Whate'er events have been thy eyes furvey,
And thou art fix'd while ages roll away.
Thou faw'ft when raging ocean burft his bed,
O'er-top'd the mountains, and the earth o'er-
spread;

When the rafh youth inflam'd the high abodes,
Scorch'd up the skies, and fear'd the deathless
Gods.

When nature ceafes, thou fhalt ftill remain, Nor fecond Chaos bound thy endless reign; Fate's tyrant laws thy happier lot fhall brave, Baffle deftruction, and elude the grave.

The circle of rays that you fee round the head of the Phanix diftinguish him to be the bird and offspring of the Sun.

Solis avi fpecimen

Una eft que reparet feque ipfa refeminet ales ;
Affyrii Phonica vocant: non fruge neque herbis,
Sed Thuris lacrymis et fucco vivit amomi.
Hac ubi quinque fua complevit fecula vitæ,
Ilicis inramis, tremula ve cacumine palme,
Unguibus et duro fibi nidum conftruit ore:
Quo fimul ac cafias, ac nardi lenis ariftas
Quaffaque cum fulvâ fubftravit cinnama myrrhâ,.
Se fuper imponit, finitque in odoribus ævum.
Inde ferunt totidem qui vivere debeat annos
Corpore de patrio parvum phanica renafci.
Cum dedit huic atas vires, onerique ferendo eft,
Ponderibus nidi ramos levat arboris alta,
Fertque pius cunafque fuas, patriumque fepulcrum,
Perque leves auras Hyperionis urbe potitus

Ante fores facras Hyperionis ade reponit.

-Titanius ales.

Ov. Met. Lib. 15. Claud. de Phoenice. -From

-From himself the Phenix only fprings : Self-born, begotten by the parent Flame, In which he burn'd, another and the fame. Who not by corn or herbs his life fuftains, But the fweet eflence of Amomum drains: And watches the rich gums Arabia bears, While yet in tender dew they drop their tears. He (his five centuries of life fulfill'd) His neft on oaken boughs begins to build, Or trembling tops of Palm, and first he draws The plan with his broad bill and crooked claws, Nature's artificers; on this the pile

Is formed, and rifes round; then with the spoil Of Caffia, Cynamon, and stems of Nard, (For foftnefs ftrew'd beneath) his fun'ral bed is rear'd:

Fun'ral and bridal both; and all around

The borders with corruptlefs Myrrh are crown'd,
On this incumbent; 'till æthereal flame,
First catches, then confumes, the coftly frame;
Confumes him too, as on the pile he lies;
He liv'd on odours, and on odours dies.
An Infant-Phoenix. from the former springs,
His father's heir, and from his tender wings
Shakes off his parent duft, his method he pursues,
And the fame leafe of life on the fame terms.

renews.

When grown to manhood he begins his reign,
And with stiff pinions can his flight sustain,
He lightens of its load the tree that bore
His father's royal fepulchre before,
And his own cradle: This (with pious care,
Plac'd on his back) he cuts the buxom air,
Seeks the Sun's city, and his facred church,
And decently lays down his burden in the porch..
Mr. Dryden.

Sic ubi fæcundâ reparavit morte juventam,
Et patrios idem cineres, collectaque portat
Unguibus offa piis, Nilique ad littora tendens
Unicus extremo Phoenix procedit ab Euro :
Conveniunt Aquila, cunctaque ex orbe volucres
Ut Solis mirentur avem

Claud. de laud. Stil. L. 2.

So when his parent's pile hath ceas'd to burn,
Tow'rs the young Phanix from the teeming urn:
And from the purple eaft, with pious toil
Bears the dear relics to the diftant Nile ;
Himfelf a fpecies! Then, the bird of Jove,
And all his plumy nation quit the grové;
The gay harmonious train delighted gaze,
Crowd the proceffion, and refound his praise.

The radiated head of the Phoenix gives us the meaning of a paffage in Aufonius, which I was formerly furprifed to meet with in the defcription of a Bird. But at prefent I am very well fatisfied the Poet muft have had his eye on the figure of this Bird in ancient fculpture and painting, as indeed it was impoffible o take it from the life.

Ter nova Neftoreos implevit purpura fufos,

Et toties terno cornix vivacior ævo,
Quam novies terni glomerantem fecula tractus
Vincunt eripides ter terno Neflore cervi,
Tres quorum ætates fuperat Phæbeius efcen.
Quem novies fenior Gangeticus anteit ales,
Ales cinnameo radiatus tempora nido.

Aufon. Eidyll. 11.

Arcanum

Arcanum radiant oculi jubar, igneus ora
Cingit honos, rutilo cognatum vertice fidus
Attollit criftatus apex, tenebrafque fer end
Luce fecat-

Claud. de Phon.

His fiery eyes fhoot forth a glitt'ring ray,
And round his head ten thoufand glories play:
High on his creft, a Star celeftial bright
Divides the darkness with its piercing light.

-Procul ignea lucet

Ales, adorati redolent cui cinnama bufti.

Claud. de laud. Stil. L.2..

If you have a mind to compare this fcale of Beings with that of Heftod, I fhall give it you in a tranflation of that Poet..

Ter binos deciefque novem fuper exit in annos
Jufta fenefcentum quos implet vita virorum.
Hos novies fuperat vivendo garrula Cornix:
Et quater egreditur cornicis fæcula cervus.
Alipidem cervum ter vincit Corvus: at illum
Multiplicat novies Phænix, reparabilis ales.
Quam vos perpetuo decies prævertitis avo
Nymphe Hamadryades: quarum longiffima vita eft:
Hi cohibent fines vivacia fata animantum.

Aufon. Eidyll. 18.
The utmost age to man the Gods affign
Are winters three times two, and ten times nine::
Poor man nine times the prating Daws exceed :
Three times the Daw's the Deer's more lafting
breed :

The Deer's full thrice the Raven's race outrun: Nine times the Raven Titan's feather'd fon:

Beyond his age, with youth and beauty crown'd,
The Hymadryads fhine ten ages round:
Their breath the longest is the Fates bestow:
And fuch the bounds to mortal lives below.

A man had need be a good Arithmetician, fays Cynthio, to understand this Author's works. His defcription runs on like a Multiplication Table. But methinks the Poets ought to have agreed a little better in the calculations of a Bird's life that was probably of their own creation. We generally find a great confufion in the traditions of the ancients, fays FIG. 14. Philander. It seems to me, from the next Medal, it was an opinion among them, that the Phoenix renew'd herself at the beginning of the great year, and the return of the Golden Age. This opinion I find touched upon in a couple of lines in Claudian.

Quicquid ab externis ales longæva colonis.
Colligit, optati referens exordia fæcli.

Claud, de rapt. Prof. Lib. 2.

The perfon in the midst of the circle is fupposed to be Jupiter, by the Author that has published this Medal, but I fhould rather take it for the figure of Time. I remember I have feen at Rome an antique Statue of Time, with a wheel or hoop of marble in his hand, as Seneca defcribes him, and not with a ferpent as he is generally reprefented.

-properat