Page:The empire and the century.djvu/504

'O the most blest and fortunate of all countries, Oceana! how deservedly has Nature with the bounties of heaven and earth endued thee! Thy ever fruitful womb not closed with ice, nor dissolved by the raging star; where Ceres and Bacchus are perpetual twins. Thy woods are not the harbour of devouring beasts, nor thy continual verdure the ambush of serpents, but the food of innumerable herds and flocks presenting thee, their shepherdess, with distended dugs or golden fleeces.'