ANd now I am upon a peece of the Continent and one of natures best peeces , one of her chiefest Granaries and Winecellars ; a square of 550. miles travers , take the diameter where you will , thronging with such multitudes of sappy and spritefull plants , that the generall calcule which was made in the last perambulation exceeded eight millions ; a rare soyle that in no larger a circumference , can give radicall moisture to such a number without borrowing of any ; Corne , Wine , and Salt , her three rich staples doe so abound in her , that shee seasoneth , and keepes from starving very many of her neighbours , but specially the Forrest of the South , which otherwise would perish for the staffe of life .

There is no Region on Earth so daintily watered , with such great navigable Rivers , whereof some are said to bee pav'd with Troutes , borderd with crevices , and imbroderd with Swannes ; And upon these multitudes of brave Cities stand , and all her great ones stand so ; but amongst them the midland townes are most flourishing and abounding in wealth , which shewes that her riches are interne and domesticke ; For as it is the marke of a good housewife to be more Vendax , then Emax , rather a seller then Buyer , so is it of a good Countrey ; And such a one is Ampelona , which sends forth far more , then she fetcheth in . The War-like Vine swayeth here in the most absolute forme of supremacy that may bee , for Hee not onely makes Peace and Warre , summons and dissolves generall meetings , pardoneth , naturallizeth , ennobleth , stamps , and layeth value upon coynes , but also enacts lawes , executes justice , and layeth impositions at pleasure ; and He may thanke Druina for this boundlesse power , for when she by the strength of her horned Yew had feld downe a great number of the strongest Trees that were in Ampelona , and made such firme invasions into her very bowels , that there could be no universall assembly , the necessity of the times cast the power of the three estates upon the Vine himselfe , that his mandats should stand for lawes , whereby he layd what taxes , and made what leavies he pleased ; His successors made vertue of this necessity , which though temporary at first , continueth ever since ; For soveraignty where she gets an inch , stickes not sometimes to stretch it to an ell . But that which made it more passable was , that the burden lighted chiefely upon the poore coppices and Vnderwoods ; so that ever since , the Vine himselfe with the taller sorts of Trees , specially the holy Yews ( who ingrosse more than all the rest , and are thought by computation to have the third part of the Forrest , ) sucke all the sappe , and leave the poore shrubs to dry up , fade away , and wither ; and when they have got any moysture , they serve but as spunges for others : Out of which disproportion ariseth this inconvenience , that they become pusillanimous , and almost uselesse for military services , being so often peeld , that they never come to be perfect and firme timber .

It is alwaies a mixd government twixt Peace and Warre , which finds perpetuall employment for many of her stirring spirits , having the advantage thereby to bee furnished upon all occasions with experienc'd martiall instruments ; for Ampelona having open frontires contiguous every where with some Alien , She cannot joyne Peace and security together , nor fetch a sound sleepe , but Hercules-like with clubbe in hand . She is the greatest one knot of strength in the Western world , and for the situation fittest to disjoyne or unite her neighbours forces , and consequently to be Arbitratrix and compoundresse of any quarrell that may intervene : And never , since she woare the Imperiall diademe , was Ampelona so potent , nor then , so well knit and compacted as now she is ; so that it is held a maxime , If Ampelona combat not her selfe , she is invincible ; And this shee hath too often done , turning the sword of civill broyles into her own bowels , so farre that the bell hath often told , but never yet rung quite out for her liberty , which was thought not long since to be upon point of expiring ; and no wonder , sheabounds so with quicke sets and wildings , and a world of boyling volatil spirits , impatient of peace any longer then they are recovering the ruines of warre ; present danger magnanimats them , and inflames their courage , but expectation makes it languish ; so that the Forrest of the South ( which is ever emulous of Ampelona ) compareth their valour to a squib , or fier of flaxe , which burnes and crackles for the time , but suddenly extinguisheth ; Indeed fury when the first blast is spent turnes commonly to feare , and they that are possessed therewith may be said to be like the moneth of March , which entreth like a Lion , but goeth out like a Lamb.

