THE THIRD days CREATION.  
By that most excellent, learned, and divine Poet, William, Lord Bartas.  
Done verse for verse out of the original French by THOMAS WINTER, Master of Arts.  

At sacri vates, & diwm cura vocamur:  
Sunt etiam qui nos numen habere putant.   Ovid, Amorum lib. 3. Eleg. 8. 
LONDON, Printed for Thomas Clerk. 1604.   

TO THE MOST EXCELLENT AND hopeful Prince Henry, by the grace of God Prince of Wales, Knight of the most renowned order of the Garter, etc.  
ALthough (most gracious Prince) it be a common received opinion, that the fruits of learning are only sweet, and the roots bitter; yet to him that will be but a little conversant in the Hexameron of Du Bartas, it will rather appear a paradox then a sound position. For though his subject be very excellent, and consequently very difficult, for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; yet he hath made such an insensible mixture of profit and pleasure, & so artificially compounded them together, that when the reader thinks peradventure but to tickle his ear, with the sweet measure and delicate cadency of a majestical verse; he finds that both Divinity and Philosophy do steal upon him unawares, and make him learned, ere he think of being taught. Which I judge to be one of many reasons, why your Kingly Father in those his learned instructions to you his dearest Son, doth grace him with so high a commendation; that he not only thinks him most worthy to be 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  read by any Prince, or other good Christian; but doth specially wish you to be well versed in his works. Wherein his Majesty hath been so much pleased, that part of his poetical exercises at vacant hours, have been translations of some of his poems; delighting to beautify his books and speeches with such pit●…ie sayings, as do abound in this incomparable Poet. The consideration hereof makes me presume, that this Translation which here I offer to your Princely view, shall not want gracious acceptance. Whereof I do the rather assure myself, remembering your graceful embracing of my former Essay of this very nature, coming but accidentally unto your hands. In which confidence reposing my hopes, I humbly presume to take my leave; continually praying for your Grace's happy growth in all Princely and heroical virtues.  
Your Highness in all humblesse of duty T. WINTER.   


Sur le troisiesme jour de la premiere Sepmaine, du Sieur Du Bartas, traduict en Anglois par Tho: Winter.  

QVittant le pourpris & plancher de l'air,  
D'où chet la gresle, esclairs, vents, & frimats,  
Q●…i descochez nous liurent maints combats;  
Tu prends ton vol vers la Terre & la Mer.   

Où pourmenant par les flairants destours,  
Tu ●…ueilles de leur sein plants & fleurs,  
Bassinez du ciel, nourriz par ses pleurs,  
Alaictez d'eau qui là train son cours.   

Puis soubs les monts les riches mineraux,  
Q●…i nous font tant de biens, & tant de maux  
Vas recerchant, Or, Argent, Plomb, & Fer.   

Lors regaignant des costauts le hault doz,  
Et couronnant la terre de ton loz,  
Fais icy le Printemps de ton Hyver.   
jean Sanford.   

Ad Thomam Winterum Gulielmi Salustij Metaphrasten.  

NOmina qui nobis prima imposuêre, videntur  
Fatidicis cecinisse modis, quae fata futura, 
Allusum est ad Ausonij Epigram. 19   
Quae vitae studia, & quantùm praecordia fumant  
Ardore A Ethereo: sic dictus virbius olìm  
Hippolytus, quòd equis sparsim discerptamarinis  
Membra jacent: Medicus sic Virgilianus japis  
Et magnum augurium Brumali nomine iactas  
O Wintere novem soboles charissima Musis!  
Nam deus aequoreas qui cuspide temperat undas  
Te vatem pelago, Phoebo cedente, dicavit.   

Ergò age sortitus Brumali à frigore nomen  
Perge tuo augurio Neptunia regna referre  
Frigidiora novi mundi loca; qualiter olìm  
Vel dicto tantùm verbo, difflavexat undas  
Ille sator mundique opifex à vertice terrae:  
Qualiter, & tumidas in vertice comprimit undas,  
Littoribusque datis incingit Nerea ponto;  
Qualiter Amphitrite impleto ventre tumescit,  
An compressa deo Neptuno, an Sydere tacta  
Tethyos unda vagae Lunaribus aesluet horis,  
Expedias; mundi sunt haec arcana refusi.  
Quin age commotum Neptunum hortamine blando  
Alloquere, ut retrahat truculenti Immanis habenas,  
Et refugis imo in Barathro se fluctibus abda●….  
Quanquam amnes decet ira, tamen Neptune quiescas;  
Non timidi fluctus superare repagula possunt.  
Haec miranda Dei quae primùm idiomate sacro  
Et numeris, dicente Deo, dictant Prophetâ  
Sunt signata pijs, quae dudum Gallia novit  
Arte tuâ, pensoque tuo divine Salusti.  
Perge tuo ingenio nostrae procudere genti,  
Et patria cantare sono secreta profundi  
Wintere; ut vulgus cognoscat in aethere summo  
Qui sedet Omnipotens, ima quid praestet Abysso,  
Et laudet, timeatque admireturque potentem.   
joannes Dunster.   

Ad Eundem.  

QVando alimenta calor coquit, & benè digerit; illud  
Quod capit haec, fiet pinguius inde magis;  
Anglia sermones peregrinos concoquit; ergò  
Facta est pinguescens inde opulenta magis:  
Inque high me accrescit viws calor; unde profectum  
Totum opus eventa non caruisse potest.  
Hoc laudi est (Wintere) tibi; benè concoquis artes  
Linguas, sermones tanquam alimenta tuos.   
Thomas Masonus.   

In DIEM tertiam BARTASSII a Tho. WINTERO Anglicè redditam.  

BARTASSII secunda, tibi fuit DIES  
WINTERE prima: primus idcircò liber  
Rores canebat, fulmina & coeli faces:  
At nunc secundo (qui tuus labor) libro  
Flores canuntur, flumina, & facies soli.  
Haec tibi secunda, tertia est illi DIES.   

In primâ haberis omnibus vates prior.  
BARTASSIO excepto unico vatum patre:  
Satis est Homeri si istius fueris Maro.   

Prodis secundus in secund●… Nemini  
Dum tersiore tertiam versu canis,  
Adusque vatis sidus interpres boni.   

Sic cautus ipse, dum DIES trudit DIEM  
(WINTERE Musis VERIS assulgens vice)  
Prehendis ansam Temporis, captas DIEM,  
Tamque Bona sequitur prima quàm fuit Bona.   
Nathanael Tomkins.   

In tertium & quasi Mercurialem Diem primae Hebdomadis Guli●…lmi Salustij.  

ECce Deo est sua cuique dies, nec numine ab uno  
Concipit auspicium Lucifer omnis idem,  
Altera Sithonio lux est exorta Gradivo,  
Tertia Mercurio prodijt ista dies:  
Credo nec antiquos decepit ●…abula vates,  
Spirat enim numen Lumen utrumque suum.  
Interpres facunde Deum, te namque magistro  
Interpres lucis prodijt ecce tuae.  
Si fuit ulla dies solem non passa cadentem,  
Splendeat haec, nunquam sole cadente, dies.   
Henricus Ashwood.    

