SYLVA 241 



let us add a short recital of the most famous groves 

 which we find celebrated in histories ; since those, 

 besides many already mention'd, were such as being 

 consecrated both to gods and men, bore their names. 

 Amongst these are reckoned the sacred to Minerva, 

 Isis, Latona, Cybele, Osiris, ^Esculapius, Diana, and 

 especially the Aricinian, in which there was a goodly 

 temple erected, placed in the midst of an island, with 

 a vast lake about it, a mount, and a grotto adorn'd 

 with statues, and irrigated with plentiful streams : 

 And this was that renowned recess of Numa, where 

 he so frequently conversed with his ./Egeria, as did 

 Minos in the Cave of Jupiter ; and by whose pretended 

 inspirations they gain'd the deceived people, and made 

 them receive what laws they pleas'd to impose upon 

 them. To these we may join the groves of Vulcan, 

 Venus, and the little youth Cupid ; l Mars, Bellona, 

 Bacchus, Silvanus, the Muses, and that near Helicon 

 from the same Numa, their great patron ; and hence 

 had they their name Camcenae. In this was the noble 

 statue of Eupheme nurse to those poetical ladies ; but 

 so the Feranian and even Mons Parnassus, were thick 

 shaded with trees. Nor may we omit the more 

 impure Lupercal groves, sacred, or prophan'd rather, 

 yet most famous for their affording shelter and foster 

 to Romulus, and his brother Remus. 



That of Vulcan was usually guarded by dogs, like 

 the town of St. Malo's in Bretaigne : The Pinea Sifoa 

 appertain'd to the Mother of the Gods, as we find in 

 Virgil. Venus had several groves in ^Egypt, and in 

 the Indian Island, where once stood those famous 

 statues cut by Praxiteles ; another in Pontus, where 

 (if you'll believe it) hung up the golden-fleece meed 



1 Mars Silvanus in ancient inscriptions, vide Catonem de R. R. c. XXXIII. 



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