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Minerva Britanna

Or A Garden of Heroical Deuises, furnished, and adorned with Emblemes and Impresa's of sundry natures, Newly devised, moralized, and published, By Henry Peacham

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49

Virtutem aut vitium sequi Genus.

A Familie in Libia's said to be,
For prowesse, farre renown'd aboue the rest:
With whome no wholesome diet can agree,
But easilie, all poison they digest:
The Aspe, the Adder, and the vipers broode,
Are said to yeeld their ordinarie foode.
To these infected races, I resemble,
Of Traitors vile, as Gourie and the rest,
To tell whose legend, each good heart may tremble,
While Psilli-like, they suck from Mothers brest,
The poison of the sires infected mind,
Transmissing it, to theirs that come behind.