Ampelona is one of the chiefest climes of complement and courtship under heaven , which puts so large a distance twixt the tongue and the heart , that they are seldome relatists . Most of her Plants have the Heliotropian quality of the Marigold and Tulip , who follow the motion of the Sunne opening and shutting with him ; The fancy predominates more than the judgement , but they in whom both these concurre are admirable , as there is amongst them at present a notable example , which serves for a mighty proppe to the Vine , and 't is well knowne no Tree needs props more . For friendship , love commonly flames there , before it burnes , and so cannot be long lasting , for though first affection maketh deepest impression , yet that love is held most permanent , which dives into the soule by soft degrees of mutuall society , and is matur'd by time ; very acute they are , and cautelous in treating , & therin have prov'd ( more than once ) too hard , for plain down right dealing Druina ; finally some say , one shall best discerne an Ampelonian , and most to his advantage , if one looke upon him , as we use to doe upon scarlet ( his prime colour ) the dye whereof is better discernd by quicke glances , and a passing eye , then by a fixd .

I write not this to derogat from noble Ampelona , for I honour her in a most high degree , having practically found her better sort of Trees though allowed their fancies , ( and that they participate somewhat with the Corke , and are subject to be shaken with incertaine winds ) to be the most generous , daring and ventrous spirits , and fullest of resolution and mettall for their Country and honour , of any upon the surface of the earth , and what was said before must be understood , as the Philosophers use to restraine many propositions in their Schooles , Non de singulis generum , sed de generibus singulorum : No where are there more quicke inventive and penetrating capacities , fraught with all kind of scientifiall knowledge ; Not any are more generally imitated for fashion , comportment and garb , which many of her neighbours doe follow to a forc'd kind of affectation , thinking they are not refin'd till then ; not any have more of the Cavalier then they , the Levant parts ring more of them , and their martiall atchievements then of any other Nation .

But I have sojourn'd too long in Ampelona , I will now crosse the Hils to Elaiana , whence if a meridian wind bloweth , I am sure to know when I am neere her , by those sweet fragrant odours she casts from her very shrubbes , for the bruite animals there make themselves beds of Rose-mary and Thyme .

But strange it is , and indeed very strange to me , that there being but a hill , yea a small bridge of partition twixt Ampelona , and Elaiana , there should bee such an antipatheticall and quite differing genius in their plants ; I know , Nature delights , and triumphs in dissimilitudes , but here she seemes to have industriously studied it : The nature of the one is debonnaire and aco'stable ; of the other retird and supercilious : The one quicke and spritefull ; The other slow and saturnine ; The one bushy and tufted on the top ; The other lop'd short : The one delights in a close thicke rind ; The other goes thin and scarified ; The one gay underneath , the other without , which makes some of them to bee compared to the Cinnamon Tree , whose Rind is more worth than the body ; The one takes the ball before the bound ; The other stayeth for it , and commonly fetcheth a surer stroake ; The one in the cariage of his designes is like the Wind , the other like the Sunne in the fable , when they went to try their strength upon a passengers cloake The one knowes how to shuffle the Cards better ; the other playeth his game more cunningly ; The one disgests all he swallowes ; The other is subject to cast it up againe ; The one contracts and enchaines his words speaking pressingly and short ; The other delights in long breathd accents , which he prolates with such pauses , that before he be at a period of his sentence , one may reach a second thought .

In fine Saturne swayeth o're the one , and Mercury o're the other , with whom the Moone also hath a great stroake , so that some thinke the bush which the man in the Moone carrieth on his backe , did grow first in Ampelona , and that the wheele of fortune was made of a peece of her timber ; Out of these various premisses you may inferre that there is a politicall , morall and naturall opposition and difference twixt these so neere neighbours ; both in their comportment , garb , fancy and humour , so farre , that one may say , what the one is not , the other is ▪ insomuch that if you would fetch one from the remotest parts the Sunne displayes his beames upon , yea from the very Antipodes ; he will agree with either , better then they one with another ; yet they both symbolize in this , that they love to look upon themselves through multiplying glasses , and the bigger end of the prospectife . But I must hasten to Elaiana .