The Argument.  
THE Lord BARTAS having delivered in the former Dayes-worke, an excellent discourse of the four elements in general, and therein more particularly comprised both the nature of the fire and the air: doth in this third book (which is an explanation of the third days creation,) descend from the superior to the two inferior elements; in the description of which, as of the former, being alway like himself, that is, most excellent; he doth first invoke the Divine assistance; then branching his whole discourse into two principal parts, he doth in the former describe the manner, how the waters were assembled together for the discovery of the dry land; how the sea is situated and restrained within his bounds, which it neither doth, nor can transgress; and how it embraceth the earth in his arms, which together with the more famous rivers of the world are repeated. Unto which discourse he addeth a brief consideration of fountains, brooks, land-flouds, and rivers; of their increase and falling into the sea, which being no whit augmented by their continual access, brings much admiration to those, that labour in searching the reasons of the ebbing and flowing of the same: which, though it be a question full of difficulty, and either merely or nearly unresoluable, yet doth he couch in a very few verses, as much as reason or probability can persuade in so abstruse a speculation. Then entreating of the saltness of the sea, and of the admirable effects of divers springs and baths, he concludes the first part of this book with an enumeration of those singular commodities which all creatures receive by the conglobation of the earth with the water. In the second part, which is an ample and elegant description of the earth, the stability and utility thereof is first deciphered; the quaking overtures and compass of the same are proposed: which together with the sea, being but a point compared to the heavens; doth give him occasion to deduce therehence a necessary exhortation, to withdraw the worldly minds of wretched men from the over greedy pursuit of these earthly things. Now forasmuch as the earth so separated from the sea, was by the heavenly Providence preordained to be the mother, nurse, and entertaining hostess of all mankind, he doth most artificially emblason the profitable beauties thereof, as being most variously adorned with trees, plants, herbs and flowers of such singular and sundry virtues for the use of man, that they seem to have engraven upon them, and that in Capital letters, the abundant wisdom, and super abundant grace of the puissant Creator. Which is amplified by the admired sympathies of diverse creatures; by the variety of grain, of wools, silks, cottons, flax, hemp, and such other commodities as the diversified disposition of sundry climates produceth; all which are yearly renewed by that provident hand, from which they received their original virtues. Among other wonders of nature, he mentioneth the tree called Cocos, whose strange proprieties are almost incredible; and desiring more perfectly to anatomize the whole body and bowels of the earth, he rips up her very entrails, to find what metals and minerals are treasured up in that great storehouse of the world. Then teaching the true use of gold and iron, he speaketh of the admired virtue of the Loadstone, of the mariners compasse-needle, and sundry sorts of earth which by experience are of themselves medicinable. Which having performed, he greets the earth, painting out in fresh and lively colours her deserved praises: and by the example both of ancient patriarchs, and men of great esteem among the paynim) he blames those that contemn husbandry, and the profitable knowledge of simples. And so with an excellent amplification of the unmatchable pleasures and happy security of the country life: he conclusively prayeth, that he may either end his quiet days in the country, or spend them in the Court without suspicion of flattery.   

The third Day of the first Week of the most excellent, learned, and divine Poet, William, Lord Bartas.  

MY Muse that whilom overtopped each sphere, 
The Poets tian sition from the superior to the inferior Elements.   
Whose course life-giving influence doth bear;  
That in so brave a style discoursed of Winds,  
And airy meteors frighting silly minds:  
And did of sulphur'd-lightning storms entreat,  
And made her verse so grave a path to beat:  
Creeping to day on the base elements,  
Must clothe her speech with base habiliments:  
Where if by chance she sing a lofty strain,  
She's lifted higher by the swelling Main.   

Great King of earth, and of the liquid plain, 
His invocation   
Whose very breath doth dreadfully constrain  
The sturdiest hills to quake, and oft exaults  
The stormy waves up to the starry valuts:  
Grant that my measuring skill may well survey,  
The fleeting and firm element this Day.  
Grant that my learned verse may well discover  
The nature of the sea, and of our Mother:  
That with a flowering style I may portray  
The flowers▪ that cloth the earth with rich array.   

All those high hills, whose forked tops do border  
Upon the clouds, that wander in disorder,  
Did hide their bo●…sed backs under the flood,  
Which on the earth a puddled ma●…ish stood;  
When heavens great King, desiring liberally  
T'en●…eoffe us with this low world's Empirie,  
Gave charge, that Neptune should the waters gather,  
And show the earth, which but a little rather  
They had overwhelmed; and be content with pleasure,  
That one whole day he had this All in seazure.  
Just as the heavens showering tears adown, 
Si●…il.   
And frothy floods hiding the plainer ground,  
Do make the fields a sea; then ceasing spoil,  
Invisibly forsakes the ●…urrowed soil,  
Ploughed by the painful ox; and seems to drink  
Itself, and to some channel strait to shrink:  
So doth the sea this day leave his possession  
Of mountains, knoles, and fields by retrogression.  
And in the womb of a less continent,  
Tuns up with speed that watery element.  
Whether at first the light, by God created, 
Coniectural reasons how ●…he waters were gathered tog●…ther for the disco●…erie of the 〈◊〉.   
Had store of this moist humour elevated  
Unto such places, as then highest were,  
Of which he might next day make every sphere:  
Or whether the Almighty had created  
New rooms, to which these waters were translated:  
Or opening the poares of hill and plain,  
Would hide some arm of that so spacious main:  
Or whether thickening their thinner smother,  
That like a cloak of clouds this All did cover,  
He did imprison them within their banks,  
'Gainst which the Ocean plays his daring pranks,  
Yet dares not to transgress: for Gods own might, 
The Sea consigned to unpassable bounds by▪ the pu●…ssance of the Almigh●….   
Kenning their nature mutinous and light,  
Thus bridled them, and 'gainst their fierce bravadoes,  
Made of the flower-clad earth his barricadoes:  
So that sometimes the fleeting hills which roar,  
And threaten to o'erwhelm the bordering shore,  
Do waist in froth, and breaking near the brim,  
Dare not beyond their watery dwelling swim.   

And what could herein be impossible  
To this high Admiral, whose terrible  
And powerful voice did rive the depths in twain,  
To save his flock; and made the ruddy main 
Exod. 14.   
Hang in the air? that forced Iordans course 
josuah. 3. 16.   
Back to retire toward his double source?  
That drowned the world become devoid of good? 
Gen. 7. 21.   
That made the rock gush forth a little flood? 
Exod. 17. 8.  
The Earth the great ●…land of the world.    

Lo than the waters crooked circling path,  
An Island of this world yformed hath:  
As boiling lead poured on a place unplaine, 
Simil.   
Doth divers forms and sundry fashions gain,  
Here runneth strait, there windeth like a snake,  
Here breaking hands, there hands again doth take,  
And in an instant makes his small hot rivers,  
Within the mould to show themselves so divers:  
So God did spread the waters on the ground,  
In steeple form, croysure, and figure round,  
Crooked and square, that in the water clear,  
The earth might fair more rich and fair appear.  
Such is the German arm, the bay of Ganges,  
The Gulf of Persia, and the sea that ranges  
By Happy Arabia, such the whole Ocean  
That parts in three this All by odd proportion.   

And though that every arm how long soever, 
Why the ●…mes of the Sea are subdivided into lesser channels.   
Compared unto the whole be but a river:  
Yet makes a hundred seas in course and name,  
By's nooks and crooks, the water still the same:  
To slake the thirsty dryness of the plains,  
With welcome moisture of their secret veins:  
To rampire in the nations, and to daunt  
The proudest champion Princes when they vaunt:  
To confine kingdoms with eternal borders,  
To ease the travel of the trading orders,  
Shortening their way, the wind helping to get,  
With in a month from th'East to the Sunset.   

Nor doth the earth give to the sea alone 
The most renowned rivers of the world rely used.   
These bigger arms; she gives the river Don,  
And Nilus, Egypt's store house, which doth hide  
Himself so often in the deserts wide.  
She gives the Rhine, Danubius, and Euphrates,  
Proud Tigris, issue of the hill Niphates,  
Broad Ganges river of such ample same,  
That Eastern India takes of it her name:  
The golden Tagus, Thames, Mariza, Rhone,  
Tartarian Rha, Po, Seina, and Garone:  
Garone, whose name shall sound so in my verse,  
As shall perchance ring through the Universe.  
She gives 
* R●…o de la Plata.  Parana yielding silver matter,  
Great Darien which doth new Castille water:  
Maraignon too, floods of that newfound All,  
Which men for wealth the Golden land may call.   

The fruitful earth from her doth draw her streams,  
And all the water running in her veins:  
Which she (not thankless) doth in time and place,  
Repay both ways, as it received was. 
S●…ll.   
For as the Alembic heated, oft doth hap  
T'exhale a vapour to his upmost cap;  
And wanting means to draw that fragrant sweat  
Higher, doth gently thicken it, and let  
That clear as crystal humour drop by drop,  
Replenish the receiver to the top:  
So the thin humour of the briny streams  
Is drawn into the air by sunny beams,  
Which turned to water showers it down, and maketh  
That to the sea through th'earth a course it taketh.   

For the dry earth this falling water strains 
How the springs are engendered:   
Through the thin boulter of her hollow veins,  
Then makes it way, and from the rocky mountains,  
Makes bubble daily millions of fountains;  
Of these the little gurgling brooks do grow,  
Which joined do make the wasting torrents flow,  
The wasting torrents do proud rivers form,  
Of which the sailing flood is eftsoons borne.   

