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Mildews and blights; the meadows are defac'd,
The fields, the flowers, and the whole year, laid waste :
On mortals next, and peopled towns the falls,
And breathes a burning plague among their walls.

When Athens fhe beheld, for arts renown'd,

With peace made happy, and with plenty crown'd,
Scarce could the hideous fiend from tears forbear,
To find out nothing that deferv'd a tear.
Th' apartment now she enter'd, where at reft
Aglauros lay, with gentle fleep oppreft.
To execute Minerva's dire command,

She strok'd the virgin with her canker'd hand,
Then prickly thorns into her breast convey'd,
That ftung to madness the devoted maid:
Her fubtle venom ftill improves the smart,
Frets in the blood, and fefters in the heart.

To make the work more fure, a scene fhe drew
And plac'd before the dreaming virgin's view
Her fifter's marriage, and her glorious fate
Th' imaginary bride appears in state;
The bridegroom with unwonted beauty glows ¿
For Envy magnifies whate'er the shows.

Full of the dream, Aglauros pin'd away
In tears all night, in darkness all the day;
Confum'd like ice, that juft begins to run,
When feebly fmitten by the diftant fun;
Or like unwholesome weeds, that fet on fire
Are flowly wafted, and in smoke expire.
Given up to envy (for in every thought

The thorns, the venom, and the vision wrought)

Oft

Oft did fhe call on death, as oft decreed,
Rather than see her fister's wish succeed,
To tell her awful father what had past :
At length before the door herself she cast;
And, fitting on the ground with fullen pride,
A paffage to the love-fick god deny'd.

The god carefs'd, and for admiffion pray'd,
And footh'd in fofteft words th' envenom'd maid.
In vain he footh'd; “Begone! the maid replies,
"Or here I keep my feat, and never rise."

Then keep thy feat for ever," cries the god,
And touch'd the door, wide opening to his rod..
Fain would the rife, and ftop him, but she found
Her trunk too heavy to forsake the ground;
Her joints are all benumb'd, her hands are pale,
And marble now appears in every nail.
As when a cancer in the body feeds,

And gradual death from limb to limb proceeds ; .
So does the chilnefs to each vital part

Spread by degrees, and creeps into her heart;
Till, hardening every where, and speechless grown,
She fits unmov'd, and freezes to a stone.
But ftill her envious hue and fullen mien
Are in the fedentary figure feen.

EUROPA'S RAPE.

When now the god his fury had allay'd, And taken vengeance of the stubborn maid, From where the bright Athenian turrets rife He mounts aloft, and re-afcends the skies,

Jove faw him enter the fublime abodes,
And, as he mix'd among the croud of Gods,
Beckon'd him out, and drew him from the rest,
And in foft whispers thus his will exprest:
"My trufty Hermes, by whofe ready aid

"Thy Sire's commands are through the world convey'd,
"Refume thy wings, exert their utmost force,
"And to the walls of Sidon speed thy course;
"There find a herd of heifers wandering o'er
"The neighbouring hill, and drive them to the shore."
Thus fpoke the God, concealing his intent.
The trufty Hermes on his message went,

And found the herd of heifers wandering o'er
A neighbouring hill, and drove them to the fhore;
Where the King's daughter with a lovely train
Of fellow-nymphs, was fporting on the plain.
The dignity of empire laid afide

(For love but ill agrees with kingly pride);
The ruler of the skies, the thundering God,
Who shakes the world's foundations with a nod,
Among a herd of lowing heifers ran,

Frisk'd in a bull, and bellow'd o'er the plain.
Large rolls of fat about his foulders clung,
And from his neck the double dewlap hung.
His fkin was whiter than the fnow that lies
Unfully'd by the breath of fouthern skies;
Small fhining horns on his curl'd forehead ftand,
As turn'd and polifh'd by the workman's hand;
His eye-balls roll'd, not formidably bright,
But gaz'd and languish'd with a gentle light.

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His every look was peaceful, and expreft
The foftnefs of the lover in the beast.

Agenor's royal daughter, as she play'd
Among the fields, the milk-white bull survey'd,
And view'd his spotless body with delight,
And at a distance kept him in her fight.

At length fhe pluck'd the rising flowers, and fed
The gentle beaft, and fondly ftrok'd his head.
He stood well-pleas'd to touch the charming fair,
But hardly could confine his pleasure there.
And now he wantons o'er the neighbouring strand,
Now rolls his body on the yellow fand;
And now, perceiving all her fears decay'd,
Comes toffing forward to the royal maid;

Gives her his breast to stroke, and downward turns

His grifly brow, and gently stoops his horns.

In flowery wreaths the royal virgin drest

His bending horns, and kindly clapt his breaft.
Till now grown wanton, and devoid of fear,
Not knowing that the preft the thunderer,
She plac'd herself upon his back, and rode
O'er fields and meadows, feated on the God.

He gently march'd along, and by degrees
Left the dry meadow, and approach'd the feas;
Where now he dips his hoofs, and wets his thighs,
Now plunges in, and carries off the prize.
The frighted nymph looks backward on the shore,
And hears the tumbling billows round her roar;
But ftill fhe holds him faft: one hand is borne

Upon his back; the other grasps a horn :

Her

Her train of ruffling garments flies behind,
Swells in the air, and hovers in the wind.
Through storms and tempefts he the virgin bore,
And lands her fafe on the Dictean shore;
Where now, in his divineft form array'd,
In his true shape he captivates the maid:
Who gazes on him, and with wondering eyes
Beholds the new majestic figure rise,
His glowing features, and celeftial light,
And all the God difcover'd to her fight.

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