תמונות בעמוד
PDF
ePub
[ocr errors]

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

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.

*Fruitfulness.

+ Plenty.

This whole defcription of the rock and grotto is taken from Diod. Siculus,

lib. iii. p. 202.

2 I 2

Soon

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

olive.

• From

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

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.

Dwells

« הקודםהמשך »