The snowy hills that border near the sky,  
Unto this growth contribute willingly: 
How the torrents or land-flouds & rivers are engendered.   
For Titan's task begun anew, at times  
Which bring the fair spring to the colder climes,  
He melts upon their backs the heaps of snow;  
Their tops turn green, each where the waters flow  
Tumbling, and bubbling as they froathing run  
Along steep tracks of craggy mountain stone,  
They make a hundred torrents, one of which  
Seeing his brother overgo him mich,  
Hastens his course to make with him an union,  
Whiles that a third and fourth help their communion;  
Running the same carrier, and quickly drown 
Of their falling into the sea.   
Their names and selves in streams of more renown.  
Those streams of some great river are devoured,  
Which overswaying fields, at length is powered  
Into that rendezvous, where God assigned  
They should discharge the taxes they were fined.   

Yet all these rivers running to the sea, 
Why the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a 〈◊〉 of the fresh water●….   
Do not a whit enlarge that watery Lea:  
For besides that these floods heaped all t'one top,  
Compared to it, are less than one poor drop:  
Yet doth the Sun and Aeolus his race,  
Sweeping eftsoons great Neptune's sweeting face,  
Exhale as much from that broad waving field,  
As th'air and earth unto the same do yield.   

But as the quaking heat, and shivering cold, 
Of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the ●…ea.   
And gnashing teeth which do the feaurous hold,  
Come not haphazard, but in time and order,  
Bring the weak trembling members in disorder.  
So doth the sea by sits approach to land,  
And coming to, forsakes again the strand.  
Whether the sea moved with God's right hand, 
The thre●… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to●…ching the ●…luxe and 〈◊〉 of the sea. Simile.   
took first this motion, and may not stand  
Idle not any while from's moving course;  
Like as a whirligig once turned, doth force  
Itself to move around, and virtue takes  
From him that formerly the motion makes.  
Or that the sea which men the Midland call, 
2   
Be but a parcel of that liquid All,  
Whose waves falling into some higher ocean,  
Do dash themselves in their so angry motion  
Against the rocky hills, whose solid strength,  
Quelling their force, makes them recueile at length.  
Or that the Moon, whose influence above 
3   
Ruling moist bodies, cause it so to move.  
And to speak truth, we see the sea to slow, 
Why this last opinion is most probable.   
When on our Hemisphere the Moon doth show:  
And suddenly to ●…bbe, when toward Spain  
The Crescent takes her backward course again.  
Again soon as her face, constant in changing,  
Increasing shows th' Antipodes her ranging,  
It marches forth, and when her waning fire  
Doth pass the other noon, it doth retire.   

Yea which is more, the Midland sea, we know, 
Why some arms of the sea have greater tides then othersome.   
Doth farther than the Tuscan ocean flow:  
Or that hight Bosphorus: and no such motion  
Doth stir some duller places of the ocean:  
Because the 
* Luna.  silver Planet, which will have  
Rule of the flowing and the ebbing wave,  
With lesser force doth shed her influence  
Upon a sea, where the circumference  
Is mountainous, or straightened twixt two strands,  
Then where the ocean seems to want such bonds.  
As in the Summer, if the windy train 
Simile.   
Of A Aeolus be calm, with lesser pain  
The Delphian flame the champion fields doth dry,  
Then dales immured with hills and mountains hie.  
If so this flux do show itself more plain 
Why the eb●…ing 〈◊〉 is better percei●…ed near the sh●…e then in the main sea.   
Hard by the shore, then in the deeper main:  
The pulse (Nature's true clock) it doth resemble,  
Whose extreme part more than the mid doth tremble;  
At least it seems so. Now the starry king  
Is equal to the queen, in governing  
The waters. For his hot light-giving beams, 
How the saltness of the sea is caused.   
Scorching the fishie vessel-bearing streams,  
And sucking up in's each days iournement,  
The sweeter juice of that cold element:  
Leaves tart and thickened liquor in the Deep, 
A transition from the sea, to the consideration of 〈◊〉 admirable effects of sund●…ie springs and rivers.   
With salt that on the upmost top doth fleet.  
But see, how hear the sea doth pull me down  
Into deep seas, where I am like to drown.  
See how his flux makes my words overflow.  
Well then let's high to land, that sitting low  
Beside the brim of river, lake and brook,  
Our thoughts into their strange effects may look,  
Whose marvels nigh exceeding saith and wonder,  
Astounded our wits, our eyes, our ears like thunder.  
The spring of 
* Med●…o tu ●… corniger 〈◊〉, vn●… die 〈◊〉 est, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. 〈◊〉 15. Meta●….  Hamon, while the Sun gives light,  
Is cold as ice; and contrary, by night  
Though the cold Cressant make the night less hot,  
Yet boils and fumes like water in a pot.  
Some hold for certain, that the boughs of wood,  
Which being wind-broke, fall into the flood  
Of 
* In stumi●…e Silaro ultra 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, non virgul●… modo immersa, verum & ●…o l●…a lapidescunt. Pli▪ lib 2. c. 103.  Silaris, or of Eurimedon,  
Are turned both wood, and bark, and leaf to stone.  
Ah, can my verse omit that stream in 
* josephus lib. 7. bell. Iu●…, cap. 24.  jury,  
That every Sabbath stays his running fury  
Religiously? unwilling to be pained  
That seventh day, which God for rest ordained.  
If so the shepherd chant his lovely rounds  
By th' Eleusina brook, those musics sounds  
Do make the water boil, and dance and skip,  
And point by point the rustic measures keep.  

* Plin lib 2. cap. 1 ●…3.  Cephis turns white, Ceron black, Xanthus' red,  
The fleecy troops which there are watered.  
Like an 
* Solin●…s cap 40.  Arabian spring, that bordering near  
To the red sea, turns read their woolly wear.  
You 
* Vide Ph●…. lib. 2 cap 103. ubi de 〈◊〉 so●…e loquitur.  Solan waters, and 
* In Andro 〈◊〉 sula templo Liaberi pa●… so●…tem nonu januarijs ●…per vini sap●…e flu●…re 〈◊〉ter co●…. credit. Plin. lib. 2. c. 103.  Andreian river,  
Whence comes that oil and wine, which you yield ever  
Once in a year? art thou (O earthy Dame)  
So fruitful? or beneath this worldly frame  
Are vines and gardens? and in them do lurk  
Men, that for Bacchus and Minerva work?  
What shall I say of thee Sclavonian spring? 
Pl●…●…id. 〈◊〉. ●…. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. ●…   
Or what of thee Dodonian fountain sing?  
When one burns cloth, the other wood doth stench  
Half burnt, and kindles what it erst did quench.  
Faith, I should place these virtues admirable,  
In the false Register of every fable;  
Were't not for due respect, which (young) I give  
To unreproved Writers that did live:  
And that the greedy Pilots of our days,  
Had not found rivers stranger many ways.   

In this great number of such differing brooks, 
A continuation of the f●…rmer argument, confirmed by ocular witness, of later ages.   
Of which a scholar might compile great books,  
I'll choose far hence in places harbourless,  
Some five or six, as true as held truthless.  
In th'isle of Fer, ('mong other 'tis an I'll,  
Which men of old with 
* Insulae formatae. the Canatie islands.  Happy name did style)  
The savage folk draw not their watery food,  
As others do, from spring or running flood:  
Their drink is in the air, their water's source  
Takes from a weeping tree his dropping course:  
A weeping tree growing in a dry field,  
Doth make his sweeting leaves sweet liquor yield:  
And (as the vine late cut, more fruit to bear,  
Distilleth gently many a pearled tear)  
Ceaseless it droppeth down a water clear,  
Where round about the people pressen near,  
Yet fail with all the vessels that they bring,  
T'exhaust the streams of this one wooden spring.  
In 
* Thule.  Ice-land men do find two wondrous springs,  
The one yields wax; the other changeth things  
Cast in, to stone, although his water hot,  
Regurgeth bubbles, like a boiling pot.  
In golden Peru near Saint Helen's mount,  
defile pitch doth issue from a fount.  
What should I say? this is that newfound All,  
Whose rivers running to their Western fall,  
Know bet than we what right use should be made  
Of working daytime, and the chilly shade  
Of th'idle night, and therefore run by day,  
And spend the night in idle resting play.   

