Now haughty Remulus begun his reign, THE STORY OF VERTUMNUS AND POMONA. A HAMA-DRYAD flourish'd in these days, A pruning-hook she carry'd in her hand, She shows, bow stocks invite to their embrace Now hourly she observes her growing care, Long had she labour'd to continue free Oft would loose Pan, and all the lustful train Or if that vine without her elm should grow, "Be then, fair nymph, by these examples led; Nor shun, for fancy'd fears, the nuptial bed. Not she for whom the Lapithites took arms, Nor Sparta's queen could boast such heavenly charms. And if you would on woman's faith rely, THE STORY OF IPHIS AND ANAXARETE. "IPHIS, of vulgar birth, by chance had view'd Fair Anaxaretè of Teucer's blood. Not long had he beheld the royal dame, But Love, who flatters still his own disease, "Now shiv'ring at her gates the wretch appears, And myrtle garlands on the columns rears, Wet with a deluge of unbidden tears. The nymph more hard than rocks, more deaf than Derides his pray'rs; insults his agonies; [seas, Arraigns of insolence th' aspiring swain; And takes a cruel pleasure in his pain. Resolv'd at last to finish his despair, He thus upbraids th' inexorable fair. "O Anaxarete, at last forget The licence of a passiou indiscreet. Now triumph, since a welcome sacrifice Your slave prepares, to offer to your eyes. My life, without reluctance, I resign; That present best can please a pride like thine. But, O! forbear to blast a flame so bright, Doom'd never to expire, but with the light. And you, great pow'rs, do justice to my name; The hours, you take from life, restore to fame.' "Then o'er the posts, once hung with wreaths, he throws The ready cord, and fits the fatal noose; "Ere long the people gather, and the dead To view the passing pomp the cruel fair In the fam'd temple of the Cyprian queen. THE LATIAN LINE CONTINUED. Now Procas yielding to the fates, his son, A fort there was, not yet unknown to fame, The Naiads now more stratagems essay; THE ASSUMPTION OF ROMULUS. Now warrior Mars his burnish'd helm puts on, And thus addresses Heav'n's imperial throne. "Since the inferior world is now become One vassal globe, and colony to Rome, This grace, O Jove, for Romulus I claim, Admit him to the skies, from whence he came. Long hast thou promis'd an ethereal state To Mars's lineage; and thy word is fate." The sire that rules the thunder with a nod, Declar'd the fiat, and dismiss'd the god. Soon as the pow'r armipotent survey'd The flashing skies, the signal he obey'd; And leaning on his lance, he mounts his car, His fiery coursers lashing thro' the air. Mount Palatine he gains, and finds his son Good laws enacting on a peaceful throne; The scales of heav'nly justice holding high, With steady hand, and a discerning eye. Then vaults upon his car, and to the spheres, Swift, as a flying shaft, Rome's founder bears. The parts more pure, in rising are refin'd, The gross and perishable lag behind. His shrine in purple vestments stands in view; He looks a god, and is Quirinus now. THE ASSUMPTION OF HERSILIA. FRE long the goddess of the nuptial bed, With pity mov'd, sends Iris in her stead To sad Hersilia. Thus the meteor maid: "Chaste relict! in bright truth to Heav'n ally'd, The Sabines' glory, and thy sex's pride; Honour'd on Earth, and worthy of the love Of such a spouse as now resides above, Some respite to thy killing griefs afford; And if thou wouldst once more behold thy lord, Retire to yon steep mount, with groves o'erspread Which with an awful gloom his temple shade." With fear the modest matron lifts her eyes, And to the bright ambassadress replies: "O goddess, yet to mortal eyes unknown, But sure thy various charms confess thee one: . O quick to Romulus thy vot'ress bear, With looks of love he'll smile away my care: In whate'er orb he shines, my Heav'n is there." Then hastes with Iris to the holy grove, And up the mount Quirinal as they move, A lambent flame glides downward through the air, And brightens with a blaze Hersilia's hair. Together on the bounding ray they rise, And shoot a gleam of light along the skies. With op'ning arms Quirinus met his bride, Now Ora nam'd, and press'd her to his side! OVID'S METAMORPHOSES. BOOK XV. THE PYTHAGOREAN PHILOSOPHY. A KING is sought to guide the growing state, Then, leaving in the fields