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Show 238 A Difcourfe of Foreft- Trees. Chap.XXXvV. you'll believe it ) hung up the Golden Fleece for the bold Adventurer. Nor was the Watry-King Neptume without his Groves, the Helicean in Greece washis : So Ceres, and Proferpine, Pluto,Vefta, Caftor and Pollux had fuch fhady Places Confecrated to thems add to thefe the Lebadian, Arfinoan, Paphian, Senoniany and fuch as were ingeneral dedicated to all the Gods. ——The Gods have dwelt in Groves. —— Habitarunt dit quoque Sylvas. And thefe were as it were Pantheons. To the memory of famous Men and Heros were Confecrated the Achillean, sighaiian 5 and thofe to Bellerophon, Heclor,Alexander,and to others who difdained not to derive their Names from Trees and Forefts3as Sylviws the Pofihuaus of Zneassdivers of the Albanian Princes, and great Perfons;Stolon,Laura,Daphnis, Gvc.And a certain Cuftom there was for the Parents toPlant a Tree at the Birth of an Heir or Son, prefage ing by the growth and thrivingof the eter the profperity of the child : Thus weread inthelife of Virgil, and howfar his Natalitial Poplar had out-ftrip’d the reft of its Contemporaries. And the reafon doubtleffe of all this was, the general repute of the Sanctity of thofe Places; for no fooner does the Poét {peak of a Grove, but immediately fome Confecration follows, as believing that out of thofe fhady Profundities fome Desty mult needs emerge, Quo poffis vifo dicere Numen ineft, fo as Tacitus ( {peaking of the Germans ) fayes, Lucos & Nemora confecrant, Deorumque nominibus appellant Secretnm illud, quod fola reverentia vident ; and the Confecration of thefe Nemorous places we find in Quintus Curtius , and in what Paulus Diacounws de Lege relates of the Longebards where the Rites are exprefie allur’d as'tis likely by the gloominefle of the Shade, procerity and altitude of the Stem, floridnefle of the /eaves and otheraccidents, not capable of Philofophifing on the Phyfical Caufes, which they deem'd fupernatural,and plainly divize ; fo as to ufe the words of Prudentins, Herc o all Religion paid s. whofe dark Recefle Ss : . A facred awe doeson their mind impreffe, Totheir Wild Gods——. " Quos penes omue facrum e&,quicquid formide tremendum * o Suaferit horrificos , quos prodigialia cogunt Monstra Dees —— ‘ L. 2 Cont. Syms Andthis deificationw of their Trees, and among{t other things, for their 4ge and perennial viridity {ayes Diodorus, might {pring from the manifold wé which they afforded, and happly had been taught them by the Gods, or rather by fome God-like perfons, whom for their worth and the publick benefit they efteemed fo5 and that divers of them were voyc’d to have been Misnan d rom Ghap.XXXV, A Difcourfe of Forelt-Trees, from dex into Trees, and again out of Trees into Men, as the Ap. cadians gloried in their Birth, when Out of the teeming Bark of Oakes men burf, Génfque virdm, truncis, rupte robore nati, which perhaps they fancied , byfeeing men cre of their Cavities, in which they often lodg’ ep fometimes out d and fecur’d them- felves 5 For in th’ Earths non-age under Heavens new frame, Quippe alitertrae orbe Theyftricter liv’d, who from Oaks rupture came. Stapylion. nove cel dque veces; Vivebant homines qt rupto robore nati, 5, » Se, Juven. 12. 5.6 Oras the fweet Papinins, Fame goes that thou brake forth from the hard rind, Whenthe newearth with the firft feet was fign’d2 Fields yet nor Houfes doleful pangs reliev’d But fhady Afh the numerous births receiv’d, And the green Babe drop’d from the pregnant E Im, Whom ftrange amazement firft did over-whelm At break of day,and when the gloomy night Ravith’d the Sun from their purfuing fight, Gaveit for lot —___ -—— Nemoram vos Gir, F --Fama fatos, cum prima Pinecone Admirata tulit, nondum arva din ee Cruda puerperia, ac pepulos umby iat ferebans Fraxinus, & feri viridis puerexcidnon e”? Hi Luc fupniffe vices wsott (/q ee i ea Nubila, & occiduum Lon Mateus a earay, De/fperaffe diem 8 @ fecnti almoft like that which Rivaldo faw inthe Inchanted Foreff. An aged Oak befide him cleft and rent, And from his fertile hollow womb forth went ( Clad in rare weeds,and ftrange habilem ent) A full grown Nymph. — : , che QuercBSta gli appar he per nev Poff fe Beffs incifa Apre feconda il cavoventre, s fizl n « Ew efce fuor oaitiea Ge Ba fein: Ninfa d? ea crefCita, —__ania guile Canto 18, And that every great Tree included a certain tutelar Genius or Nymph living and dying with it, the Poets are full s a fpecial ip{tance we have in that prodigious Oak which fell by the fatal ftroke of Erifichthor s but the Hamadryads it feems were immortal, and had power to remove, and change their wood en habjtations. 15. We might here produce wonderful {trange Apparitions of this nature, interceding for the {tanding, andl ife of Trees, when the 4x has been ready for Execution, as you mayfee in that Hymn of Callimachws, Paufanias, and the famous {tory of Parebiys related by ApoMonins in 2. Argonaut. with the fearful Cataftrophe of fuch ascaufelefly and wantonly violated thofe goodly Plantations (from which fables arofe, that of the Dodonean and vocal Forefts frequent in Heathen Writers) but by none fo Elegantly as the witty Ovid, defcribing the Fat of the wicke d Erifichthon, ~—Who Gods defpis'd, —— Quinumin Noreverontheir Altars facrific'd, Sperneret, & nullos a divim aris adoleret ( honores ec, Who Ceres Groves withfeel prophan’d: Wher eftood Anold huge Oak 5 evenofit felf 2 Wood, fis Wreaths, 'n Phoe, & Arcad. |