Great God, I fear I jealous should be counted 
〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 me●…ble for the body.   
Of thy great praise, if there were not recounted  
In my unthankful verse such streams, as run  
Through Alum, Lime, saltpeter and Brimstone▪  
Whose virtues perfect medicines are held,  
For maladies that strike us into eld  
In th'April of our age, and with great strife  
Would antedate the period of our life.  
Now as my Gascoigne is the happiest field 
A particular description of the pleasant 〈◊〉 profitable 〈◊〉 of Gascoine.   
●…or corn, and wine, and men, the world doth yield;  
So freecost baths do there abounden most,  
There stranger people flock from every coast,  
There the dry womb, the paralytical,  
The gouty, ulcerous, deaf, sciatical,  
Coming from East and Western parts, do gain  
The speedy cure of their tormenting pain.  
Witness Barege, Eucausse and the hot veins  
Of Aigue-caud, Caudret and Baigner plains,  
Baigner the beauty, paradise and praise  
Of those high hills, on whom in alder days  
The Hercules of France with child did bring  
Pyrene, daughter to the * sire and King 
Bebrix.   
Of Gascons, whose attempts so generous  
Show they deserved a sire so valorous.  
The mountains whited with eternal snow,  
Do slanker in a part in stately row.  
Th'immortal verdure of a smiling plain  
Excelling 
* A valley ●…n ●… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of whose ●…tion do ●… c●…use other pl●…asant ●…ces to be hyperbolically so called.  Tempe, hems it in again  
On th'other side, the houses new appear,  
The very tiles do shine, a river clear  
As Crystal, so transparently doth glide  
In each street, that the pavement may be spied:  
And though that yeie river run hard by  
A bath, that cureth every malady,  
It keeps her nature, scorning all desire 
Voyez le neuf Mu●…es ●…y 〈◊〉 a●… sune des 〈◊〉 p●… 165   
To mix her coolness with the others fire.   

But all these strange effects match not at all,  
Strauge Lers, that from a rocky stone doth fall.  
If it be true, that 
* Aristoteles non capit Euripi●…, Euripu●… capiet Aristotelem. Lauren. Valle dealog. de Libero a●…bitrio.  one most rarely wise,  
For want of skill the reason to comprise,  
How seven times a day 
* Plin. lib. 2 c 97▪ Pomp. M●…la li. 2.  Euripus floweth,  
And seven times t'his ebbing prison goeth;  
Egged with despair, and with great shame confounded,  
Drowned him in floods more fathomed than sounded:  
What would he do, if he should beat his brains,  
About the spring that waters Masere plains,  
Rising at Belestat, near th'hill of Fois,  
That stores with wood the people of Toloise?  
As oft as Phoebus ending his carrier,  
Each horizon with welcome light doth cheer,  
His burthen-bearing streams months five or four,  
Doth run and stay by turn in each half hour;  
For one half hour you may pass over dry,  
The other half it runs so stickerly,  
As none can pass; his waters as they rise,  
The most renowned streams would equalize:  
A learned stream that doth (Nature her guide)  
Without a clock count every time and tide.   

Now the great God by his eternal hand, 
Of the 〈◊〉 o●… the earth and the sea.   
Most wisely placed the water and the land:  
For one requiring many moistening drops,  
The other channels, banks and underprops,  
He enterlined them: so that the earth widing  
Her bosom to the sea, and the sea gliding  
About, throughout, under this earthy round, 
That the earth and the water are the centre of the world, and why.   
Both make the perfect centre of the Mound.  
For if their mingled selves be proved to be  
Beside the mid of the world's axle-tree, 
1   
All climates should not have the silent night  
In equal balance counterpoise the light.  
The ill▪ divided horizons decline 
2   
Would stretch too far on one side of the line:  
Th' Antipodes or we should see by night 
3   
More than six signs to shed their glistering light.  
No certain time should show th'eclipsed Moon, 
4   
The heavens debauched should seasons alter soon.   

This doth suffice to show, that so compound 
The earth and the water make one round globe.   
Into one mass, they yet are fully round,  
Which by a turning art made like a ball,  
See day and night successively to fall.  
For Americ, Dove, Pole surnamed Mark, 
The reason.   
Nor any cunning pilot of a bark  
One pole to th'other ever could subdue,  
Or living on the seas find countries new:  
Nor ever lose the Northern star, to view  
The Southern pole, if so the ocean blew  
To fashion with the earth one globie tumour,  
Did not each where circle his fleeting humour.   

But (o thou heavenly workman) whose essays 
Why the water is of a spherical figure.   
Are near in vain, what arches, or what stays  
Couldst thou invent the sea to underprop,  
That by a downward line it should not drop?  
O God, is it, because the watery mass 
1   
Would by his nature to the centre pass,  
And striving so the deepest depth to sound,  
By falling by a line, remaineth round?  
Or is't because the shores and coasting banks 
2   
Captive the seas within their prouder flanks?  
Or is't because the Sea some stay doth win 
3   
By millions of rocks scattered therein?  
Or is't alone thy all-working grace 
4   
That makes it thus the tressed earth embrace?  
It is thy hand, thy hand (O God) alone, 
A transition from the water to th'earth, whereof the figure, situation and stableness is described.   
That firmes with piles man's habitation:  
For though it hang in th'air, or else be found  
To swim upon the sea; though it be round,  
And round about it each thing turn, nay more,  
Though her foundations have been moved of yore;  
Yet it unmoved is, that Adam's race  
Might here obtain a peaceful biding place. 
The earth the dearest mother the tenderest nurse and the kindest hostess that man finds.   
It is the earth receives man being borne,  
Received fosters him; become the scorn  
Of other elements, by Nature's enmity,  
Her lap yields place for his last obsequy.  
The air against us often doth rebel,  
The whelming waters show their malice fell  
'Gainst wretched men; 'gainst men supernal fire  
As well as this below displays his ire:  
But of the four, only the humble earth  
Is man's alone best friend after his birth.  
'tis she alone, that never leaves the place,  
Which erst was her assigned by thy grace.   

Yet is it true, that execrable folk 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the 〈◊〉 of the earthquak●…   
With their debauched manners, do provoke  
Thy angry hand (O Lord) some piece to shake,  
Although the total frame do never quake:  
Aided with Northern winds, which being penned  
Within her bowels, cause mad rumblement. 
.   
●…eare chills our hearts and makes our faces pale,  
The wind doth stir the woods without a gale:  
High turrets tremble, and th'infernal cave,  
De●…oures in choler many a city b●…aue.   

Sith then the earthy and the watery Round 
The whole 〈◊〉 earth and the sea, is but 〈◊〉 point 〈◊〉 to 〈◊〉 he●…uens, whereof the least 〈◊〉 is eighteen times b●…gger than the earth.   
Is centre, heart, and nombrill of the mound;  
And that, by reason, nothing closed about  
Equals the thing enclosing it without:  
Who doubts, but that this earthy watery sphere  
Doth less proportion than the others bear?  
judge who so will; the greatness of this round,  
Which we admiring, doth us so astound,  
Seems but a point to that high 
* .  sphere above,  
Which forceth all the rest with him to move:  
Sith the least twinkling star, that with our eye  
We see to glitter in the vaulted sky,  
(If so Astronomers count not amiss)  
Then the whole earth twice nine times greater is▪  
And if we count all that the Midland main,  
The Indian seas, and all their arms do gain,  
Beside what other rivers do possess,  
Or desert is by heat or colds excess,  
This Little will▪ be nought. Lo here (●… men) 
the earth bears to the heavens, should reach men not to make a heaven of the earth.   
The place, for which you heaven do contemn.  
See with what confines your great'st renomie  
Bounds your best actions proudest memory.  
Ye monarchs (thralled to pride) that for the gains  
Of one hairs breadth, hide th'earth with slaughtered swains:  
Corrupted Magistrates, that on your chairs  
Sell causes as in markets or in fairs:  
Who trafficking the Law profane your states,  
To leave some trifle to your thankless brats:  
You that do use upon use multiply,  
You that do weights and measures falsify:  
That so for you, the yoked Ox may bear  
The coulter, that the clodded earth doth tear:  
You that do sell your walls; you that would feign  
Some inch of land upon your neighbour gain,  
Moving by stealth and sacrilegious hands  
The ma●…kes, that bounded out your grandsires lands:  
Alas what get you? When a warlike prince,  
By force or fraud shall all the world evince:  
A needle's point, a moat, an atomie,  
Shall be his virtues largest salary▪  
A point his Empire, yea a very nought,  
Yea less than nothing, if that less were aught.   

