(A folemn council call'd) the brazen gates
Unbar; the Gods affume their golden feats :
The fire fuperior leans, and points to show
What wondrous combats mortals wage
below:
How ftrong, how large, the numerous heroes ftride,
What length of lance they shake with warlike pride!
What eager fire, their rapid march reveals!
So the fierce Centaurs ravag'd o'er the dales;
And fo confirm'd, the daring Titans rofe,
Heap'd hills on hills, and bid the Gods be foes.
This feen, the power his facred visage rears,
He cafts a pitying fmile on worldly cares,
And asks what heavenly guardians take the lift,
Or who the Mice, or who the Frogs affift?

Then thus to Pallas: If my daughter's mind
Have join'd the Mice, why ftays she still behind;
Drawn forth by favory steams they wind their way,
And fure attendance round thine altar pay,
Where while the victims gratify their taste,
They sport to please the Goddefs of the feaft.
Thus fpake the Ruler of the spacious skies.
But thus, refolv'd, the blue-ey'd Maid replies :
In vain, my father! all their dangers plead,
To fuch thy Pallas never grants her aid.
My flowery wreaths they petulantly spoil,
And rob my crystal lamps of feeding oil.
(Ills following ills!) but what afflicts me more,
My veil that idle race profanely tore.

The web was curious, wrought with art divine;
Relentless wretches! all the work was mine!

Along the loom the purple warp I spread,

Caft the light shoot, and croft the filver thread;
In this their teeth a thousand breaches tear,
The thousand breaches skilful hands repair,

For which, vile earthly dunns thy daughter grieve
(The Gods, that use no coin, have none to give,
And learning's Goddess never lefs can owe,
Neglected learning gains no wealth below).
Nor let the Frogs to win my fuccour fue,
Thofe clamorous fools have loft my favour too.
For late, when all the conflict ceas'd at night,
When my stretch'd finews work'd with eager fight,
When spent with glorious toil, I left the field,
And funk for flumber on my swelling shield;
Lo from the deep, repelling sweet repose,
With noify croakings half the nation rose :
Devoid of reft, with aching brows 1 lay,
Till cocks proclaim'd the crimson dawn of day.
Let all, like me, from either host forbear,
Nor tempt the flying furies of the spear;

Let heavenly blood (or what for blood may flow)
Adorn the conqueft of a meaner foe.

Some daring Mouse may meet the wondrous odds,
Though Gods oppose, and brave the wounded Gods.
O'er gilded clouds reclin'd, the danger view,
And be the wars of mortals scenes for you.

So mov'd the blue-ey'd Queen; her words perfuade, Great Jove affented, and the reft obey'd.

Now front to front the marching armies shine,
Halt ere they meet, and form the lengthening line:
The chiefs, confpicuous feen and heard afar,
Give the loud fignal to the rushing war;

Their dreadful trumpets deep-mouth'd hornets found,
The founding charge remurmurs o'er the ground,
Ev'n Jove proclaims a field of horror nigh,
And rolls low thunder through the troubled sky.
First to the fight large Hypfiboas flew,
And brave Lychenor with a javelin flew.
The luckless warrior, fill'd with generous flame,
Stood foremost glittering in the post of fame;
When, in his liver ftruck, the javelin hung,
The Moufe fell thundering, and the target rung;
Prone to the ground, he finks his clofing eye,
And foil'd in duft his lovely treffes lie.

A fpear at Pelion Troglodytes caft,
The miffive fpear within the bofom past;

Death's fable shades the fainting Frog surround,
And life's red tide runs ebbing from the wound..
Embafichytros felt Scutlæus' dart

Transfix, and quiver in his panting heart;
But great Artophagus aveng'd the flain,
And big Scutlæus tumbling loads the plain,
And Polyphonus dies, a Frog renown'd
For boastful speech and turbulence of found ;

Deep through the belly pierc'd, fupine he lay,
And breath'd his foul against the face of day.

The ftrong Lymnocharis, who view'd with ire
A victor triumph, and a friend expire;
With heaving arms a rocky fragment caught,
And fiercely flung where Troglodytes fought
(A warrior vers❜d in arts, of fure retreat,
But arts in vain elude impending fate);
Full on his finewy neck the fragment fell,
And o'er his eye-lids clouds eternal dwell.
Lychenor (fecond of the glorious name)
Striding advanc'd, and took no wandering aim;
Through all the Frogs the shining javelin flies,
And near the vanquish'd Moufe the victor dies.
The dreadful ftroke Crambophagus affrights,
Long bred to banquets, lefs inur'd to fights,
Heedless he runs, and ftumbles o'er the steep,
And wildly floundering flashes up the deep;
Lychenor, following with a downward blow,
Reach'd in the lake his unrecover'd foe;
Gafping he rolls, a purple ftream of blood
Diftains the furface of the filver flood;

Through the wide wound the rushing entrails throng,
And flow the breathless carcass floats along.

Lymnifius good Tyroglyphus affails,

Prince of the Mice that haunt the flowery vales,
Loft to the milky fares and rural seat,

He came to perish on the bank of fate.

The dread Pternoglyphus demands the fight, Which tender Calaminthius fhuns by flight,

Drops the green target, fpringing quits the foe,
Glides through the lake, and fafely dives below.
But dire Pternophagus divides his way

Through breaking ranks, and leads the dreadful day.
No nibbling prince excell'd in fierceness more,
His parents fed him on the favage boar ;

But where his lance the field with blood imbrued,
Swift as he mov'd Hydrocharis pursued.

Till fallen in death he lies, a fhattering ftone
Sounds on the neck, and crushes all the bone.
His blood pollutes the verdure of the plain,
And from his noftrils burfts the gushing brain.
Lychopinax with Borborocates fights,
A blameless Frog, whom humbler life delights;
The fatal javelin unrelenting flies,

And darkness seals the gentle Croaker's eyes.
Incens'd Praffophagus, with spritely bound,
Bears Cniffodioctes off the rifing ground,
Then drags him o'er the lake depriv'd of breath,
And, downward plunging, finks his foul to death.
But now the great Pfycarpax fhines afar
(Scarce he fo great whose lofs provok'd the war);
Swift to revenge his fatal javelin fled,
And through the liver ftruck Pelufius dead;
His freckled corpfe before the victor fell,
His foul indignant fought the fhades of hell.
This faw Pelobates, and from the flood
Heav'd with both hands a monftrous mafs of mud;
The cloud obfcene o'er all the hero flies,
Dishonours his brown face, and blots his eyes.