AND now I am come from Gods blessing to the warme Sun , who is a little too prodigall of his beames here , which makes the soyle lesse fruitfull , and to be a kind of wildernesse in comparison of Ampelona , being like a Libbards skinne , here a spot , and there a spot inhabited ; she swels so every where with huge hils ; And some would make a question whether the minds of the Inhabitants or her mountaines be highest ; the tops whereof by reason of the tenuity and clearenesse of aire , ( for sometimes you shall not see in the whole hemisphere from morning to night as much cloud as would line a Monmoth Cappe ) you may discerne above two hundred Miles off , and some of them periwigd with snowes all the yeare long , And on some , one shall find more difference in point of temper of ayre , twixt bottome and top , then twixt Sommer and Winter in other places ; But where Elaiana hath valleys , there she is deliciously fertile , such blessings humility carieth alwaies with her ; Her rivers having for the most part high bankes , and shallow bottomes , serve not for Navigation , but are wheeld up into small Cataracts , and so divided into sluces , to humectat the bordering soyle , and make it wonderfully productive : A cheap Country to travell in , for one will hardly find meat for money , ( but sawce good store ) the conveyance of provision being so difficult , yet this scarcity carieth with it a notable advantage for Military uses , wherewith nature seemes to recompence her , for her Plants are the tougher thereby , and can endure more then they that sprout forth of wanton soft soyles ; Moreover her abruptnesse , barrenes and heat , carry with them another mighty benefit , for she cannot be so easily overrunne by forren force , in regard that besides the difficulty of passage , an army would either starve for want , or miscarry , for the unusuall heat of the clime , which I beleeve was the reason , that the Roman Eagles could hardly fly over her in nine score yeares , whereas they flew through and through Ampelona in lesse then nine .

For the quality every thing she beares is passing good , only she failes in the quantity , And did she abound in plenty , as she excels in perfection of all things ( by reason of the full concoction the Sunne makes ) specially had she Corne proportionable to her greatnesse , she would prove terrible to all her neighbours .

The mighty Olive who now swayeth , thrives well , and fructifieth by ingrafting upon the lovely Ampelonian Vine . Hee keepes his Court neere the very centre of Elaiana , like the Sunne in the Heavens , which being in the midst , equally communicats his beames to all . And a spacious kingdome is like a great Indian hide , plant your foot on one side or corner , the other will bound up against you , tread on the middle , all parts will lye flat ; so some hold it a maxime in policy , for the Prince to reside in the very navill of his kingdome , to encounter all insurrections with the more celerity , that may arise in any other part . But now me thinkes I spie a satyre with a huge bushy head rushing out of Ampelona , and breaking out into this criticall discourse of Elaiana ; That the time was when Elaiana did containe and content her selfe within the circumference of her own boundaries , without any further encroachments , but of late yeares she hath shot up , and spread her branches farre and neare into all parts of the habitable earth , whereby shee is growne up to so monstrous and giant-like a proportion , that she is become formidable to all her neighbours , in such sort , as she puts every one to stand upon his gard , and have a continuall larum-bell in his eares ; they stand gazing at her vast bulke , and wonder when she will leave growing ; for in her politicall designes she differs from all her Neighbours , in regard that whereas they do only labour and cast about how to conserve and secure what they have already , and keep the scales even , her counsels tend still to enlarge and augment her territories . The discovery of Columbina , I confesse , together with the conquest , was a worke of hers ; yet it is observ'd those vast treasures she transports thence thrive little , in regard of the Ocean of humane , though savage blond , she spilt there ; so that some affirme the bloud would overpoise all the gold shee had ever thence , if they were counter-balanc'd ; And as that treasure was first got by such effusions of bloud , so the greatest part of it , hath beene spent ever since in bloud , for most of the broyles of the Westerne world have beene fed and fomented by it .

