch‘Co?. leges ot Treesy but I {pare my Reader ; I fhall onely note that ‘tis reported of Thucydides that he compiled his noble Hiffor y in the Scaplan Groves,.as Pliny writes; and in that matchlefs piece de Orae tore; we fhall find the Interlocut ots to beloften in his Te/culan Villa ;where invited by the frefhnunder the: Platanus effe and fweetnefs of the place admonyit (fays one of them) me hac tua Platanus qua (on minus ad opacandum hunclocum patulis & diffuf a la, cujus umbramfeentus eff. Socrates,que mibi videtramis quams ur non. tans ipfa aquula, qua deferibitur, quam Platonis oratio ne CreviffesCe as the Orator brings it in, in the per fon of one of that meeting. I confefle Quintilian feems much to queftion whether fuchpla. ?. ces do not rather perturb and d iftraét from an Orato rs.Recolledi« on, andthe depths of Contemp lation £ Now tavse m ( {ayes he) Protinus audiendi, gui credunt . iptiffima in hoc Nemora, fylua que 5 quodilla celi libertas , lo orumas1c amean itas , fublimem animum , & beatiorem Jpiritum parent : Mibi certé jucun dus hic magis 5 quam findiornm hortator videtur fe feceffus : Namq; illa ipa que deleG ant , necelfe eft avocent ab intentione operis deftinati: He proceeds —— Quare Syluarum anienitas ; & preter labentia flumina, €» infpirantes ramis arbo rum aurea, volucrumque cantus Ge cf x . . - tpfa late cirentnfpiciendi libertas, ad fetrahunt ;, ut mibi remittere otins voluttas ifta videaturco ttationem 10. 6 pectore petlore vi: nostrate. vane cole Taintes Rae Baerc luerunt Namine Non ille jamtum celebrawit honore Stulta Superstitio, ventu nfcia fecli Angliaci ingentes vidiffe trinmphos Reboris , Imperiumque maris quod maxims olim, CAROLIDES oasta Vidor ditione teneret. : Couleii L.6.Pi. as quam intendere. But this is onely his fingular fuffrage§, which as7 confcious of his Error, we foon hear him retraét, when he is by and by as loud in its Praifes, as the Places in the World, the beft fitted for the diviner Rhetorique of Poetry : But let us admit another to caft In his Syzbol for Groves : Nemora (fayeshe) @ Luciy & feCretum iplum , tantam mibi afferunt voluptatem ut inter precipu- °% Cartinum frucius , majorenz, quod nec in firepitu,, nec fedente ante |