Farewel! To thee, perfidious god, I come, Bent down with pain and anguifh on thy fands,
I come thy fuppliant; death is all I crave:'
Bid thy devouring waves inwrap my head,
And to the bottom whelm my cares and shame!' She ceas'd, when fudden from th' inclofing deep A chrystal car emerg'd, with glitt'ring fhells, Cull'd from their oozy beds by Tethy's train, And blushing coral deck'd, whofe ruddy glow Mix'd with the wat'ry luftre of the pearl, A fmiling band of fea-born nymphs attend, Who from the shore with gentle hands convey The fear-fubdu'd Phoenice, and along
The lucid chariot place. As there with dread All mute, and struggling with her painful throes, She lay, the winds, by Neptune's high command, Were filent round her; not a zephyr dar'd To wanton o'er the cedar's branching top, Nor on the plain the ftately palm was feen To wave it's graceful verdure; o'er the main No undulation broke the smooth expanfe, But all was hush'd and motionless around, All but the lightly-fliding car, impell'd Along the level azure by the ftrength Of active Tritons, rivalling in speed
The rapid meteor, whose fulphureous train Glides o'er the brow of darkness, and appears The livid ruins of a falling ftar.
Beneath the Lybian fkies, a blissful ifle, By Triton's floods encircled, Nyfa lay. Here youthful Nature wanton'd in delights, And here the guardians of the bounteous horn, While it was now the infancy of time,
Nor yet th' uncultivated globe had learn'd
*Triton, a river and lake of ancient Lybia.
To fmile, Eucarpé*, Dapfiléa † dweit,
With all the nymphs, whofe fecret care had nurs'd The eldest Bacchus. From the flow'ry shore A turf-clad valley opens, and along
It's verdure mild the willing feet allures; While on it's floping fides afcends the pride Of hoary groves, high-arching o'er the vale With day-rejecting gloom. The folemn fhade Half round a fpacious lawn at length expands, Clos'd by a tow'ring clifft, whose forehead glows With azure, purple, and ten thousand dyes, From it's refplendent fragments beaming round Nor lefs irradiate colours from beneath, On ev'ry fide an ample grot reflects, As down the perforated rock the fun Pours his meridian blaze! Rever'd abode Of Nyfa's nymphs, with ev'ry plant attir'd, That wears undying green, refresh'd with rills From ever-living fountains, and enrich'd With all Pomona's bloom: unfading flow'rs Glow on the mead, and spicy fhrubs perfume With inexhausted fweets the cooling gale, Which breathes inceffant there; while ev'ry bird Of tuneful note his gay or plaintive fong Blends with the warble of meandring ftreams, Which o'er their pebbled channels murm'ring lave -The fruit-invefted hills that rife around.
The gentle Nereids to this calm recefs
Phonice bear; nor Dapfiléa bland,
Nor good Eucarpé, ftudious to obey
Great Neptune's will, their hofpitable care Refuse; nor long Lucina is invok'd.
This whole defcription of the rock and grotto is taken from Diod. Siculus,
Soon as the wond'rous infant fprung to-day,
Earth rock'd around; with all their nodding woods, And streams reverting to their troubled fource, The mountain fhook, while Lybia's neighb'ring god, Myfterious Ammon, from his hollow cell,
With deep-refounding accent thus to heaven, To earth, and fea, the mighty birth proclaim'd.
A new-born power behold! whom Fate hath call'd The God's imperfect labour to compleat This wide creation. She in lonely fands Shall bid the tow'r-encircled city rife, The barren fea fhall people, and the wilds • Of dreary nature fhall with plenty clothe ; She fhall enlighten man's unletter'd race, And with endearing intercourfe unite • Remotest nations, feorch'd by fultry funs, Or freezing near the fnow-encrufted pole; • Where'er the joyous vine difdains to grow, The fruitful olive, or the golden ear; Her hand divine, with interpofing aid To ev'ry climate fhall the gifts fupply
Of Ceres, Bacchus, and the Athenian maid * The graces, joys, emoluments of life,
From her exhaustless bounty all shall flow.'
The heavenly prophet ceas'd. Olympus heard. Straight from their tar-befpangled thrones defcend On blooming Nyfa a celeftial band,
The ocean's lord to honour in his child;
When o'er his offspring fmiling, thus began
The trident ruler. < Commerce be thy name';
To thee I give the empire of the main,
• From where the morning breathes it's eastern gale,
• To th' undiscover'd limits of the weft;
Minerva, the tutelary goddess of the Athenians, to whom he gave the
From chilling Boreas to extremeft south, Thy fire's obfequious billows fhall extend • Thy universal reign.' Minerva next With wisdom blefs'd her, Mercury with art, The Lemnian god* with industry; and laft Majestick Phoebus, o'er the infant long In contemplation paufing, thus declar'd From his enraptur'd lip his matchlefs boon. Thee with divine invention I endow, That fecret wonder, goddefs, to difclofe; By which, the wife, the virtuous, and the brave, The heaven-taught poet and exploring fage, Shall pafs recorded to the verge of time.' Her years of childhood now were number'd o'er, When to her mother's natal foil repair'd
The new divinity, whofe parting step Her facred nurfes follow'd, ever now To her alone infeparably join'd;
Then first deserting their Nyfeian fhore
To spread their hoarded bleffings round the world; Who with them bore the inexhaufted horn Of ever-fmiling Plenty. Thus adorn'd, Attended thus, great Goddefs, thou began'st Thy all-enlivening progrefs o'er the globe, Then rude and joyless, deftin'd to repair The various ills which earliest ages ru'd From one, like thee, diftinguish'd by the gifts Of Heaven, Pandora, whofe pernicious hand, From the dire vase releafs'd th' imprifon'd woes. Thou, gracious Commerce, from his chearless caves, In horrid rocks and folitary woods,
The helpless wand'rer man, forlorn and wild, Didft charm to fweet fociety; didft caft The deep foundations, where the future pride
*Vulcan, the tutelary deity of Lemnos.
Of mightiest cities rofe, and o'er the main Before the wond'ring Nereids didst present The furge-dividing keel, and stately maft, Whofe canvas wings, diftending with the gale, The bold Phoenician through Alcides' ftraits, To northern Albion's tin-embowell'd fields, And oft beneath the fea-obscuring brow Of cloud-envelop'd Teneriffe convey'd. Next in fagacious thought th' etherial plains Thou trod❜ft, exploring each propitious star, The danger-braving mariner to guide; Then all the latent and myfterious pow'rs Of number didft unravel: laft, to crown Thy bounties, goddefs, thy unrival'd toils For man, ftill urging thy inventive mind, Thou gav'ft him letters; there imparting all Which lifts the ennobled fpirit near to heaven, Laws, learning, wifdom, Nature's works reveal'd By godlike fages, all Minerva's arts, Apollo's mufick, and th' eternal voice
Of Virtue founding from the historick roll, The philofophick page, and poet's fong.
Now Solitude and Silence from the shores Retreat, on pathless mountains to refide; Barbarity is polifh'd, infant arts Bloom in the defart, and benignant peace, With hofpitality, begin to foothe Unfocial Rapine, and the thirst of blood; As from his tumid urn when Nilus fpreads His genial tides abroad, the favour'd foil That joins his fruitful border, first imbibes 'The kindly ftream: anon the bounteous god His waves extends, embracing Egypt round,
Here the opinion of Sir Ifaac Newton is followed, that letters were first in
vented amongst the trading parts of the world.
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