But that immense tract of earth she holds under that clime , is preserv'd rather by the conceipt and report of her greatnesse , then by any intrinsicke strength : yet I cannot deny but her dominions are very spacious , that the Sun never forsakes her quite , perpetually shining in some part or other above her hemisphere : a grandeza , I confesse , that none of all the foure Monarchies could vaunt of , no not the Roman , whose greatnesse was said to have no horison , though falsly , for he could never crosse Ganges , or clime over Caucasus , Insomuch that Elaiana glorieth , Apollo only with his chariot can measure the extent of her territories : And they speake of certaine Ambassadours that came not long since to the now regnant Olive from a Pagan Emperour , upon whose credentiall letters was endors'd this superscription ; To the King who hath the Sunne for his helmet .

Publike fame hath long given out that Elaiana aimeth at the fift Monarchy , but that is a fond conceipt of hers and building of Castles in the ayre ; for she hath beene told long since by the Oracle , that she shall never attaine it , because all other soyles reject her plants , and fly from under their shadow as the Serpent from the Ash , who will leap sooner into a fire : in so much that from those places to which she gives protection , she seldome hath any affection ; for the Elaianians are observed to partake of the nature of Oile in divers qualities , therefore most properly are they governd by the Olive . First , Oyle is observed to swimme still on the top , and the reason the Naturalists give , is , because aire doth most predominat in it , so are they lifted up with an ayrie conceipt ( for ambition is nought but ayre ) that they are only design'd to be Lords Paramount of the world .

Oyle will hardly or never ( unlesse it be well beaten ) mingle and incorporat with any other liquid thing : so they , wheresoever they come , doe very hardly agree , and sympathize with any other Nation . Oyle hath a dilating quality , that by soft insensible degrees it spreads and still gaines upon the body where it fals , so they by politicke close wayes use to eat into , and incroach upon their neighbours , or more properly for this subject they are like the Tartarian plant Boraneth , which growing up to the visible forme of a LAMBE , insensibly eates up all the grasse round about it .

Lastly , Oyle is slow , smooth and solid , so are they observed to be in their motion , though it be a question yet unresolved , whether their affected gravity and slownes in their negotiations have tended more to their prejudice or advantage : And they would bring all others , that have to doe with them , to follow their pace , it being one of their maximes , that policy must move after the motion of Saturne , the highest of the Planets : yet although they are long in consulting , they are quicke and sudden in executing their designes , and therein are rather of the nature of the Mulberry , which the Arbolists observe , to be long in begetting and keeping his buds , but the cold seasons being pass'd , hee shootes them all out in a night .

Another obstacle to Elaiana's , pretended Monarchy may be , that it is observ'd , the Soveraigne Ministers she employeth abroad in the highest kind of trust , are so intentive for the improvement of their owne fortunes , that it is growne to a proverbe , some of them gnaw , others eate , and some devoure in those places , wherein they are deputed to beare Soveraigne sway ; Adde hereunto that her forme of government is none of the pleasingst , for shee chooseth to rule rather by feare than love , And where shee gets any love , it is drawne as threed through a needles eye , out of the apprehensions of feare , it being one of her principles ,

That obedience derived from such a love is surest , in reward that feare as the carefullest and greatest house-wife of our passions , swayeth more powerfully o're all the rest , and keeps them still in centinell , And so makes good subjects , as it did Gods at first , Primus in orbe Deos fecit Timor —

Besides all this , as one hath lately observed , Elaiana hath beene a good while troubled with a fastidious issue , which she caused to be made at first for a dizzines in the head that proceeded no doubt from that huge height she is mounted unto ; It was cauterizd at first by Itelia , who fetch'd her iron from Druina and Ampelona ; at the beginning it purg'd only the grosse humours , but afterwards it exhausted her very radicall moysture , ( which she suckd chiefly from Columbina , ) and her naturall heat ( the two columnes of life ) began to decay . She was often with Apollo to have this issue stop'd , but there after a long debate , she was positively advis'd , by the unanimous vote of the most exquisit Doctors assembled of purpose to know the nature of her disease , for to continue the issue still open , for if she stop'd it , she was like to fall into a worse malady , viz. a dangerous dropsie , whereof there appear'd in her some symptomes , by the unquenchable thirst shee hath of domination and rule .

