Not those of common kinds; but such alone,
As in Phæacian orchards might have grown:
Nor chestnuts shall be wanting to your food,
Nor garden-fruits, nor wildings of the wood;
The laden boughs for you alone shall bear ;
And yours shall be the product of the year.

"The flocks, you see, are all my own; beside
The rest that woods and winding valleys hide,
And those that folded in the caves abide.
Ask not the numbers of my growing store;
Who knows how many, knows he has no more.
Nor will I praise my cattle; trust not me,
But judge yourself, and pass your own decree:
Behold their swelling dugs; the sweepy weight
Of ewes, that sink beneath the milky freight :
In the warm folds their tender lambkins lie,
Apart from kids, that call with human cry.
New milk in nut-brown bowls is duly serv'd
For daily drink; the rest for cheese reserv'd.
Nor are these household dainties all my store:
The fields and forests will afford us more;
The deer, the hare, the goat, the savage boar.
All sorts of venison; and of birds the best;
A pair of turtles taken from the nest :

I walk'd the mountains, and two cubs I found,
Whose dam had left them on the naked ground;
So like, that no distinction could be seen;
So pretty, they were presents for a queen;
And so they shall; 1 took them both away;
And keep, to be companions of your play.
"O raise, fair nymph, your beauteous face
above

The waves; nor scorn my presents, and my love.
Come, Galatea, come, and view my face;
I late beheld it in the watery glass,
And found it lovelier than I fear'd it was.
Survey my towering stature, and my size:
Not Jove, the Jove you dream, that rules the skies,
Bears such a bulk, or is so largely spread :
My locks (the plenteous harvest of my head)
Hang o'er my manly face; and dangling down,
As with a shady grove, my shoulders crown.
Nor think, because my limbs and body bear
A thick-set underwood of bristling hair,
My shape deform'd: what fouler sight can be,
Than the bald branches of a leafless tree?
Foul is the steed without a flowing mane;
And birds, without their feathers and their train.
Wool decks the sheep; and man receives a grace
From bushy limbs, and from a bearded face.
My forehead with a single eye is fill'd,
Round as a ball, and ample as a shield.
The glorious lamp of Heaven, the radiant Sun,
Is Nature's eye; and she's content with one.
Add, that my father sways your seas, and I,
Like you, am of the watery family.
I make you his, in making you my own:
You I adore, and kneel to you alone:
Jove, with his faded thunder, I despise,
And only fear the lightning of your eyes.
Frown not, fair nymph; yet I could bear to be
Disdain'd, if others were disdain'd with me.
But to repulse the Cyclops, and prefer
The love of Acis, Heavens! I cannot bear.
But let the stripling please himself; nay more,
Please you, though that's the thing I most abhor;
The boy shall find, if e'er we cope in fight,
These giant limbs endu'd with giant might:
His living bowels from his belly torn,

And scatter'd limbs, shall on the flood be borne,

Thy flood, ungrateful nymph; and Fate shall find
That way for thee and Acis to be join'd.
For oh! I burn with love, and thy disdain
Augments at once my passion and my pain.
Translated Etna flames within my heart,
And thou, inhuman, wilt not ease my smart."

Lamenting thus in vain, he rose, and strode
With furious paces to the neighbouring wood:
Restless his feet, distracted was his walk;
Mad were his motions, and confus'd his talk:
Mad as the vanquish'd bull, when forc'd to yield
His lovely mistress, and forsake the field.

