S58

A DISCOURSE

kook iv. We have spoken of the great Xerxes , that, pafsing conqueror through.

Achaia , he would not suffer his army to violate so much as a tree of hisadversaries; and have sufficiently observed from the antients, that theGods did never permit them to escape unpunished who were injurious toGroves. What became of Agamemnon ’s host after his spoil of the woodsatAulis? Histories tell us Cleomenes died mad: The Temecsian Geniusbecame proverbial ; and the destructive fact that the enraged Caesar per-petrated on the Mafsilian trees, went not long unrevenged, thus relatedby the poet, and an illustrious record of all we have hitherto produced*to afsert their veneration.

Lucum JEscu-lapio dicatumsuccideratTu-rullius

festisNuminisillius viribus,cumin Lucumquem violave^rat, illeattrac-tus est, die'citqueDeusutibipotifsimumoccideretur.Vide Valer.Max. lib, i,<ap. i, n. IS,

Lucus erat longo nunquam violatus ab aevo, &c. XiUCAH,.lib, iiik

Not far away for ages past had stood.

An old inviolated sacred wood ;

Whose gloomy boughs* thick interwoven, mad®

A chilly,, cheerlefs, everlasting shade:

There, nor the rustic gods, nor satyrs sport,.

Nor fawns and sylvans with the nymphs resort •

But barb’rous priests some dreadful pow’r adore,

And lustrate ev’ry tree with human gore.

If mysteries in times of old receiv’d,

And pious antientry be yet believ’d,

There nor the feather’d songster builds her nest,..

Nor lonely dens conceal the savage beast:

There no tempestuous winds presume to fly,

Ev’n lightnings glance aloof, and Shoot obliquely by.

No wanton breezes tofs the dancing leaves,.

But shiv’ring horror in the branches heaves.

Black springs with pitchy streams divide the ground,

And bubbling tumble with a sullen sound.

Old images of forms mishapen stand,

Rude amd unknowing of the artist’s hand;

With hoary filth hegrim’d, each ghastlv headStrikes the astonish’d gazer’s soul with dread.

No gods, who long in common shapes appear’d,

Where’er with such religious awe rever’d:

But zealous crowds in ignorance adore,

And still the lefs they know, they fear the more.

Oft (as fame tells) the earth in sounds of woeIs heard to groan from hollow depths below:

The baleful Yew, tho’ dead, has oft been seenTo rise from earth , and spring with dusky green :

With sparkling flames the trees unburning shine,

And round their boles prodigious serpents twine,