346 



A DISCOURSE 



BOOK IV. and solemn places, as I have already shewed : and thus, like the Yew, 

 ''-"'v^^ planted in our country church-yards, the Cypress, growing so like a 

 shroud as does that sepulchral tree, and other perennial greens, emblems 

 of immortality, and a jdourishing state to come, were not less proper to 

 shade our natural bed, would our climate suffer it. 



Let us return, then, to groves, and for diversion, add a short recital of 

 the most famous groves which we find celebrated in histories ; since 

 those, besides many already mentioned, were such as, being consecrated 

 both to gods and men, bore their names. Amongst these are reckoned 

 such as were sacred to INIinerva, Isis, Latona, Cybele, Osiris, iEsculapius, 

 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 adorned with statues, and irrigated with plentiful 

 streams : and this was that renowned recess of Numa, where he so fre- 

 quently conversed with his ^geria, as did Minos in the cave of Jupiter ; 

 and by whose pretended inspirations they gained the deceived people, and 

 made them receive what laws they pleased to impose upon them. To 

 these we may join the groves of Vulcan, Venus, and the little youth 

 Cupid ; of Mars, Bellona, Bacchus, Silvanus, and that of the Muses near 

 Helicon, dedicated by the same Numa, their great patron ; and hence 

 had they their name Camcence '\ In this was the noble statue of Eupheme, 

 nurse to those poetical ladies : and so the Feranian, and even Mons 

 ParnassHS, were thick shaded with trees. Nor may we omit the more 

 impure lupercal groves, sacred, or profaned 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, 

 in Bretagne : the pinea silva appertained to the mother of the gods, as 

 we find in Virgil. Venus had several groves in Egypt, and in the Indian 



i The leai'ned and ingenious Mr. Bryant is the only person who has given us a satisfac- 

 tory derivation of the word camoence. He says, the camcenae of Latium, who were sup- 

 posed to have shewn the sacred fountain to the vestals, were probably the original 

 priestesses, whose business it was to fetch WiateSf for lustrations from that stream. 

 For Cam-ain (in the Amonian language) is the fountain of the sun : and the camcenae 

 were named from their attendance upon that deity. The hymns in the temples of this 

 god were sung by these women : hence the camcenae wei-e made presidents of music. 

 Analysis, Vol. I. 