Thus far unseen I saw: when, fatal Chance His looks directing, with a sudden glance, Acis and I were to his sight betray'd: Where, nought suspecting, we securely play'd. From his wide mouth a bellowing cry he cast; "I see, I see, but this shall be your last." A roar so loud made Etna to rebound; And all the Cyclops labour'd in the sound. Affrighted with his monstrous voice, I fled, And in the neighbouring ocean plung'd my head. Poor Acis turn'd his back, and, "Help," he cry'd, "Help, Galatea, help, my parent gods, And take me dying to your deep abodes." The Cyclops follow'd; but he sent before A rib, which from the living rock he tore : Though but an angle reach'd him of the stone, The mighty fragment was enough alone To crush all Acis; 'twas too late to save, But what the Fates allow'd to give, I gave: That Acis to his lineage should return, And roll, among the river gods, his urn. Straight issued from the stone a stream of blood; Which lost the purple, mingling with the flood. Then like a troubled torrent it appear'd: The torrent too, in little space, was clear'd. The stone was cleft, and through the yawning chink New reeds arose, on the new river's brink. The rock, from out its hollow womb, disclos'd A sound like water in its course oppos'd: When (wondrous to behold) full in the flood, Up starts a youth, and navel-high he stood. Horns from his temples rise; and either horn Thick wreaths of reeds (his native growth) adorn. Were not his stature taller than before, His bulk augmented, and his beauty more, His colour blue, for Acis he might pass: And Acis chang'd into a stream he was. But, mine no more, he rolls along the plains With rapid motion, and his name retains.

OF THE

PYTHAGOREAN PHILOSOPHY.

FROM THE FIFTEENTH BOOK OF

OVID'S METAMORPHOSES

The fourteenth book concludes with the death and deification of Romulus: the fifteenth begins with the election of Numa to the crown of Rome. On this occasion, Ovid, following the opinion of some authors, makes Numa the scholar of Pythagoras; and to have begun his acquaintance with that philosopher at Crotona, a town in Italy; from thence he makes a digression to the

A KING is sought, to guide the glowing state,
One able to support the public weight,
And fill the throne where Romulus had sate.
Renown, which oft bespeaks the public voice,
Had recommended Numa to their choice:
A peaceful, pious prince; who, not content
To know the Sabine rites, his study bent
To cultivate his mind: to learn the laws
Of Nature, and explore their hidden cause:
Urg'd by this care, his country he forsook,
And to Crotona thence his journey took.
Arriv'd, he first inquir'd the founder's name
Of this new colony: and whence he came.
Then thus a senior of the place replies,
(Well read, and curious of antiquities)
"Tis said, Alcides hither took his way

From Spain, and drove along his conquer'd prey;
Then, leaving in the fields his grazing cows,
He sought himself some hospitable house:
Good Croton entertain'd his godlike guest,
While he repair'd his weary limbs with rest.
The hero, thence departing, bless'd the place;
"And here,' he said, 'in Time's revolving race,
A rising town shall take its name from thee;'
Revolving Time fulfill'd the prophecy:
For Myscelos, the justest man on Earth,
Alemon's son, at Argos had his birth:

Him Hercules, arm'd with his club of oak,
O'ershadow'd in a dream, and thus bespoke;

Go, leave thy native soil, and make abode
Where Æsaris rolls down his rapid flood ;'
He said; and sleep forsook him, and the god.
Trembling he wak'd, and rose with anxious heart;
His country laws forbad him to depart :
What should he do? 'Twas death to go away;
And the god menac'd if he dar'd to stay:
All day he doubted; and when night came on,
Sleep, and the same forewarning dream, begun :
Once more the god stood threatening o'er his
head;

1

With added curses if he disobey'd.

Twice warn'd, he study'd flight; but would convey,
At once, his person and his wealth away:
Thus while he linger'd, his design was heard;
A speedy process form'd, and death declar'd.
Witness there needed none of his offence,
Against himself the wretch was evidence:
Condemn'd, and destitute of human aid,
To him, for whom he suffered, thus he pray'd:
'O power, who hast deserv'd in Heaven a throne
Not given, but by thy labours made thy own,
Pity thy suppliant, and protect his cause,
Whom thou hast made obnoxious to the laws.'
"A custom was of old, and still remains,
Which life or death by suffrages ordains;
White stones and black within an urn are cast,
The first absolve, but fate is in the last:
The judges to the common urn bequeath
Their votes, and drop the sable signs of death;
The box receives all black; but, pour'd from thence,
The stones came candid forth, the hue of inno-
Thus Alimonides his safety won,
[cence.
Preserv'd from death by Alcumena's son:
Then to his kinsman god his vows he pays,
And cuts with prosperous gales th' Ionian seas:

