274 S Y L V A BOOK ii 



Pope Eugenius the Fourth's time, eleven hundred 

 years ; and then were found as fresh, and entire as if 

 they had been new : But this Pope would needs 

 change them for gates of brass, which were cast by 

 the famous Antonio Philarete ; not in my opinion so 

 venerable, as those of cypress. It was in coffins of 

 this material, that Thucydides tells us, the Athenians 

 us'd to bury their heroes, and the mummy-chests 

 brought with those condited bodies out of Egypt, are 

 many of them of this material, which 'tis probable 

 may have lain in those dry, and sandy crypta^ many 

 thousand years. 



1 5. The timber of this wood was of infinite esteem 

 with the Ancients : That lasting bridge built over the 

 Euphrates by Semiramis, was made of this material ; 

 and it is reported, Plato chose it to write his laws in, 

 before brass it self, for the diuturnity of the matter : 

 It is certain, that it never rifts or cleaves, but with 

 great violence ; and the bitterness of its juice, pre- 

 serves it from all worms and putrifaction. To this 

 day those of Crete and Malta make use of it for their 

 buildings ; because they have it in plenty, and there 

 is nothing out-lasts it, or can be more beautiful, 

 especially, than the root of the wilder sort, incom- 

 parable for its crisped undulations. Divers learned 

 persons have conceiv'd the gopher mention'd in Holy 

 Writ, Gen. 6. 14. (and of which the Ark was built) 

 to have been no other than this KuTra/no-aoc, cupar^ 

 or c uper^ by the easie mutation of letters ; Aben Ezra 

 names it a light wood apt to swim ; so does David 

 Kimchi ; which rather seems to agree with fir or 

 pine, and such as the Greeks call vXa Ttrpayuva quad- 

 rangular trees, about which criticks have made a deal 

 of stir : But Isa. Vossius (on the LXX. c. 1 1 .) has 