When God (whose word doth more of nothing make, 
  
Then all the pains that proudest kings can take)  
Had severald the ●…louds, equalled the fields;  
Sunk down the valleys, blown up the hills;  
Change, change (quoth he) o solid element,  
Thy sadder weed t'a green habilement:  
A fragrant flowering garland be ywreathed  
About thy forehead, by my fingers woven.  
Display thy periwinkle; with finest paint  
Embellish now thy bleak and paler taint.  
That from henceforth, thy proper guests alone  
May not be fed with plenty of thy womb:  
But that thy stored lap may meat provide  
For people of each element beside:  
So that the water, air, and Angels dwelling  
May of thy glorieiealously be telling.   

He spoke, and strait the Fir that pitch doth drop,  
The gummy Larix, Cedar with high top,  
And Box still green are placed in trooped row,  
And on the highest tops of hills do grow.  
The aco●…ne-bearing Oak, the Carpie white,  
The barke-exchanging Cork, and Elm upright,  
On little hills and fields do pitch their ranks.  
The writhing rivers border out their banks  
With sailing Alder, with green Osier,  
With Willow pale, and trembling Popular,  
And many other trees for fuel made,  
For building carpentry, and beasts to shade.   

Here hairy Peaches and the Orange golden,  
Sweet Apricocks, the Quince fair to beholden  
With his white down, upon their backs they bear  
Ywritten fair Gods all-providing care.  
Sweetsmelling Apples, Nuts of either kind,  
Idumean Dates, and Pears still apt to bind,  
The milky Fig, the double died Cherry,  
The sugared plum, the hungry Olive berry,  
Present a pleasant spring unto the eyes,  
And make each field a very Paradise.   

Here Pepper grains like clustered Grapes assemble,  
There Cinnamon doth grow; here Nutmegs tremble  
With gentle gales, which do each year purvey  
For Bandan ylanders a public prey.  
There the white sweetness of moist sugar, breeds  
Within the bowels of Canary reeds;  
There balm in tears doth drop; there the rich 
* Vide Pl●…. l. 12 cap. 14.  wood  
Of Saba land weeps fuming incense good.   

The loving Vine with winding arms embraceth 
The praise of the vine and w●…e taken with moderation.   
Her bearing husband, 'bout whose stock she traceth.  
The Vine for fairness other trees inferior,  
As she for goodness is their far superior:  
Her liquor sober-taken rarefies  
The spirits, cheers the heart, and purifies  
The brains, brings colour, and awaketh  
The appetite, clears passages, and maketh  
Fresh heat, pure blood it breeds and subtilizeth  
The gross, and the dulled understanding wiseth,  
Expels bad excrements, the bladder cleareth,  
Preserves our body that to death anneareth.   

though th'earth for sin, whereby our father old 
Though the degenerating earth be far inferior to itself, in respect of her primitive beauty & fertility during man's innocency, yet doth the present condition thereof minister more than sufficient matter to undeserving man for the celebration of the prudence and providence of the omnipotent creator.   
Banished his seed from heaven, no longer hold  
Her former glory, having graved upon her▪  
Th'eternal maker's undeserved dishonour:  
Though with the world she strike herself in years,  
Though her fertility much less appears,  
Like her who bruised with many a woeful groan  
Of bearing child, whose oft-conceiving womb  
Peopling almost the circuit of a parish,  
At length becometh barren, dry and warish:  
Yet doth it yield an ample argument,  
To praise the author of her ornament.   

The pleasing spring doth near to me propose  
The blew-floured Flax, or the carnation Rose,  
The blushing Gellifloure in's purple fold,  
The snowwhite Lily, or the Marigold,  
But I admire the Painter that doth trace  
In them more colours, than Aurorae's face,  
Or in that Bow, which on the thirsty plain  
Doth promise to shower down his fruitful rain.   

God not content t'enrich with wholesome fruits, 
.   
Perfume with smells, and cloth with flowery suits  
The plants; hath in their roots laid up in store  
A perfect curing salve for every sore.  
Sure without them (death fights so many ways)  
Man should not live full twenty years of days:  
But (like the flower of flax, that dies in th'womb  
In one self day) his cradle should be's tomb,  
His spring his winter, and his birth his death.  
Good Lord, how many draw their gasping breath  
By Stygian banks, and cured by herbs again,  
Make greedy Pluto lose his hoped gain!  
By them young Phoebus' bearded cunning 
a 〈◊〉.  son  
Restored the 
b 〈◊〉.  young man, that to death was done,  
That did prefer, in modest chastity,  
His death before incestuous venery.  

c .  Medea by their juice, to please her jason,  
Made young again cold and old▪ aged Aeson.  
You herbs that do our life in life maintain,  
And when 'tis gone do call it back again:  
'tis not your juice dispersed in your veins,  
That cur●…s alone so many deadly pains:  
But your mere smell, your only being by,  
'Gainst many dangers doth us fortify,  
Working such wonders as exceed belief,  
Unless the hand and eyes do know the priefe. 
The 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉. V●…de P●…n. lib. 20. cap 8.    

He that about his neck doth succory bind,  
It doth expel the mists that make us blind;  
So 
a Cy●…minus. Tradu●…t si prag●… radi●…em transgrediatur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉▪ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 accelerate, etc. Diosc. lib▪ 2. c. 155  Swines-bread hung, doth not alonely bring  
Long travel to a quick delivering;  
But more, if one with child do pass secure  
Over the root, she's forced to endure  
Abortment there: th'unwholesome scorching blast,  
Th'envenomed glass, nay poison creeping fast,  
That so dispeoples all Cyrenia land,  
Hurts not the man hath 
b Artemisia. Pl●…n. lib. 25. cap. 7. Di●…sco. li. 3. cap. 108.  Mug-wort in his hand.  
The Pionie tied to an infant's neck,  
It gives unto that cruel 
c Morb●… comi●….  Ill the check,  
That tamed Hercules. If in thy brain  
God Bacchus' chance excessively to reign,  
Circle thy front with 
d Qut ex 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ●…on 〈◊〉. 〈◊〉. lib. 1. cap 24. Coro●…ae qu●…que ex co 〈◊〉 e●…. 〈◊〉. lib. 21. cap. 20.  Saffron gathered new,  
And thou shalt suddenly that storm subdue.  
The Sirens with their subtil-charming times,  
The dankish noy some gales from Southern climes,  
Hurt not at all, those that alone use,  
Between their teeth Angelica to bruise: 
Angelica.   
A heavenly simple by an Angel brought,  
As both the name and force thereof have taught.  
So Burnet held within the hand, doth stop 
〈◊〉   
The flux of blood which from the sick doth drop.  
And so his urine redly shall be varied,  
That in his fist hath 
e Rul●… siue 〈◊〉. 〈◊〉 a●… ud quosdam (inquit 〈◊〉) morbu●… reg●…um sanar●… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, etia●…si ad●…gatus spectet●…r tantum. lib. 24. cap 11. An ●…mplification of this discourse by other admirable instances.  madder long time carried.  
The force of Woad is strange, which they that touch,  
Do make the colour of their humours such.   

You Plants, your force doth not alone extend  
To men; but your strange force doth make to bend  
The fiercest creatures, and the Iron strong,  
The legions black of the infernal throng,  
The brightest lamps of heaven, if all be right,  
That of 
f Vide Pl●…n. lib. 30. cap. 1.  Thessalian sorceries men write.  
The 
a Aconitum. 〈◊〉 (ut satua est) 〈◊〉 es admot●… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 qui rurs●…m Hellel●…ri contactu, ●…ciiantur. Diosc. li. 4. cap 66. Plin. l 27. c. 2.  Libbards-bane touched doth of sense deprive  
The chequerd Scorpion, that was erst alive:  
As 
b Plin. l. 25 c. 10  Lingwort touched revives the force,  
Which smothered was in the dead-seeming corpse.  
Serpents which 
c Betonica vit tan●…a per●…betur ut ●…clusae circulo cius serpents. ipsae seize 〈◊〉 flagellan lo. Plin lib. 25. c 8 Ma●…hiolus in 1. cap 4. lib Diosc. a●…th, that the I aliaus in commendation of any man's excelling virtues, do use this proue●…biall speech, Tu 〈◊〉 untu ●…he no he la Betonica that is, You are more virtuous than Betoni●….  betony compassed around,  
Advance their wrathful heads above the ground,  
They hiss aloud, and from their fire-red eyes  
The flames of burning candles seem to rise;  
They stem each other, break their long alliance,  
And wrathfully do make to each defiance.  
With furious onset they together bring  
Poison 'gainst poison, sting against a sting:  
Their blood doth soil the blew-green-yellow grounds,  
Their bodies covered are with deadly wounds;  
Nay but one wound; and only death so cruel  
Can from their fiery feud withdraw the fuel.  
As this dissolves the knots of amity,  
So 
d Inue●…it Lysi●… 〈◊〉 herbam. Lysinachian, vis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est, ut 〈◊〉 dis orda●…ibus ●…ugo imposit●…, asp●…ritatē co●…beat. Plin. li. 25. cap. ●….  Water-sage doth stint the enmity  
Of sighting Genets, if some careful eye,  
The same unto their collars chance to tie.  
If so a 
e Mat. hiol. upon Diosc. allegeth as much out of Columella.  Hog out of a trough do seed  
Made of the 
f Decoctum soliorum cum vin●… potum 〈◊〉 absunut. 〈◊〉. 〈◊〉. 1. cap. 99  Tamarix, his milt with speed  
Doth waste; as if his teeth did lately bruise  