bis grazing cows, Twice warn'd, he study'd flight; but would convey, Not giv'n, but by thy labours made thy own, cence. Thus Alemonides his safety won, move, With strength of mind, and tread th' abyss above; And what he had observ'd, and learnt from thence, Lov'd in familiar language to dispense. "The crowd with silent admiration stand, And heard him, as they heard their god's command; While he discours'd of Heav'n's mysterious laws, The world's original, and nature's cause; And what was god; and why the fleecy snows In silence fell, and rattling winds arose: What shook the stedfast Earth, and whence begun The dance of planets round the radiant Sun; If thunder was the voice of angry Jove, Or clouds, with nitre pregnant, burst above; Of these, and things beyond the common reach, He spoke, and charm'd his audience with his speech. "He first the taste of flesh from tables drove, And argu'd well, if arguments could move: 'O mortals, from your fellows' blood abstain, Nor taint your bodies with a food profane: While corn and pulse by nature are bestow'd, And planted orchards bend their willing load; While labour'd gardens wholsome herbs produce, And teeming vines afford their gen❜rous juice; Nor tardier fruits of cruder kind are lost, But tam'd with fire, or mellow'd by the frost; While kine to pails distended udders bring, And bees their honey redolent of spring; While earth not only can your needs supply, But, lavish of her store, provides for luxury; A guiltless feast administers with ease, And without blood is prodigal to please. Wild beasts their maws with their slain brethren fill; And yet not all, for some refuse to kill; "O impious use! to nature's laws oppos'd, "Not so the golden age, who fed on fruit, Nor durst with bloody meals their mouths pollute. Then birds in airy space might safely move, And tim'rous hares on heaths securely rove: Nor needed fish the guileful hooks to fear, For all was peaceful; and that peace sincere. Whoever was the wretch, (and curs'd be he) That envy'd first our food's simplicity, Th' essay of bloody feasts on brutes began, And after forg'd the sword to murder man; Had he the sharpen'd steel alone employ'd On beasts of prey, that other beasts destroy'd, Or man invaded with their fangs and paws, This had been justify'd by nature's laws, And self-defence: but who did feasts begin Of flesh, he stretch'd necessity to sin. To kill man-killers man has lawful pow'r, "Ill habits gather by unseen degrees, 25 A patient, useful creature, born to bear [bring "Those I would teach; and by right reason To think of death, as but an idle thing. Why thus affrighted at an empty name, A dream of darkness, and fictitious flame? Vain themes of wit, which but in poems pass, And fables of a world that never was! What feels the body, when the soul expires, By time corrupted, or consum'd by fires? Nor dies the spirit, but new life repeats In other forms, and only changes seats. "Ev'n I, who these mysterious truths declare, Was once Euphorbus in the Trojan war; My name and lineage I remember well, And how in fight by Sparta's king I fell. In Argive Juno's fane I late beheld My buckler hung on high, and own'd my former shield. Then, death, so call'd, is but old matter The warm, and woolly fleece, that cloth'd her In some new figure, and a vary'd vest: murderer; And daily to give down the milk she bred, 6 Living, both food and raiment she supplies, And is of least advantage, when she dies. "How did the toiling ox his death deserve, A downright simple drudge, and born to serve? O tyrant! with what justice canst thou hope The promise of the year, a plenteous crop; When thou destroy'st thy lab'ring steer, who till'd, And plough'd with pains, thy else ungrateful field? From his yet reeking neck, to draw the yoke, That neck, with which the surly clods he broke; And to the hatchet yield thy husbandman, Who finish'd autumn, and the spring began! "Nor this alone! but Heav'n itself to bribe, We to the gods our impious acts ascribe: First recompense with death their creatures' toil; Then call the bless'd above to share the spoil: The fairest victim must the pow'rs appease, (So fatal 'tis sometimes too much to please!) A purple fillet his broad brows adorns, With flow'ry garlands crown'd, and gilded horns: He hears the murd'rous pray'r