34 



A DISCOUUSE 



BOOK II. bitumen, as much as if the text had said, Make an ark of resinous timber. 



'^'y^ The Chaldee paraphrase translates it Cedar; or, as Junius and Tremellius, 

 Cedrelaten, a species between Fir and Cedar. Munster contends for the 

 Pine, and divers able divines endeavom- to prove it Cypress ; and, 

 besides, it is known that in Crete they employed it for the same use 

 in the largest contignations, and did formerly build ships of it : and 

 Epiphanius, Hseres. lib. i. tells us, some relics of that ark, circa Campos 

 Semiaar, lasted even to his days, and was judged to have been of Cypress. 

 Some indeed suppose that Gopher was the name of a place, a Cupressis, 

 as Elon, a Quercuhtis, and might possibly be that which Strabo caUs 

 Cupr^ssetum, near Adiabene, in Assyria. But for the reason of its long 

 lasting, coffins (as noted) for the dead, were made of it, and thence it first 

 became to be Diti sacra ; and the valves, or doors, of the Ephesine 

 temple were likewise of it, as we observed, but now, were those of 

 St. Peter at Rome. Works of Cy^press-wood permanent ad diuturnitatem % 

 says Vitruvius, lib. ii. And the poet, 



perpetua nunquatn moritura Cupresso. mart. lib. vi. 73. 



The medicinal \drtues of this tree, are for all affects of the nerves ; 

 astringent and refrigerating, for the hernia, applied outwardly ; or, taken 

 inwai'dly, for the dysentery, strangury, &c. 



' The ancients considered the Cypress as a wood not subject to decay. Martial, in the 

 forty-ninth Epigram of the sixth Book, introduces Priapus, speaking of himself, as not being 

 made of common wood, but o( incorruptible Cypress : 



Non sum de fragili dolatus ulmo, 



Nec quae stat rigida supina vena, 



De ligno mihi quolibet columna est, 



Sed viva generata de Cupresso : 



Qase nec saecula centies peracta 



Non longae eariem timet senectse. 

 This god was considered as the guardian of vineyards and gardens. He was cut out 

 of any rough piece of wood into an extraordinary form ; and being dressed up with reeds on 

 his head, and a scythe in his right hand, (Virg. Georg. iv.) was placed in gardens to terrify 

 birds and thieves. Horace thus describes him : 



Glim truncus eram ficulnus, inutile lignum ; 



Cum faber, uncertus scamnum faceretne Priapum, 



Maluit esse Deum. Deus inde ego, furum aviumque 



Maxima formido : nam fures dextra coercet, 



Obscoenoque ruber porrectus ab inguine palus. 



Ast importunas volucres in vertice arundo 



Terret fixa, vetatque novis considere in hortis. iiB. i. «at. viii. 