g A●…plenū vim han●… 〈◊〉, ut per dies 40. pot●… Lientem absumat. Discor. lib. 3. cap 128. Idem affirmat Plin. lib. 27. cap. 5.  Miltwast, that cunningly doth know to choose  
By virtue strange among the bowels all  
The milt, and hungerly thereon doth fall.  
Shall I stay here? the jades that feeding go  
Upon the ground where 
h The Italians (saith Matthiolus) call this he●…be Sferra-cavallo, that is, Vnshoe horse. ●…lorio seems to make it all one with the he●…be AEthiopis mentioned by Plini●… lib. 26. cap. 4.  Lunary doth grow  
Their wondering master then away doth ride  
Vnshod. Moonwort, where dost that Loadstone hide,  
That doth the iron keep in humble awe?  
Moonwort, where are thy pincers that do draw  
So cunningly the iron? where dost lay  
That marshal's hand that sweetly pulls away  
Their nails? What lock can serve t'exclude  
Your crafty skill, if so a horse well should,  
Pacing along where you your growing have,  
Cannot be sure his nails from you to save?  
But I do think, the world doth not bring forth  
On hills or dales a plant of rarer worth,  
Then 
a Produut i●… C●…ta capra●… sagittis per●…ussas, 〈◊〉 herbae pastu eas excutere. Diosc. lib. 3. ca 31. Idem affirmat Plin. lib 8. cap. 27 lib. 25. cap 8. Aelian. lib. 1. de varia hist. Sohu cap. 31  Dittanie, which eaten by the Deer,  
Doth not his wounded side from danger clear  
Alone; but backwardly doth daft  
Unto the Archer his life-wounding shaft.   

What should I say? O God, is't not thy work,  
That men may see in every turf to lurk  
A thousand other plants, each place t'adorn,  
Differing in colour, in effect, in form?  
And that each one pulled timely from the ground,  
Doth poison one, and make another sound.  
Th'herb 
b Ferulae asinu●… gratissimae sunt in pabulo, c●…teris ve●…o 〈◊〉 praesentaneo vene●…o: qua de cau sa●…d. animal Li bero patri assignatur, 〈◊〉 & serula. Plin. lib. 24. cap 1.  Ferula brings beeves to deadly pass,  
And yet is wholesome for the drudging Ass.  

c Galen de t●…mperamentis: d●…scribitur b●…c herba a Diosc. lib 4. cap. 67. lib. 6. c. 11. Et ●… Plin. li. 25 cap. 13.  Hemlock to stars is right commodious,  
But unto man is poison odious.  
The 
c Galen de t●…mperamentis: d●…scribitur b●…c herba a Diosc. lib 4. cap. 67. lib. 6. c. 11. Et ●… Plin. li. 25 cap. 13.  Rose of Daphne mules doth ever kill,  
But unto man is counter-poison still.  
What is to man more poisonful and vile,  
Then that fell weed which 
d Rhododendri stores & ●…olia muli●…, cambus, asinu & quad●…upedum plurimis venena sunt: hominib. verò contra serpentium morsus praesidia, èvi●…opota, etc. Diosc. lib 4. cap. 70 Plin. 16 lib. 20. cap & lib. 20 cap. 11.  
d 〈◊〉 ●…a est natura, ut hominem oc●… dat, nisi 〈◊〉 quod in homine perimat cum eo solo colluctatur, velut part 〈◊〉 invento sola haec pugna est cum venenum in viscerib. reperit, mirum●… 〈◊〉 per se a●…bo cùm fin●…, du●… v●…ena in homine co●…riuntur, ut homo supersit. Plin. lib. 27. cap. 2.  Libbards-bane we style?  
And yet his juice doth cure that burning smart,  
That from a Serpent's tail would thrill our heart.  
O valiant poison! o courageous juice!  
Proud liquor! plant full of disdainful use!  
That kills unhelped, scorns his force to show  
'Gainst us, if any succour near he know.  
A poison giving health, if so he spy  
Some other poison in us; then he'll try  
His force against it, and with secret spite,  
Even hand to hand most cruelly they fight,  
So long they combat, and so strong they strive,  
That they both die, that man may scape alive.   

Briefly, be it in fields abroad I walk, 
Of grai●…s, wool, silk, cotton, flax hemp, & such other commodities as the earth produceth.   
Climb up the hills, or in the woods do stalk,  
God is each where, from him comes each things store,  
He nought but gives, and I take evermore.  
Here for my food the harvest fields do wave  
Their tops; and here a thousand flieces brave  
(Worthy to make the greatest kings array)  
Shake in the silken forests of Catay.  
And here the lower boughs of Malta cottons;  
Do garments bear within their tuffed buttons:  
Here linen fine is made of flax ykempt,  
And sails and tackling made of hollow hemp:  
That carried on the sea with wind and weather,  
I may acquaint the East and West together;  
And drily pass over the watery lee,  
And many a town may walk upon the sea. 
As the divine on●…ipotence did sh●…w itself mi●…aculously in the creation of all things 〈◊〉 of nothing, so doth it shine most gloriously in the yearly reno●…ation of some, and the daily preservation of all.   
Here Indian Wheat grows on a lofty reed,  
And thrice a year five hundred grains doth breed;  
Which Indian men do dry and bray, and knead,  
And bake it into hunger-killing bread.   

That puissant voice which built this worldly Round  
Doth ever glad us with his joyful sound:  
Renews the world each year, and by his strength  
Each thing is borne, doth live, and grow to length.  
It makes the plough-swain scatter (not in vain)  
Upon the crumbled earth his hopeful grain:  
Which covered with the plough and hatched with care,  
Under the labour of the renting share,  
It dies to spring; and moistly hot doth tend  
Downward his root, upward his blade to send:  
Enriching with his verdure all the plains,  
And cheers the husbandmen with hope of gains:  
The bud grows to an herb, th'herb to a reed,  
The reed an ear, the ear produceth seed:  
The ears to save them from the sparrows waist,  
With bearded eyles is hemmed and rampart fast:  
The seed hath cod, that it nor fall, nor rot,  
Nor blast, by wind, water, or weather hot:  
And the soft stem to bear more bet the seed,  
Is vnderpropt as 'twere with a new reed.   

Reader, excuse me, if thy wondering eye,  
So many trees do in my wood espy,  
My meadow so beslowred, my garden hearbed,  
My close so fruitful, and my field so garbed:  
Sith in the I'll of Zebut there's a tree  
Surnamed Cocos, which appears to be 
The tree called Cocos and his strange proprieties described.   
More rich than ought that woods, or hills, or fields,  
Or close, or garden, or an orchard yields.  
Art thirsty? in his bruised leaves is wine,  
Hast need of slaxe to make thee linen fine?  
Then take the bark, beat it, and do it twist,  
To make thee clothe thereof when ere thou list.  
Wouldst thou so soon have butter? do but clap  
Thy greedy teeth into the tender sap.  
Dost long for oil? why that it yields also,  
If so his fruit be tossed to and fro.  
Want'st vinegar? why all that's to be done,  
Is for to lay it in the burning Sun.  
Wilt thou have sugar? take his pompions ripe,  
And cool them in some fresher water pipe.  
'tis what thou wilt. I fear when Midas shall  
But touch it, 'twill become a golden ball.  
I think that God, to make our joys notorious,  
The earth so fruitful, and his name so glorious,  
Would nothing else have made, if the whole▪ frame  
Should not have had less beauty by the same.   