And Thurine bays, and Temises, behind;
Soft Sibaris, and all the capes that stand
Along the shore, he makes in sight of land;
Still doubling, and still coasting, till he found
The mouth of saris, and promis'd ground:
Then saw where, on the margin of the flood,
The tomb that held the bones of Croton stood:
Here, by the god's command, he built and wall'd
The place predicted; and Crotona call'd:
Thus Fame, from time to time, delivers down
The sure tradition of th' Italian town."

Here dwelt the man divine whom Samos bore,
But now self-banish'd from his native shore,
Because he hated tyrants, nor could bear
The chains which none but servile souls will wear:
He, though from Heaven remote, to Heaven could

mand;

While he discours'd of Heaven's mysterious laws,
The World's original, and Nature's cause;
And what was God, and why the fleecy snows
In silence fell, and rattling winds arose;

What shook the stedfast Earth, and whence begun
The dance of planets round the radiant Sun;
If thunder was the voice of angry Jove,

Or clouds, with nitre pregnant, burst above:
Of these, and things beyond the common reach,
He spoke, and charm'd his audience with his
speech.

He first the taste of flesh from tables drove,
And argued well, if arguments could move.
"O mortals! from your fellows blood abstain,
Nor taint your bodies with a food profane :
While corn and pulse by Nature are bestow'd,
And planted orchards bend their willing load;
While labour'd gardens wholesome herbs produce,
And teeming vines afford their generous juice;
Nor tardier fruits of cruder kind are lost,
But tam'd with fire, or mellow'd by the frost;
While kine to pails distended udders bring,
And bees their honey redolent of spring;
While Earth not only can your needs supply,
But, lavish of her store, provides for luxury;
A guiltless feast administers with ease,
And without blood is prodigal to please..

Wild beasts their maws with their slain brethren fill,

And yet not all, for some refuse to kill:
Sheep, goats, and oxen, and the nobler steed,
On browz, and corn, the flowery meadows feed.
Bears, tigers, wolves, the lion's angry brood,
Whom Heaven endued with principles of blood,
He wisely sunder'd from the rest, to yell
In forests, and in lonely caves to dwell,
Where stronger beasts oppress the weak by might,
And all in prey and purple feasts delight.

"O impious use! to Nature's laws oppos'd, Where bowels are in other bowels clos'd: Where, fatten'd by their fellows' fat, they thrive; Maintain❜d by murder, and by death they live. 'Tis then for nought that mother Earth provides The stores of all she shows, and all she hides,

And as the fountain still supplies her store,
The wave behind impels the wave before;
Thus in successive course the minutes run,
And urge their predecessor minutes on,
Still moving, ever new: for former things
Are set aside, like abdicated kings:
And every moment alters what is done,
And innovates some act till then unknown.
Darkness we see emerges into light,

And shining suns descend to sable night;
Ev'n Heaven itself receives another die,
When weary'd animals in slumbers lie
Of midnight ease; another, when the gray
Of morn preludes the splendour of the day.
The disk of Phoebus, when he climbs on high,
Appears at first but as a bloodshot eye;
And when his chariot downward drives to bed,
His ball is with the same suffusion red;
But mounted high in his meridian race
All bright he shines, and with a better face:
For there, pure particles of ether flow,
Far from th' infection of the world below.

"Nor equal light th' unequal Moon adorns,
Or in her wexing, or her waning horns.
For every day she wanes, her face is less,
But, gathering into globe, she fattens at increase.
"Perceiv'st thou not the process of the year,
How the four seasons in four forms appear,
Resembling human life in every shape they wear?
Spring first, like infancy, shoots out her head,
With milky juice requiring to be fed :
Helpless, though fresh, and wanting to be led.
The green stem grows in stature and in size,
But only feeds with hope the farmer's eyes;
Then laughs the childish year with flowerets
crown'd,

And lavishly perfumes the fields around,
But no substantial nourishment receives,
Infirm the stalks, unsolid are the leaves.
"Proceeding onward whence the year began,
The Summer grows adult, and ripens into man.
This season, as in men, is most replete
With kindly moisture, and prolific heat,

"Autumn succeeds, a sober tepid age,
Not froze with fear, nor boiling into rage;
More than mature, and tending to decay,
When our brown locks repine to mix with odious

grey.

