Such were the godlike arts that led
Bright Pollux to the bleft abodes;
Such did for great Alcides plead,
And gain'd a place among the gods;
Where now Auguftus, mixt with heroes, lies,
And to his lips the nectar bowl applies:
His ruddy lips the purple tincture fhow,
And with immortan ftains divinely glow.

By arts like thele did young Lyæus rife:
His tigers drew him to the fkies;
Wild from the defert and unbroke,
In vain they foam'd, in vain they itar'd,
In vain their eyes with fury glar'd;

He tam'd them to the lath, and bent them to the ycke.

Such were the paths that Rome's great founder trod,

When in a whirlwind fnatch'd on high,
He thook off dull mortality,

And lutt the monarch in the god.
Bright Juno then her awful filence broke,
And thus th' afiembled deities beipoke.

Troy, lays the goddels, perjur'd Troy has felt
The dire effects of her proud tyrant's guilt;
The towering pile, and foft abodes,
Wall'd by the hand of fervite gods,
Now ipreads its ruins all around,
And lies inglorious on the ground.
An umpire partial and unjuft,
And a lewd woman's impious luft,

Lay heavy on her head, and funk her to the duft,
Since talfe Laomedon's tyrannic iway,
That durft detraud th' immortals of their pay,
Her guardian gods renounc'd their patronage,
Nor would the fierce invading foe repel;
1o my refentment, and Minerva's rage,
The guilty king and the whole people fell.
And now the long-protracted wars are o'er,
The foft adulterer thines no more;

No more does Hector's force the Trojans fhield, That drove whole armies back, and fingly clear'J the field.

My vengeance fared, I at length refign
To Mars his offspring of the Trojan line :
Advanc'd to godhead let him rile,
And take his ftation in the fkies;
There entertain his ravifl'd fight
With fcenes of glory, fields of light;
Quaff with the gods immortal wine,
And fee adoring nations croud his thrine.

The thin remains of Troy's afflicted host,
In diftant realms may feats unenvy'd find,
And flourish on a foreign coaft;

But for be Rome from Troy di join'd,
Remov'd by feas, from the dilaftrous share,

May end is billows rile between, and ftorms unnumber'd rear.

Still let the curft detefted place
Where Priam lies, and Priam's faithless race,
Be cover'd o'er with weeds, and hid in grals.
There let the wanton flocks unguarded stray;
Or, while the lonely fhepherd fings,
Amidft the mighty ruins play,
And frisk upon the tombs of kings.

May tigers there, and all the tavage kind,
Sad lolitary haunts and filent delerts find;
In gloomy vaults, and nooks of palaces,
May th unmolefted licnets

Her brinded whelps fecurely lay,

Or, coucht, in dreadful flumbers waft the day.
While Troy in heaps of ruins tics,
Rome and the Roman capitol all rife;
Th' illuftrius exiles uncin'd

Shall triumph far and dear, and rule mankind.

in vain the fea's intruding ude

Europe frop Atric fhall divide,
And part the fever'd world in two:

Through Afric's lands their triumphs they fhall ipread,

And the long train of victories purfue
To Nile's yet undiscover'd head.

Riches the hardy toldiers fhall defpite,
And look on gold with undefiring eyes,
Nor the difbowel'd earth explore

In fearch of the forbidden ore;

Thofe glittering ills, conceal'd within the mine,
Shall lie untouch'd, and innocently thine.
To the laft bounds that nature lets,
The piercing colds and fultry heats,
The godlike race fail spread their aims,
Now fill the polar circle with alarms;
Till forms and tempefts their pursuits confine;
Now fweat for conqueft underneath the line.
This only law the victor tha 1 reftrain,
On thefe conditions fhall he reign;
If none his guilty hand employ

To build again a fecond Troy,

If none the rafh defign puriue,

Nor tempt the vengeance of the gods anew.
A cure there cleaves to the devoted plice,
That shall the new foundations rafe ;
Greece hall in mutual leagues contrire
To ftorm the rifing town with fire,
And at their armies head myfelt will show
What Juno, urg'd to all her rage, can do.