Now th'earthy surface is not only dressed 
Of the rich metals and minerals emboweld in the earth.   
With things of price; for in her fruitful breast  
Such treasures heaped are, as by no mean  
Can lucre-hunting men make riddance clean:  
As more than all the stars in heavens vault,  
Or roaring waves of Amphitrite salt,  
Then harvest ears, or branches in the wood,  
Then four-foot beasts or fishes in the flood.  
I will conceal the jet, Marble and Slat,  
Sa●…t 
a Su●… & monte●… natius salis, ut in India Oronienus, in quo lapicidinarum modocae ●…itur renasce●…. 〈◊〉 regum vect galex coest quàm ex a●…ro atque margari●…s. Pl●…. lib. 31. cap. 7.  Oromen shall this time be forgot:  
That mount in 
b .  Arragon also, whose shivers  
Do season meat for all the mountain livers.  
I am content that now my book do pass  
Adorned with Mercury, Vermilion, Brass,  
With Orpine, Copper, Silver, Gold, and Oar,  
Antimony, Led, Tin, and Iron store.  
It pleaseth me t'enchase my work of gold  
With Crystal, that each faces life doth hold;  
The purple Amethyst, th'Agate of name  
So divers, and the Diamond of rich fame,  
The Cassidon fair circled to be seen,  
The Opal, Sardonix and Emraud green,  
Hard Topaz, with the Carbuncle that burneth,  
Although the fire his substance never turneth.   

I know the earth seems to a wretched wight 
None of the f●…med metals are of themselves hu●…tfull, although the co●…●…pt nature of man do most ungraciously abuse them.   
No mother, but stepmother full of spite;  
Because she brings forth, to our little good,  
Care-bringing gold and iron shedding blood:  
As if man's malice made not vice abound,  
But these unfaultie metals of the ground.  
Like as th'alluring treasured gold doth kill  
Both soul and body of the man that's ill,  
So gold doth virtue gild, and gives us wings  
Wherewith t'aspire unto the 
a Formam quidem ipsam (Mar ce sili) & tanquá faciem honesti vides qu●… si ●…culis cerne●…etur, mirabiles am●…res (ut a●… Plato) excitaret sapientiae. Cic. de Ossic. lib. 1.  fairest things.  
Man well advised with iron serves his turn  
To blow the field, that (thankful) yields him corn:  
For to defend his country and his life,  
From stranger tyranny and civil knife.  
But wicked men do never iron take,  
But for hell furies weapons of it make,  
To spoil the passenger, to kill his brother,  
To waste his country, massacre his mother.  
Like drunkards that abuse a gift divine, 
Other like instances.   
And drown their reason in a cup of wine: 
Simil.  
Of the secret virtue and admirable sympathy of the Loadstone.   
As corrupt Lawyers with their eloquence  
Do palliate vice, and burden innocence:  
As Preachers false God's word do often use,  
When they the hearers foully do abuse:  
For as the musty vessel that doth stink,  
Deprives of smell God- Bacchus richest drink:  
So God's best gifts are turned to vile excess  
Of vice, when vicious men do them possess.  
Shall I the 
b Magnes appel latus est ab inventore (ut author est Nicander) in Idareperius invenisse autē●…rtur, cla●… crepidarum & baculi cuspide harentibus, ●…m armenta pasceret. Plin. lib. 36. cap. 16.  Loadstone pass, that dead-alive  
My reason doth of reason self deprive?  
Magnesian praise, undrawing drawing stone,  
Whose Lure is secret, and his hook unknown,  
His baits and grapples are insensible;  
His lines unseen, his hands invisible  
Draw distant iron; and is near at rest,  
Till with a longed kiss his hope be blest,  
Nay with embracement; and knows not the force  
(O loyal mind) of uncoupling divorce,  
Unless we them disjoin: such tender love  
This stone and iron towards each do prove.  
And though a put-betweene bar their desire,  
It puts not out their inbred loving fire:  
But towards one another leap they will,  
At least by signs confirming their good will.  
Good God, who can conceive, why that a ring  
But touched therewith should strait his fellow bring?  
That second draw a third, that third another,  
And that pull after his fifth iron brother?  
Good Lord, whence comes this virtue, that doth cause  
That one untouched must follow th''others laws?  
That knit and bound and glued they should be,  
Where neither glue, nor knot, nor chord we see?  
Disproving reason, holding no compound  
Can hang in th'air, not falling to the ground.   

Now I know well, that 
a Lucretius.  he whose cunning wit 
The cause of this sympathy undemonstrable.   
With Latin weeds the Grecians skill did fit,  
And from his wife received that deadly drink,  
Wherewith t'augment his love she (fool) did think,  
Doth strive to show, by many a subtle reason,  
The reason of this sympathy so geason.  
But (Lucrece) tell whence comes that virtue forth,  
That turns the compasse-needle to the North  
Touched by this stone? fail not in this essay,  
And I will crown thy head with verdant bay,  
And say in Nature's secrets thou speak'st truer,  
Then thy Empedocles, or Epicure.   

Bacchus for wine, Ceres' for corn do bind 
Of the mariners compass needle.   
No faster unto their deserts mankind,  
Then Flaws, when he first did bring to light  
The compasse-needle, for the sailing wight.  
His brave invention guides on watery rudges,  
The caricke that so slowly onward drudges:  
Serves for a cresset-light, and for a guide  
To search all corners of the earth so wide:  
It makes a ship, enforced by the wind,  
Almost a new world in one day to find,  
To mark the clime, and prick upon the card,  
How far from th'equinoctial they are squared.   

But th'earth doth not deserve this glorious name, 
Of divers for●… of earth that are medicinable.   
For things that grow alone upon the same,  
Or in her bowels; but her proper merit  
To sing her praise invites my thankful spirit.  
I call to witness such as have made proof  
With profit, for their feebled healths behoof,  
Of th'earth of 
a Diosc. lib. 5. ca 94 Plin. lib. 35. c. 16.  Chios, and of Selia,  
Of that of Erithrie and Melia.   

Hail mother Earth, that bearest men and corn, 
Terr●… Encomion.   
Gold, houses, health, fruits, garments to be worn:  
Thou nourcing womb, fair, patiented, unmoved,  
Fruitful and fragrant, various and beloved,  
Clad with a rob with flowers all bespangled,  
With rivers laced, fretted with colours fangled.  
Hail heart, root, foot to that great Animal,  
Which men the World most vulgarly do call;  
chaste spouse of heaven, and foundation sound  
For all the buildings of this total Round.  
I greet thee mother, sister, nurse, and hostess  
Of man, the king of creatures; all (great Princess)  
Do live for thee: for every wheeling sphere  
T'enlighten thee his slaming torch doth bear;  
To give thee heat, the purer fiery flame,  
To motion orbicular doth frame.  
The air for thy refreshing pleasure taketh,  
When with the North or gentler West it shaketh.  
To moisten thee, the sea, fountain and river  
With veins do interlace thy body ever.   

Oh! how it grieves me, that the wittiest men 
Against the scornful contempt of husbandtie, and careless regard of searching the natures of simples.   
Do thee (O earth) so commonly contemn:  
That greatest hearts do husbandry deride,  
And care of simples proudly lay aside  
For simplest men, and men of no demerits,  
That iron bodies have and leaden spirits.  
Such were not once those venerable Sages,  
Whose praise the Bible tells to coming ages,  
No, Moses, Abram, who did most time spend  
In tilling, or upon their flocks did tend.  
Such were not Cyrus, or king Archelas,  
Hiero, Philometor, or Attalus,  
Whose royal hands in stead of conquering blade  
And sceptre, held a billhooke or a spade.  
Such were not Manius, Cincinnat, Fabricius, 
Vide Pl●…n. lib. 18 cap. 3.   
Or Serran that made war 'gainst passions vicious,  
And did with coulter crowned, with conquering hand,  
With plough triumphant raze the Roman land.  
Yea Scipio tired with seeming happiness,  
With Court-eclipses, tedious 
* The word Aubades signifies such squea●…ing music, as fiddling minstrels plav at men's windows.  sportfulness  
Of following troops; and that great (
a Diocletian ) Emperor,  
That, mad a king, became a labourer,  
To petty hamlets did retire again,  
And did in tilling take as much pain  
As erst in war; setting their trees in rows,  
As orderly as squadrons 'gainst their foes▪ 
An excellent commendation of the country life.    

