58 SYLVA BOOK i 



And men had indeed hearts of oak ; I mean, not so 

 hard, but health, and strength, and liv'd naturally, 

 and with things easily parable and plain. 



1 Blest age o'th' world, just nymph, when man did dwell 

 Under thy shade, whence his provision fell ; 

 Sallads the meal, wildings were the dissert : 

 No tree yet learn'd by ill-example, art, 

 With insititious fruit to symbolize, 

 As in an emblem, our adulteries. 



As the sweet poet bespeaks the dryad ; and therefore 

 it was not call'd Quercus, (as some etymologists 

 fancy'd) because the Pagans (qu<zribantur responsaj 

 had their oracles under it, but because they sought 

 for acorns : But 'tis in another 2 place where I shew 

 you what this acorn was ; and even now I am told, 

 that those small young acorns which we find in the 

 stock-doves craws, are a delicious fare, as well as 

 those incomparable salads of young herbs taken out 

 of the maws of partridges at a certain season of the 

 year, which gives them a preparation far exceeding 

 all the art of cookery. Oaks bear also a knur, full 

 of a cottony matter, of which they anciently made 

 wick for their lamps and candles ; and among the 

 Selectiora Remedia of Jo. Pravotius, there is mention 

 of an oil e querna glande chymically extracted, which 

 he affirms to be of the longest continuance, and least 

 consumptive of any other whatsoever for such lights, 



1 Fcelix ilia aetas mundi, justissima nymphe, 

 Cum dabat umbra domum vivam tua, cum domus ipsa 

 Decidua dominos pascebat fruge quietos, 

 Solaque praebebant sylvestria poma secundas 

 Gramineis cpulas mensis ; nondum arte magistra 

 Arbor adulteriis praeluserat insita nostris, &c. 



Couleii PI. /. 6. 

 1 Cap. 1. Book III. 