Moreover it is lately given out that she intends a speedy pilgrimage to Delphus , for a cordial against the weaknesse of her stomacke , in regard the concocting heat seems to be somwhat impair'd ; for whereas before she never used to disgorge , what she had once swallowed , she hath lately cast up some good bits , yea the most precious and sweetest she had , when she cast up the last , all her Saints were a while taken away from her , so that she had not one left to pray unto ; whereby it appeares though her appetite be as good as ever it was to like all she seeth , yet the retentive vertue of her stomacke is not so strong as formerly .

AMongst others which did Emancipat themselves from their obedience to Elaiana , Itelia was the chiefe , who by creating her GROVE of WILLOWES to a republicke , and drawing after her five and more of the neighbouring Groves into one body politicke , in lieu of the Olive , tooke the Orenge to governe her , yet farre from the degree of Soveraigne power , but rather to serve her in a high martiall way : And to beare up against the Orenge , the Olive did luckily light upon a notable Ligurian Thorne who made the willowes to feele his Prickles in many places , and twixt the Orenge and Thorne sundry brave encounters , and cunning traverses of warre happened . By these meanes Itelia brought one of her Fisher townes to bee the prime Mart of all Leoncia , and to a stupendious height of commerce and riches , and other strange feates she hath done since , to the astonishment and admiration of all that know her . And it seemes all things conspird to raise Itelia to this passe ; First , the distance of her great Master ; the humor of her plants being of a nature patient and industrious and more inclinable to a democraticall government ; Adde hereunto the quality of the Country every where indented with water , and therby fortifi'd , and made inaccessible , nature her selfe undertaking that way her protection , so that she can overwhelme and turn her selfe into one pond when she list . Hereunto concurd a further advantage of situation , having behind her Elatena , and her great king the Fir , for her friend , and those places which affoord all kind of materials for shipping , and for all kind of nutriment and military supplies hard before her Druina and Ampelona , both swarming with superfluous Graffes , and suspectfull of Elaiana's greatnesse , and thereby not unwilling to contribute strength for community of danger , and consequently of reciprocall conservation , which must needs be the strongest tie of Politicall love .

But now mee thinkes I spie againe a Sunne burnt wainscot fac'd Satyre rush out of Elaiana , swelling with spleene and revenge and bursting out into these vociferations ; That Itelia is the nearest neighbour to Hell of any place upon earth , because seated lowest , and so is thought to conferre sometimes with infernall spirits : That she is a double Vsurpresse , in detaining not only Elaiana from her right , but the very fish of the Sea also from their habitation ; That she lives upon others idlenesse ; That her state is patch'd up of depredations ; That she is the rendevous of all schismatickes ; that if one wanted a religion , he might have his choice there ; That God and nature never intended her for a mansion to rationall creatures , she being destitut of the most necessary things that conduce to maintaine them ; That she burnes up her earth before the day of judgment ; That whereas her willowes were usd to bee of a pliable and humble nature , they are degenerated lately to Trees of a tougher bulke , yea into stubborne poplars ; so that if occasion were offered , the Oke and the Vine would find it a harder taske to suppresse them , then ever they had to raise them ; That in her negotiations with Druina and Ampelona shee hath turnd entreating to treating : That she hath beene the Incendiary directly or collaterally of all the combustions that have happened this side the line , ever since her revolt from the Olive ; That she is a forge of false Coynes , whereby she hath damnified Elaiana as much as any other way , by importing counterfait stampes : that shee hath rare inventions to export Gold and Silver , to raise or depresse their rates , and abase the allay ; That she hath reaches beyond IEWE , or GENOWAY in new wayes of Vsury , in Bankes , Lotteries , and Lombards , in bargaining and bartering , for shee will make the Fox tayle pay for the whole skinne ; That she marr's her neighbours Markets abroad , underselling them in their owne commodities ; That shee is growne extraordinary witty in devising new tortures , by fire and water , as she made tryall lately upon the Druinians in Baymona : In fine that She is a nest of Water Ratts , a mount of Pismires , the Caterpillar Cankar and Cobwebbs that infects the Olive and hinders his further growth , the verminet that corrodes his mines .