O man thrice happy that himself sequesters  
From City troubles! and that never pesters  
His thoughts with king's affairs; but doth him arm  
(By Ceres taught) to blow his father's farm!  
Pale envies poisoned tooth doth not him bite,  
Nor greedy Care deprive him of delight.  
His will is bounded just as is his farm;  
He never drinks such potions as do charm  
men's Love in stead of wine; nor 'mong his meat  
Doth ever life-depriving 
* Arsenicum.  Orpine eat.  
His hand his goblet is, the silver stream  
His sweetest hippocras: his cheese and cream,  
And apples graffed by his proper hand,  
In unprepared readiness do stand.  
False pettifoggers (harpies of the bar,  
And bloodsuckers of men) with prattling war  
Triflingly tedious, never dull his sense.  
But birds with their melodious eloquence  
Deceive the busy time, on fragrant twigs  
Chanting sweet couplets to harmonious jigs.  
His wandering ship upon the stormy main  
Becomes no play-game for the windy train:  
Nor doth he roam upon the Ocean wide,  
To seek where death doth dreadfully abide;  
But quietly his days all passing through,  
Doth never lose the sight of's native borough.  
Nor sea, nor river doth he ever know,  
Save such clear brooks as gurglingly do flow  
Watering his verdant fields; and that self earth  
Enterres him, that received him at his birth.  
To purchase sleep he drinks no dulling (
a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. lib. 2●…▪ cap 18. ) poppy,  
Nor the cold (
b  ) rush that grows in Aethiopie.  
He doth not like (
c  ) Maecenas music buy,  
When his grieved soul in body pained did lie,  
And had no resting peace, but without stay  
The jealous pain on's very bones did play:  
But on green carpets of soft moss that grows  
Fringing the banks, from out his side he blows  
Sweet slumbering naps, enchanted by the sounds  
Of warbling brooks that run on stony grounds.  
Nor warlike trump, nor clarion, drum or tabor  
Breaking his sleep, put him to arming labour;  
Nor the command of any chieftain brave  
Leads him from bed blindfold unto his grave.  
The wakeful Cock makes him the time to know,  
Limits his sleep, and with his cheerful crow  
Cheers him to walk among the flowers early,  
Which with Aurora's tears waxen all pearlie.  
Close stinking air in streets and filthy lanes,  
His blood with damps infectious near inflames:  
But open air wherein he ever lives,  
Fresh appetite unto him alway gives:  
Maintains his health, puts very death in doubt,  
In many years to find his lodging out.   

In clymbe-fall court he spends no wretched years,  
His will depends not on the greatest peers:  
He changeth not religion with his Lord.  
His mercenary style doth not accord,  
With lies to make an Antan Elephant,  
Or style a coward hard and valiant;  
Or make an Adonis of some foul Thersite,  
Or wrong lewd Flora with Alcestes right:  
But lives unto himself, serves God in fear,  
And sings the very thought his heart doth bear.   

Pale fear doth never feed upon his heart;  
Nor doth he practise coney-catching art:  
If he think on deceit, 'tis to lay snares  
For ravenous beasts, or to catch unawares  
The birds with twigs, with wieles the sealie frie.  
Now if his wardrobe be not sumptuously  
With silks and tissue stuffed; if so his chest  
Be not unsafe with greedy Lingots priest:  
Yet are his garments made of purer wool,  
And with unboughten wines his cellar full,  
His lofts with grain, his wells with water clear,  
His grange with hay, his park is store with dear.  
For I speak of that countryman's good state,  
Whose house a petty commonwealth doth mate:  
Not of the broken booth, or hungry need  
Of the poor drudge that begs whereon to feed,  
Or hungry fisherman, whose foure-legd room  
Hath but at bushes for to fill his womb. 
His conclusive oraison.    

Let me (o God) of greatest Kings unkend,  
In solitary woods my lifetime end;  
My pond my sea, my grove let be Ardena,  
Gimon my Nilus, Sarrapin my Sena,  
My Lutes and choristers the winged sort,  
Bartas my 
* The King's house Paris so called.  Louver, and my men my Court:  
Where I untroubled may thy praise so thunder,  
As may strike dead succeeding men with wonder.  
Or if my duty and my Prince's grace  
Shall call me unto any waiting place,  
Grant, with his favour I near drunken be,  
But subject to command, may yet live free.  
False honour I may shun, true honour gain,  
Loved for no flattery, but for dealing plain.   
FINIS.  Effugiunt avidos carmina sola rogos. ovid. Amorum lib. 3. Eleg. 8.  

To the Translator.  

REport that made me read, had thrice the power,  
When I had heard thy tongue of silver strike,  
To make me once again to spend that hour,  
That twice before my heart did so much like:  
But while my soul held his respective eye  
Upon the Leaves of thy registered fame,  
My Heart constrained my pen to prophecy,  
That Love and Fortune shall enrich thy Name.  
Thou mildest Winter that our age hath felt,  
In midst of whom a Lily freshly grows,  
Put all thy heat and calmy power to melt  
From off this flower the frosty candied snows:  
That when thy hand hath drawn the curtain round,  
We may see Bartas picture Lawrel-crownd.   
Thomas Mason Suffolciensis.   

To the honourable Gentleman, Sir Thomas Chaloner Knight.  

TO thee, true picture of humanity,  
Learning's dear friend, wisdoms high favourite,  
That dost discern twixt frothy vanity  
Of want on rhymes, (bellows of lewd delight,)   

And learned strains of sacred poesy:  
My Muse this shorter sonnet doth address,  
Till for thy love and graceful courtesy,  
She may in better Lays her zeal express.   

For when (of better growth) she shall enroll  
The praise of Worthies in records of fame;  
Forgetfulness shall not her pen control,  
For not enregistring thy worthy name.  
▪ For thy deserts do truly her assure,  
Thou rightfully art he that 
Chaloner, 〈◊〉 Hal'honneur.  Hal'honneur.   
T. Winter.   

To the right worthy Knight Sir George Somers.  

ALthough (brave Knight) the cold and frozen pen  
Of Winter, cannot paint out Summer's praise;  
Yet give me leave (thou ornament of men)  
Among these short and il-composed Essays,   

With thy rich name to clothe my naked verse,  
And only glance at thy deserved glory;  
Sith if I should thy famous deeds rehearse,  
These lines would swell into an ample story.   

An ample story that ensample might  
Brave minds, to fix their eyes on marks of honour,  
Directed by thy true-directing light,  
To find out virtue, and attend upon her.   

But though I cannot (as I would) express  
The love that unto thy desert I own:  
Yet my desire increaseth ne'ertheless,  
That this, my Muse may briefly let thee know:  
As long as winter summer shall succeed,  
Winter is thine in thought, in word, in deed.   
T. Winter.   

To the virtuous and nobly-descended Sir Thomas Lucy the younger, Knight.  

I Know 〈◊〉 well, it hath been held of yore,  
That Fo●…ne in her largesse still is blind:  
That there she gives her gifts in greatest store,  
Where judgement cannot any merit find.   

But seeing Art and Nature have conspired,  
To make thee lovely, learned, witty, wise,  
Let Fortune in her judgement be admired,  
As having clear and true-discerning eyes.   

Therefore proceed thou happy, hopeful Knight,  
Keep on thy course in one ecclipticke line,  
Be constant in thy virtuous delight,  
And if thou wilt in perfect glory shine,  
Eat all extremes, dote not on worldly pelf,  
But in a word, be still most like thyself.   
T. Winter.   

¶ To the learned Civilian, Doctor james, justice of Peace and Quorum in the County of Somerset.  

IF will and skill were true correlatives.  
Thy worth should never want dese●… 〈◊〉;  
For in unflattering superlatives  
I would thy virtues tell, thy credit raise.   

Thou flower of courtesy, that dost embrace  
With both thine arms each well-deserving spirit;  
Heaping the favours of thy bounteous grace,  
Where never-erring judgement findeth merit;   

I will not venture in a daring vain,  
To reckon up thy each praiseworthy part;  
They are too many for so short a strain,  
But sith my heart is better than my art,  
Let Winter's heart obtain this boon of thee,  
This Winter-fruit yscorned may not be.   
T. Winter.  

Scinduntur vestes, gemmae franguntur & aurum,  
Carmina quam tribuent fama perennis erit.   ovid. Amor. lib. ●…. Eleg▪ 10.