360 



A DISCOURSE 



BOOK IV. ^vTought some eiFects upon the sacrilegious 'purchasers and disloyal in- 

 '^-"'^r'^^ vaders in this iron age amongst us, who, to gratify an impious and un- 

 worthy avarice, have lately made so prodigious a spoil of those goodly 

 forests, woods, and trees, which, being once the treasure and ornament 

 of this nation, were doubtless reserved by our more prudent ancestors for 

 the repairs of our floating castles, the safeguard and boast of this re- 

 QuK tibi fac nowned island, when necessity, or some imminent peril should threaten 



torum poenas _ 



insure tuorum it, Or Call for their assistance, and not transmitted to be devoured by 



Vaticinor — i i • i 



these improvident wretches, who, to theu- eternal reproach, did, together 

 8. ApoUon. 1. with the royal patrimony, swallow likewise God's own inheritance, 

 prosternit quer- But their sons and grand-children we have lived to see as hastily disgorge 

 qu^ sibi nym- them again, and with them all the rest of their holy purchases, which 

 que suis fecit — otherwise they might securely have enjoyed. But this, in terror em only, 

 and for caution to posterity, while we leave the guilty, and those who 

 have done the mischiefs, to their proper scorpions, and to their Erisich- 

 thonian fate, or to that of the inexorable Paraebius, the vengeance of 

 the Dryads ; and to their tutelar better genius, if any yet remain, who 

 • Atwotton, love the solid honour and ornament of their country : for, wood-born * 

 jn Surry. j what could I Say less in behalf of those sacred shades, which 



both grace our habitations, and protect our nation ! 



One thing more I think not impertinent to hint, before I take my 

 leave of this book, concerning the use of standing groves : that in some 

 places of the world they have no other water to drink than what their 

 trees afford them ; not only of their proper juice, (as we have noted,) 

 but from their attraction of the evening moisture, which impends in the 

 shape of a cloud over them : such a tuft of trees is in the island of 

 FeiTO ; of which consult the learned Isaac Yossius upon Pomponius 

 Mela, and Magnenus de Manna : the same likewise happeneth in the 

 Indies : so that if their woods were once destroyed, they might perish 

 for want of rains ; upon which account Barbadoes grows every year 

 more torrid, and has not near the rain it formerly enjoyed when it was 

 better furnished with trees ; and so in Jamaica, at Gunaboa, the rains 

 are observed to diminish as their plantations extend : the like I could 

 tell you of some parts of England not far from hence. 



And now,lastly, to encourage those to plant that have opportunity, and 

 those who innocently and with reluctancy are forced to cut down, and 



