258 SYLVA BOOK iv 



swallow likewise God's l own inheritance ; but whose 

 sons and grand-children we have lived to see as 

 hastily disgorge them again ; and with it all the rest 

 of their holy purchases, which otherwise they might 

 securely have enjoyed. But this, in terrorem only, 

 and for caution to posterity, whiles we leave 2 the 

 guilty, and those who have done the mischiefs, to 

 their proper scorpions, and to their Erisichthonian- 

 fate, or that of the inexorable Paroebius, the vengeance 

 of the Dryads, and to their tutelar better genius, if 

 any yet remain, who love the solid honour and 

 ornament of their country : For what could I say 

 less, tho constrained by necessity my self, to cut down 

 so many goodly trees, and venerable woods, (devoted 

 to the ax by the owner, who had right to dispose of 

 them before me) 'YAoycvik, and 3 wood-born as I am, 

 in behalf of those sacred shades, which both grace 

 our habitations, and protect our nation ? So in all 

 ages, from trees have been denominated whole 

 countries, regions, cities and towns ; as Cyparissa in 

 Greece, Cerasus in Pontus, Laurentum in Italy, 

 Myrrhinus in Attica. Ports, mountains, and eminent 

 places ; as the Viminalis, ./Esculetum, Gfc. The 

 reason is obvious, from the spontaneous growth and 

 abounding of such trees in the respective soils : And 

 hence of old, Avellana nux^ is called also Praenesttna, 

 Pontica ; dum unaquaeque natio indit huic nuci nomen ex 

 loco in quo nascitur copiosior : So the chesnut, called 

 Heracleotica^ of which see Macrob. Saturnal. 1, 3. 

 And Sylvius became great and famous names among 

 the Latines and Romans : Sylvius Posthumus, the 



1 Quae tibi factorum poenas instare tuorum vaticinor 



2 Vide Met. 1. 8. Apollon. 1. 2. Argonaut. Prosternit quercum funestam quam 

 sibi nympha pignoribusque suis fecit 



3 At Wotton in Surrey. 



