An arrow's flight they wanted to the top,
And there fecure, but spent with travel, ftop;
Then turn their now no more forbidden eyes;
Loft in a lake the floated level lies:
A watry defert covers all the plains,
Their cot alone, as in an isle, remains:
Wondring with peeping eyes, while they de-
plore
Their neighbours' fate, and country now no
Their little fhed, fcarce large enough for two, Seems, from the ground increas'd, in height and bulk to grow.
A stately temple fhoots within the skies :
The crotchets of their cot in columns rife: 160
The pavement polish'd marble they behold,
The gates with fculpture grac'd, the spires and
tiles of gold.
Then thus the fire of gods, with looks fe
Speak thy defire, thou only juft of men ;
And thou, O woman, only worthy found
To be with such a man in marriage bound.
A while they whisper; then, to Jove ad-
drefs'd,
Philemon thus prefers their joint request :
We crave to ferve before your facred shrine,
And offer at your altars rites divine:
And fince not any action of our life
Has been polluted with domeftic ftrife,
We beg one hour of death; that neither she
With widow's tears may live to bury me,
Nor weeping I, with wither'd arms, may bear
My breathlefs Baucis to the fepulchre.
The godheads fign their fuit. They run their
In the fame tenor all the appointed space; Then, when their hour was come, while they relate
These past adventures at the temple-gate,
Old Baucis is by old Philemon seen
Sprouting with fudden leaves of fprightly green:
Old Baucis look'd where old Philemon ftood,
And faw bis lengthen'd arms a sprouting wood:
New roots their faften'd feet begin to bind, 185
Their bodies stiffen in a rising rind ;
Then, ere the bark above their shoulders grew,
They give and take at once their last adieu ;
At once, Farewel, O faithful spouse, they faid;
At once the incroaching rinds their closing lips
invade.
Ev'n yet, an ancient Tyanæan fhows
A fpreading oak, that near a linden grows;
The neighbourhood confirm the prodigy,
Grave men, not vain of tongue, or like to lie.
I faw myself the garlands on their boughs, 195
And tablets hung for gifts of granted vows;
And offering fresher up, with pious prayer, The good, faid I, are God's peculiar care, And fuch as honour heaven, fhall heavenly honour share.
THE fame of this, perhaps, through Crete
But Crete had newer wonders of her own, In Iphis chang'd; for for near the Gnoffian bounds,
(As loud report the miracle refounds)
At Phæftus dwelt a man of honeft blood,
But meanly born, and not fo rich as good; Efteem'd and lov'd by all the neighbourhood:
Who to his wife, before the time affign'd
For child-birth came, thus bluntly spoke his
If heaven, faid Lygdus, will vouchfafe to hear, I have but two petitions to prefer;
Short pains for thee, for me a fon and heir.
Girls coft as many throes in bringing forth;
Befide, when born, the tits are little worth;
Weak puling things, unable to sustain
Their fhare of labour, and their bread to
If, therefore, thou a creature fhalt produce,
Of fo great charges, and fo little ufe,
(Bear witness, heaven, with what reluctancy)
Her hapless innocence I doom to die.
He faid, and tears the common grief display,
Of him who bade, and her who must obey.
Yet Telethufa ftill perfifts, to find
Fit arguments to move a father's mind;
To extend his wishes to a larger fcope,
And in one veffel not confine his hope.
Lygdus continues hard: her time drew near,
And the her heavy load could fcarcely bear;
When flumbring, in the latter fhades of
night,
Before the approaches of returning light,
She faw, or thought fhe faw, before her bed,
A glorious train, and Ifis at their head;
Her moony horns were on her forehead plac'd,
And yellow fheaves her fhining temples grac❜d:
A mitre, for a crown, the wore on high;
The dog, and dappled bull were waiting by;
Ofiris, fought along the banks of Nile;
The filent god; the facred Crocodile ;
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