Thrice thould Apollo's felt the city raife
And line it round with walls of brats,
Thrice thould my favourite Greeks his works con-
found,

And hew the thining fabric to the ground:
Thrice should her captive dames to Greece re-

To take he freshness of the morning-air,
And gather'd a knot her flowing hair;
While thus the reed, on her arm reclin'd,
The hoary willows Wing with the wind,
And feather'd choirs that warbled in the fhade,
And purling ftreams that through the meadow
ftray'd,

In drowly murmurs lull'd the gentle maid.
The God of War beheld the virgin lie,
The God beheld her with a lover's eye;
And, by fo tempting an occafion prefs'd,
The beauteous maid, whom he beheld, poffefs'd:
Conceiving as the flept, her fruitful womb
Swell'd with the Founder of immortal Rome,

HE fun's bright palace, on high columns rais'd,

THE

With burnish'd gold and flaming jewels blaz'd;
The folding gates diffus'd a filver light,

Aud with a milder gleam retrofh'd the fight;
Of polish'd ivery was the covering wrought:
The matter vied not with the fculptor's thought,
For in the portal was difplay'd on high
(The work of Vulcan) a fictitious fky;
A waving tea th' interior earth embrac'd,
And Gods and Goddeffes the waters grac'd.
Aceon here a mighty whale beftrode ;
Triton, and Proteus (the deceiving God,)
With Doris here were carv'd, and all her train,
Some lootely fwimming in the figur'd main,
While fome on rocks their drooping hair divide,
And tome on fithes through the waters glide:
Though various feature did the lifters grace,
A unter's Likencis was in every face.

On earth a different landfkip courts the eyer,
Men, towns, and beafts, in diftant prospects life,
And nymphs, and itreams, and woods, and rural

deities,

O'er all, the heaven's refulgent image fhines;
On either gate were fix engraven tigns.

Here Phaeton, ftill gaining on th' afcent,
To his tulpected father's palace went,
Till preffing forward through the bright abode,
He law at diftance the illuftrious God;
He law at diftance, or the dazzling light
Had flaf'd too ftrongly on his aching fight.

The God fit- high, exalted on a throne Of bluzing gems, with purple garments on; The hours in order rang'd on either hand, And days, and month, and years, and ages, fland. Here Ipring appears with flowery chaplets bound; Here fummer in her wheaten garland crown'd; Here autumn the rich trodden grapes beimear; Adhary winter fivers in the rear.

Phoebus beheld the youth trom off his throne That eye, which looks on all, was fix'd on one. He faw the boy's confufion in his face Surpilala at all the wonders of the_place;

Light of the world," the trembling youth replies, "Illuftrious parent! fince you don't defpife "The parent's name, fome certain token give, "That I may Clymene's proud boaft believe, "Nor longer under falfe reproaches grieve"

}

The tender Sire was touch'd with what he faid, And flung the blaze of glories from his head, And bid the youth advance: "My fon (laid he) "Come to thy father's arms! for Clymenè "Has told thee true; a parent's name I own, "And deem thee worthy to be call'd my fon. "As a fure proof, make fome request, and I, "Whate'er it be, with that request comply; "By Styx I wear, whofe waves are hid in night, "And roll impervious to my piercing fight."

The youth, tranfported, afks without delay,
To guide the Sun's bright chariot for a day.
The God repented of the oath he took,
For anguish thrice his radiant head be fhook:

My fon (lays he) tome other proof require; "Rafh was my promite, rath is thy detire. "I'd fain deny this with which thou haft made, "Or, what I can't deny, would fain diffuade. "Too valt and hazardous the task appears, "Nor fuited to thy tirength, nor to thy years. Thy lot is mortal, but thy wishes fly "Beyond the province of mortality: "There is not one of all the Gods that dares "(However skill'd in other great affairs) "To mount the burning axle-tree, but I; "Not Jove himself, the ruler of the iky,

66

That hurls the three-fork'd thunder irem above, "Dares try his ftrength; yet who to ftrong as Jove?

"The fleeds climb up the firft afcent with pain; "And when the middle firmament they gain, "If downwards from the heavens my head I bow, "And fee the earth and ocean hang below,

Ev'n I am ieiz'd with horior and affright, "And my own heart milgives me at the fight. "A mighty downfall fteeps the evening stage, "And teddy reins must curb the hories' rage. "Tethys herielf has fear'd to fee me driven "Down headlong from the precipice of heaven. "Befides, confider what impetuous force "Turns ftars and planets in a different courfe; "Ifteer against their motions; nor am I "Borue back by all the current of the sky. "But how could you refift the orbs that roll "In adverfe whirls, and stem the rapid pole?