the priest prefers, But understands not 'tis his doom he hears: Beholds the meal betwixt his temples cast, (The fruit and products of his labours past;) And in the water views perhaps the knife, Uplifted to deprive him of his life; Then broken up alive, his entrails sees Torn out, for priests t' inspect the gods' decrees. "From whence, O mortal men, this gust of blood Have you deriv'd, and interdicted food? "Now since the god inspires me to proceed, Be that, whate'er inspiring pow'r, obey'd. For I will sing of mighty mysteries, Of truths conceal'd, before, from human eyes, [dress'd Thus all things are but alter'd, nothing dies; And here, and there th' unbody'd spirit flies, By time, or force, or sickness dispossest, And lodges, where it lights, in man or beast; Or hunts without, till ready limbs it find, And actuates those according to their kind; From tenement to tenement is toss'd, The soul is still the same, the figure only lost: And, as the soften'd wax new seals receives, This face assumes, and that impression leaves; Now call'd by one, now by another name; The form is only chang'd, the wax is still the same: So death, so call'd, can but the form deface; Th' immortal soul flies out in empty space, To seek her fortune in some other place. Then let not piety be put to flight, To please the taste of glutton appetite; But suffer inmate souls secure to dwell, Lest from their seats your parent you expel; With rabid hunger feed upon your kind, Or from a beast dislodge a brother's mind. "And since, like Typhis parting from the shore, In ample seas I sail, and depths untry'd before, This let me further add. That nature knows No stedfast station, but, or ebbs, or flows: Ever in motion; she destroys her old, And casts new figures in another mold. Ev'n times are in perpetual flux, and run, Like rivers from their fountain, rolling on: For time, no more than streams, is at a stay; The flying hour is ever on her way: And as the fountain still supplies her store, The wave behind impels the wave before; Thus in successive course the minutes run, And urge their predecessor minutes on, Still moving, ever new: for former things Are set aside, like abdicated kings: And every moment alters what is done, And innovates some act, till then unknown. "Darkness we see emerges into light, And shining suns descend to sable night; Ev'n Heav'n itself receives another dye, When weary'd animals in slumbers lie Of midnight case: another, when the gray Of morn preludes the splendour of the day. The disk of Phoebus, when he climbs on high, Appears at first but as a bloodshot eye: And when his chariot downward drives to bed, His ball is with the same suffusion red; But mounted high in his meridian race All bright he shines, and with a better face: For there pure particles of ether flow, "Nor equal light th' unequal Moon adorns, Or in her waxing, or her waning horns; For ev'ry day she wanes, her face is less; But gath'ring into globe, she fattens at increase. "Perceiv'st thou not the process of the year, How the four seasons in four forms appear, · Resembling human life in ev'ry shape they wear? Spring first, like infancy, shoots out her head, With milky juice requiring to be fed: Helpless, though fresh, and wanting to be led. The green stem grows in stature, and in size, But only feeds with hope the farmer's eyes; Then laughs the childish year with flow'rets crown'd, And lavishly perfumes the fields around. "Proceeding onward when the year began, "Autumn succeeds, a sober tepid age, Not froze with fear, nor boiling into rage; More than mature, and tending to decay, [gray. When our brown locks repine to mix with odious "Last, Winter creeps along with tardy pace, Sour is his front, and furrow'd is his face; His scalp if not dishonour'd quite of hair, [bare. The ragged fleece is thin; and thin is worse than "Ev❜n our own bodies daily change receive, Some part of what was theirs before, they leave; Nor are to day, what yesterday they were; Nor the whole same to morrow will appear. "Time was, when we were sow'd, and just began, [man: From some few fruitful drops, the promise of a Then nature's hand (fermented as it was) Moulded to shape the soft, coagulated mass; And when the little man was fully form'd, The breathless embrio with a spirit warm'd; But when the