[bare,

"Last, Winter creeps along with tardy pace, Sour is his front, and furrow'd is his face. His scalp if not dishonour'd quite of hair, The ragged fleece is thin, and thin is worse than "Ev'n our own bodies daily change receive, Some part of what was theirs before they leave; Nor are to-day what yesterday they were; Nor the whole same to morrow will appear. "Time was, when we were sow'd, and just began, From some few fruitful drops, the promise of a Then Nature's hand (fermented as it was) [man; Moulded to shape the soft, coagulated mass; And when the little man was fully form'd, The breathless embryo with a spirit warm'd; But when the mother's throes begin to come, The creature, pent within the narrow room, Breaks his blind prison, pushing to repair His stifled breath, and draw the living air; Cast on the margin of the world he lies, A helpless babe, but by instinct he cries. He next essays to walk, but downward press'd On four feet imitates his brother beast:

By slow degrees he gathers from the ground
His legs, and to the rolling chair is bound;
Then walks alone; a horseman now become,
He rides a stick, and travels round the room:
In time he vaunts among his youthful peers,
Strong-bon'd, and strung with nerves, in pride
of years,

He runs with mettle his first merry stage,
Maintains the next, abated of his rage,
But manages his strength, and spares his age.
Heavy the third, and stiff, he sinks apace,
And, though 'tis down-hill all, but creeps along the

race.

Now sapless on the verge of death he stands,
Contemplating his former feet and hands;
And, Milo-like, his slacken'd sinews sees,
And wither'd arms, once fit to cope with Hercules,
Unable now to shake, much less to tear, the trees.
"So Helen wept, when her too faithful glass
Reflected to her eyes the ruins of her face:
Wondering what charms her ravishers could spy,
To force her twice, or ev'n but once enjoy!

"Thy teeth, devouring Time, thine, envious Age,
On things below still exercise your rage:
With venom'd grinders you corrupt your meat,
And then, at lingering meals, the morsels eat.

[sides.

"Nor those, which elements we call, abide, Nor to this figure, nor to that, are ty'd; For this eternal world is said of old But four prolific principles to hold, Four different bodies; two to Heaven ascend, And other two down to the centre tend: Fire first with wings expanded mounts on high, Pure, void of weight, and dwells in upper sky; Then air, because unclog'd in empty space, Flies after fire, and claims the second place: But weighty water, as her nature guides, Lies on the lap of Earth, and mother Earth sub"All things are mixt with these, which all conAnd into these are all resolv'd again : Earth rarifies to dew; expanded more The subtil dew in air begins to soar; Spreads as she flies, and weary of her name Extenuates still, and changes into flame; Thus having by degrees perfection won, Restless they soon untwist the web they spun, And fire begins to lose her radiant hue, Mix'd with gross air, and air descends to dew; And dew, condensing, does her form forego, And sinks, a heavy lump of carth, below.

[tain,

"Thus are their figures never at a stand, But chang'd by Nature's innovating hand; All things are alter'd, nothing is destroy'd, The shifted scene for some new show employ'd, "Then, to be born, is to begin to be Some other thing we were not formerly: And what we call to die, is not t' appear, Or be the thing that formerly we were. Those very elements, which we partake Alive, when dead some other bodies make; Translated grow, have sense, or can discourse; But death on deathless substance has no force. "That forms are chang'd I grant, that nothing Continue in the figure it began: The golden age to silver was debas'd; To copper that; our metal came at last. "The face of places, and their forms, decay; And that is solid earth, that once was sea: Seas in their turn, retreating from the shore Make solid land what ocean was before;

[can