But you perhaps may hope for pleafing woods, "And lately domes, and cities fill'd with Gods; "While through a thousand inares your pregrets lics, "Where forms of itarry monfters flock the skies: "For, fhould you hit the doubtful way aright, "The Bull with ftooping horns ttands opposite; "Next him the bright Hæmonian Bow is ftrung; "And next, the Lion's grinning vitage hung "The Scorpion's claws here cialp a wide extent, "And here the Crab's in leffer clafps are bent. "Nor would you find it ealy to compofe

"The mettled feeds, when from their noftrils

flows

The scorching fire, that in their entrails glows.

And now above, and now below they flew,
And near the earth the burning chariot drew.

The clouds difperfe in fumes, the wondering

moon

Beholds her brother's steeds beneath her own;
The highlands imcke, cleft by the piercing rays,
Or, clad with woods, in their own fuel blaze.
Next o'er the plains, where ripen'd harvests grow,
The running conflagration ipreads below.
But thefe are trivial ills: whole cities burn,
And peopled kingdoms into afhes turn.

The mountains kindle as the car draws near,
Athos and Tmolus red with fires appear;
Ocagrian Hamus (then a fingle name)
And virgin Helicon increate the flame;
Taurus and Orte glare amid the sky,
And Ida, ipite of all her fountains, dry.
Elyx, and Othrys, and Citheron, glow;
And Rnodepe, no longer cleath'd in inow;
High Pindus, Munas, and Parnaffus, fweat,
And Etna rages with redoubled heat.
Ev'n Scythia, through her hary regions warm'd,
In vain with all her native Froit was arm'd,
Cover'd with flames, the towering Appennine,
And Cascafus, and proud Olympus, shine;
And, where the long-extended Alps alpire,
Now ftands a huge continued range of fire.
Th' aftonifh'd youth, where-c'er his

turn,

eyes

could

Beheld the univerfe around him burn:
The world was in a blaze; nor could he bear
The fultry yapours and the fcorching air,
Which from below, as trom a furnace, flow'd;
And now the axle-tree beneath him glow'd:
Loft in the whirling clouds, that round him broke,
And white with afhes, hovering in the imoke,
He flew where-e'er the hories drove, nor knew
Whither the hortes drove, or where he flew.

'Twas then, they fay, the warthy Moor begun
To change his hue, and blacken in the fun.
Then Libya firit, of all her moisture drain'd,
Became a barren wafte, a wild of fand,
The water-nymphs lament their empty urns ;
kentin, robb'd of filver Dirce, mourne;
Corinth Pyrene's waited 'pring bewails;
And Argos grieves whilft Amymenè fails.

The foods are diain'd from every diftant coast: Ev'n 'Lanais, though fix'd in ice, was loft; Enrag'd Caicus and Lycormas pear, y

the thies,

And Xanthus, fated to be burnt once more.
The fan'd Meander, that unweary'd itrays
Through many windings, linekes in every maze,
From his lov'd Babylon Euphrates ilies;
The big-fwoln Ganges and the Danube rife
In thickening fumes, and darken half the
Ia fi mes Ilmenes and the Phalis toif'd,
And Tagus fating in his melted gold.
The Twins, that on Caylter often try'd
Their tuncful fongs, now fung their laft, and dy'd.
The frighted Nile ran off, and under ground
Conceal'd his head, nor can it yet be found :
His leven divided currents are all day,
And where they roile, oven gaping trenches lie.
No more the Rhine or hone their courfe main-
tain,

Nor Tiber, of his promis'd empire vain.

The ground, deep cleft, admits the dazzling ray, And fartles Pluto with the Hash of day. The feas fhrink in, and to the fight diclofe Wide naked plains, where once their billows rote; Their rocks are all difcover'd, and increafe The number of the fcatter'd Cyclades. The fish in holes about the bottom creep, Nor longer dares the crooked dolphin leap: Galping tor breath, th' unshapen Phocæ die, And on the boiling wave extended lie. Nereus, and Doris with her virgin train, Seek out the 1 ft receffes of the man; Beneath unfathomable depths they faint, And fecret in their gloomy caveins pant. Stern Neptune thrice above the waves upheld His face, and thrice was by the flames repell'd.

The earth at length, on every fide embrac'd With fcalding feas, that floated round her waft, When now the felt the iprings and rivers come, And crowd within the hollow of her womb, Up-lifted to the heavens her blafted head, And clapt her hands upon her brows, and faid; (But fit, impatient of the fultry heat, Sunk deeper down, and fought a cooler feat :) "If you, great King of God, my death approve, "And I deterve it, let me die by Jove;

"If I mult perifh by the force of fire,

"Let me tran fix'd with thunderbolts expire.

See, whilst I fpcak, my breath the vapours

choke,