mother's throes begin to come, The creature, pent within the narrow room, Breaks his blind prison, pushing to repair His stifled breath, and draw the living air; Cast on the margin of the world he lies, A helpless babe, but by instinct he cries. He next essays to walk, but downward press'd On four feet imitates his brother beast: By slow degrees he gathers from the ground His legs, and to the rolling chair is bound: Then walks alone; a horseman now become, Ile rides a stick, and travels round the room. In time he vaunts among his youthful peers, Strong-bon'd, and strung with nerves, in pride of He runs with mettle his first merry stage, [years. Maintains the next, abated of his rage, But manages his strength, and spares his age. Heavy the third, and stiff, he sinks apace, [race. And though 'tis down-hill all, but creeps along the Now sapless on the verge of death he stands, Contemplating his former feet and hands; And, Milo-like, his slacken'd sinews sees, And wither'd arms, once fit to cope with Hercules, Unable now to shake, much less to tear, the trees. "So Helen wept, when her too faithful glass Reflected on her eyes the ruins of her face: Wond'ring, what charms her ravishers could spy, To force her twice, or ev'n but once t' enjoy! "Thy teeth, devouring time, thiue, envious age, On things below still exercise your rage: With venom'd grinders you corrupt your meat, And then, at ling'ring meals, the morsels eat. "Nor those, which elements we call, abide, Nor to this figure, nor to that are ty'd; For this eternal world is said, of old, But four prolific principles to hold, Four different bodies; two to Heav'n ascend, And other two down to the centre tend: Fire first with wings expanded mounts on high, Pure, void of weight, and dwells in upper sky; Then air, because unclogg'd in empty space, Flies after fire, and claims the second place: But weighty water, as her nature guides, [sides. Lies on the lap of earth; and mother earth sub"All things are mix'd of these, which all conAnd into these are all resolv'd again: Earth rarefies to dew; expanded more, The subtil dew in air begins to soar; Spreads, as she flies, and weary of her name Extenuates still, and changes into flame; Thus having by degrees perfection won, Restless they soon untwist the web they spun, And fire begins to lose her radiant hue, Mix'd with gross air, and air descends to dew; And dew condensing, does her form forego, And sinks, a heavy lump of earth below. [tain, "Thus are their figures never at a stand, But chang'd by nature's innovating hand; All things are alter'd, nothing is destroy'd, The shifted scene for some new show employ'd, [can "Then, to be born, is to begin to be Some other thing we were not formerly: And what we call to die, is not t' appear, Or be the thing, that formerly we were. Those very elements, which we partake Alive, when dead some other bodies make: Translated grow, have sense, or can discourse; But death on deathless substance has no force. "That forms are chang'd, I grant; that nothing, Continue in the figure it began: The golden age to silver was debas'd: To copper that; our metal came at last. "The face of places, and their forms, decay; And that is solid earth, that once was sea: Seas in their turn retreating from the shore, Make solid land, what ocean was before; And far from strands are shells of fishes found, And rusty anchors fix'd on mountain ground: And what were fields before, now wash'd and worn By falling floods from high, to valleys turn, And crumbling still descend to level lands; And lakes, and trembling bogs, are barren sands. And the parch'd desert floats in streams unknown; Wond'ring to drink of waters not her own. "Here nature living fountains opes: and there Seals up the wombs, where living fountains were: Or earthquakes stop their ancient course, and Diverted streams to feed a distant spring. [bring So Lycus, swallow'd up, is seen no more, But far from thence knocks out another door. Thus Erasinus dives; and blind in earth Runs on, and gropes his way to second birth, Starts up in Argos' meads, and shakes his locks Around the fields, and fattens all the flocks. So Mysus by another way is led, And, grown a river, now disdainshis head: Forgets his humble birth, his name forsakes And the proud title of Caïcus takes. |