"Then shalt thou die; but from the dark abode
"Rise up victorious, and be twice a god.
“And thou, my fire, not destin'd by thy birth
"To turn to duft, and mix with common earth,
"How wilt thou tofs, and rave, and long to die,
"And quit thy claim to immortality;
"When thou shalt feel, inrag'd with inward pains,
"The Hydra's venom rankling in thy veins?
"The gods in pity shall contract thy date;
"And give thee over to the power of fate."
Thus, entering into deftiny, the maid:
The fecrets of offended Jove betray'd
More had fhe ftill to fay; but now appears
Opprefs'd with sobs and sighs, and drown'd in tears. "My voice, fays fhe, is gone, my language fails; "Through every limb my kindred shape prevails; "Why did the god this fatal gift impart, "And with prophetic raptures fweli my heart? "What new defires are thefe? I long to pace "O'er flowery meadows, and to feed on grafs; "I haften to a brute, a maid no more; "But why, alas! am I transform'd all o'er ? "My fire does half a human shape retain, "And in his upper parts preferves the man.' Her tongue no more distinct complaints affords, But in fhrill accents and mif-shapen words Pours forth fuch hideous wailings, as declare The human form confounded in the mare: Till by degrees, accomplish'd in the beaft, She neigh'd outright, and all the fteed expreft.
Her ftooping body on her hands is borne,
Her hands are turn'd to hoofs, and shod in horn;
Her yellow treffes ruffle in a mane,
And in her flowing tail the frisks her train.
The mare was finish'd in her voice and look,
And a new name from the new figure took.
THE TRANSFORMATION OF BATTUS TO
A TOUCHSTONE.
SORE wept the centaur, and to Phoebus pray'd; But how could Phoebus give the centaur aid ? Degraded of his power by angry Jove,
In Elis then a herd of beeves he drove;
And wielded in his hand a staff of oak,
And o'er his fhoulders threw the shepherd's cloak;
On feven compacted reeds he us'd to play,
And on his rural pipe to wafte the day.
As once, attentive to his pipe, he play'd,
The crafty Hermes from the god convey'd
A drove that feparate from their fellows ftray'd.
The theft an old infidious peafant view'd
(They call'd him Battus in the neighbourhood);
Hir'd by a wealthy Pylian prince to feed
His favourite mares, and watch the generous breed.
The thievith god fufpected him, and took
The hind afide, and thus in whispers spoke;
"Discover not the theft, whoe'er thou be,
"And take that milk-white heifer for thy fee.
“Go, ftranger, cries the clown, fecurely on,
"That ftone fhall fooner tell;" and fhow'd a stone.
The god withdrew, but straight return'd again,
In fpeech and habit like a country swain;
And cried out, "Neighbour, haft thou seen a stray
"Of bullocks and of heifers pass this way?
"In the recovery of my cattle join,
"A bullock and a heifer fhall be thine."
The peafant quick replies, "You'll find them there "In yon dark vale :" and in the vale they were. The double bribe had his false heart beguil'd: The god, fuccefsful in the trial, smil’d; "And doft thou thus betray myself to me? "Me to myself dost thou betray ?” says he : Then to a Touch-ftone turns the faithless spy, And in his name records his infamy.
THE STORY OF AGLAUROS, TRANSFORM'D INTO A STATUE.
THIS done, the god flew up on high, and pass'd O'er lofty Athens, by Minerva grac'd,
And wide Munichia, whilft his eyes furvey
All the vast region that beneath him lay.
'Twas now the feaft, when each Athenian maid Her yearly homage to Minerva paid;
In canisters, with garlands cover'd o'er;
High on their heads their myftic gifts they bore;
And now, returning in a folemn train,
The troop of fhining virgins fill'd the plain.
The god well-pleas'd beheld the pompous fhow,
And faw the bright proceffion país below;
Then veer'd about, and took a wheeling light,
And hover'd o'er them; as the fpreading kite,
That smells the flaughter'd victim from on high,
Flies at a distance, if the priests are nigh,
And fails around, and keeps it in her eye!
So kept the god the virgin choir in view,
And in flow winding circles round them flew.
As Lucifer excels the meanest ftar,
Or, as the full-orb'd Phabe Lucifer;
So much did Hersè all the rest outvy,
And gave a grace to the folemnity.
Hermes was fir'd, as in the clouds he hung:
So the cold bullet, that with fury flung
From Balearic engines mounts on high,
Glows in the whirl, and burns along the sky.
At length he pitch'd upon the ground, and show'd
'The form divine, the features of a god.
He knew their virtue o'er a female heart,
And
yet he strives to better them by art.
He hangs his mantle loose, and fets to fhow
The golden edging on the feam below;
Adjufts his flowing curls, and in his hand
Waves with an air the fleep-procuring wand▸
The glittering fandals to his feet applies,
And to each heel the well-trim'd pinion ties.
His ornaments with nicest art display'd,
He feeks th' apartment of the royal maid.
The roof was all with polish'd ivory lin❜d,
That, richly mix'd, in clouds of tortoife thin'd.
Three rooms contiguous in a range were plac'd;
The midmoft by the beauteous Hersè grac'd;
Her virgin fifters lodg'd on either fide.
Aglauros first th' approaching god descry'd,
And, as he cross'd her chamber, ask'd his name,
And what his business was, and whence he came.
"I come,, reply'd the god, from heaven to woo
"Your fitter, and to make an aunt of you;
"I am the fon and meffenger of Jove,
"My name is Mercury, my bufinefs love
“Do you, kind damsel, take a lover's part,
"And gain admittance to your fifter's heart."
She ftar'd him in the face with looks amaz'd,
As when she on Minerva's fecret gaz'd,.
And asks a mighty treasure for her hire,
And, till he brings it, makes the god retire.
Minerva griev'd to see the nymph succeed;
And now remembring the late impious deed,
When, difobedient to her ftric command,
She touch'd the chest with an unhallow'd hand';-
In big-fwoln fighs her inward rage exprefs'd,
That heav'd the rifing Ægis on her breast;
Then fought out Envy in her dark abode,
Defil'd with ropy gore and clots of blood
Shut from the winds, and from the wholesome skies,
In a deep vale the gloomy dungeon lies,
Difinal and cold, where not a beam of light
Invades the winter, or disturbs the night.
Directly to the cave her course she steer'd;
Against the gates her martiak lance the rear'd;
The gates flew open, and the fiend appear'd.
A poisonous morfel in her teeth she chew'd,
And gorg'd the flesh of vipers for her food.
Minerva, loathing, turn'd away her eye;
The hideous monfter, rifing heavily,
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