_Æquoris est spatium et numerus mihi notus arenæ Mutum percipio, fantis nihil audio vocem. Venit ad hos sensus nidor testudinis acris, Quæ semel agninâ coquitur cum carne labete, Aere infra strato, et stratum cui desuper æs est._
I know the space of Sea, the number of the sand, I hear the silent, mute I understand. A tender Lamb joined with Tortoise flesh, Thy Master King of _Lydia_ now doth dress. The scent thereof doth in my nostrils hover, From brazen pot closed with brazen cover.
Hereby indeed he acquired much wealth and more honour, and was reputed by _Crœsus_ as a Diety: and yet not long after, by a vulgar fallacy he deceived his favourite and greatest friend of Oracles into an irreparable overthrow by _Cyrus_. And surely the same success are likely all to have that rely or depend upon him. 'Twas the first play he practised on mortality; and as time hath rendred him more perfect in the Art, so hath the inveterateness of his malice more ready in the execution. 'Tis therefore the soveraign degree of folly, and a crime not only against God, but also our own reasons, to expect a favour from the devil; whose mercies are more cruel than those of _Polyphemus_; for he devours his favourites first, and the nearer a man approacheth, the sooner he is scorched by _Moloch_. In brief, his favours are deceitfull and double-headed, he doth apparent good, for real and convincing evil after it; and exalteth us up to the top of the Temple, but to humble us down from it.
[Sidenote: _What an_ Euripus _is generally_.]
That _Aristotle_ drowned himself in _Euripus_, as despairing to resolve the cause of its reciprocation, or ebb and flow seven times a day, with this determination, _Si quidem ego non capio te, tu capies me_, was the assertion of _Procopius_, _Nazianzen_, _Justin Martyr_, and is generally believed amongst us. Wherein, because we perceive men have but an imperfect knowledge, some conceiving _Euripus_ to be a River, others not knowing where or in what part to place it; we first advertise, it generally signifieth any strait, fret, or channel of the Sea, running between two shoars, as _Julius Pollux_ hath defined it; as we read of _Euripus Hellespontiacus_, _Pyrrhæus_, and this whereof we treat, _Euripus Euboicus_ or _Chalcidicus_, that is, a narrow passage of Sea dividing _Attica_, and the Island of _Eubœa_, now called _Golfo de Negroponte_, from the name of the Island and chief City thereof; famous in the wars of _Antiochus_, and taken from the _Venetians_ by _Mahomet_ the Great.