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Show A Difcourfe of Foreft-Trees. Chap.XXXV, s Wreaths, Ribands, grateful Tables deckt his bough And facred Stem; the Dues of powerful Vows. Full oft the Dryades , with Chaplets crown'd, d Danc't inthe fhade, full oft they tripta Roun told times three Cubits Five bole. his About His ample Circuit hardly could infold, Whofeftature other Trees asfar exceeds 5 As other Trees furmount the humble Weeds. Yet thishis Fury rather did provoke : Whobids his Servantsfell the Sacred Oaks And {natches, while they paus'd, an 4x from one, Thusftorming : Not the Goddefé lov'd alone; But, though this were the Goddeffe,fhe fhould downs And fweep the Earth with her afpiring Crown. As he advanc’d his Arms toftrike, the 02k Both figh'd and trembI‘d at the threatning ftroke. His Leavesand Acorns, pale together grew, Andcolour-changing-branches fweat cold deaw : Then woundedbyhis impious hand, the Blood Guth’d from th’ incifion ina purple flood : Muchlike a mighty Ox,that falls before The Sacred Altar, {prouting {treams of gore. On All amazementfeizd : When One ofall The Crime deters, nor would his 4x let fall. Contracting his ftern brows5 Receive, faid he, Thy Pieties Reward 5 and from the Tree The ftroke converting, lops his Head; then ftrake The Oak again 5 from whence a Voyce thus fpake ; A Nymph aml, within this Tree infhrin’d, Belov'd of Ceres, O prophane of mind, Vengeanceis near thee: With my parting breathy I Prophecy, a Comfort tomy Death. He ftill his guilt purfues; who over-throws With Cables, and innumerable blows The fturdy Oak; which nodding, long, down rufh’d, Andinhis lofty fall his fellows crufh'd, Sandys} Buta fad Revenge followsit, as the Poet willtell yous; and one might filla juftVolwme with the Hiffories of Groves that were violated by wicked Men, who came to fatal periods, Itisreported that the Ainturenfian Grove was efteem'd {0 vee nerable, that a ftranger might not be admitted into it; and the great Xerxes him(elf when he pafied through Achaia, would not touch a Grove which was dedicated to fupiter, Commanding his Armyto doit no Violence, and the honours he did to one fingle (buta goodly) Platanws we have already mention‘d. The like to this we find when the Perfians were put to flight by Paufas vies; though they might have fav’d their lives by it, as appears in Chap.XXXV, A Difcourfé of Forelt-Trees; 241 a the San The fame reverence made that Hercules would not o much as taft the Waters of the Zgerian Groves after he flew Cacws, though extreamly thirfly. ———— ThePriefteffe fe’ ¢ A purple Fillet binding her gray reat) ine Stranger, pry not, but quit this {hady Seat, Avant,and whiles thou fafely may, Retreat, To menforbid, and by hard Sanétion bound: Far better other Springs were by you found, Puniceo canas Lamine vinfa comas, oti oculis hofpes, Lucéque abfcede verendo ¢ ¢ agedum, & tute liming lingue fuga, nterditta viris , metuenda lege piatur aeatte Propert./. 4; Nor indeed in fach places was i ej to kill for Sacrifice as we ae erent ok by Strabo, that in the Ztolian Groves qn to Diaxa UiePonee were fo tame , that the very Wolves and Staggs fed to; ei me Lambs , and would follow aman licking his hands hd ae i on him,Such a Grove was the Crotonian,in which Livy write ee wasa {pacious Field ftor’d with all forts of Gamwe,There siaan ee Forefis confecrated to Fupiter, ‘Juno, and Apollos efpecial] eee famous Epidaphnes near the Syrian Antioch which vvas we = comparably pleafant, adorn’d vvith Foustains and rare Saree There vvas to be feen the Laurel vvhich had beenhis chaft Uifiris, and inthe Centerofit his Tesple and Afylum : Hereit vv Cop rocs and Julian did Sacrifice upon feveral occafions as Exfobins ¥ Jates, but could not wvith all their impious Arts obtain an a Jiver , becaufe the holy Babylas had beeninterr’d near that Oracle for vvhich it vvas reputed fo yenerable, that there remained a 1 ex prefle Title inthe Code de Cupreffis ex Luco Daphnes non savielee dis, vel venundandis, that none thould either fell, or fell an oo the Trees about it, which mayferve for another Inftance of their Burying in fuch places, The truthis, fo exceedingly Superffiti ows they were and tender, that there was almoft no medling with thefe devoted Trees, and even before they did but aaa t prune oneof them, they were firlt to Sacrifice, leaft the sale offend infomething ignorantly : But to Cut “dows eae ital and never tobe done away with any Offering hive af therefore Conlucare in .duthours isnot (as fome pretend) peerhd - re, but to prune the Branches onely,and yet even this gentle as fure of fuperfluities was reputed a kind of Contamination: endl hence Lucus céinquinari dicitur , unleflein the cafe of Lightning whenCalo tat#i, a whole Tree might quite befell’ds as mark’d by aan Plin, Solix Heaven for the Fire. But of this fufficient > We j manyfheets with the Cataffrophe of fuchas salicndhes tein rd Groves to feedeither their revenge or avarice : See Plutarchin Pericles and thefaying of Pompeius : Cicero fharply reproves G. Gabinins for his prodigious {poilin Greece, and it wasoflate dayes held a piece of Inhumanity in Charles the French King when he entred the Frifons after he had flain their Leader, to cut down their Woods, a punifhment never infliGed by fober Princes but to prevent Idolatry in the Old Lam; and to fhew the heinoufnefle |