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Then tells the youth how to his wondering eyes
Embattled armies from the field fhould rife.

He fows the teeth at Pallas's command,
And flings the future people from his hand.
The clods grow warm, and crumble where he fows:
And now the pointed fpears advance in rows;
Now nodding plumes appear, and shining crests,
Now the broad fhoulders and the rifing breafts:
O'er all the field the breathing harvest swarms,
A growing hoft, a crop of men and arms.
So through the parting ftage a figure rears
Its body up, and limb by limb appears
By juft degrees; till all the man arise,
And in his full proportion strikes the eyes.
Cadmus, furpriz'd, and startled at the fight

Of his new foes, prepar'd himself for fight:
When one cry'd out, "Forbear, fond man, forbear
"To mingle in a blind promifcuous war."
This faid, he ftruck his brother to the ground,
Himself expiring by another's wound;
Nor did the third his conqueft long furvive,
Dying ere fcarce he had begun to live.

The dire example ran through all the field,
Till heaps of brothers were by brothers kill'd;
The furrows fwam in blood: and only five.
Of all the vaft increase were left alive.
Echion one, at Pallas's command,

Let fall the guiltlefs weapon from his hand;
And with the reft a peaceful treaty makes,
Whom Cadmus as his friends and partners takes ;

So founds a city on the promis'd earth,

And gives his new Boeotian empire birth.

Here Cadmus reign'd; and now one would have guefs'd ́ The royal founder in his exile bleft:

Long did he live within his new abodes,
Ally'd by marriage to the deathlefs gods;

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And, in a fruitful wife's embraces old,,
A long increase of children's children told :
But no frail man, however great or high,
Can be concluded bleft before he die.

Acteon was the first of all his race,

Who griev'd his grandfire in his borrow'd face;
Condemn'd by ftern Diana to bemoan
The branching horns, and vifage not his own;.
To fhun his once-lov'd dogs, to bound away,
And from their huntfman to become their prey,
And yet confider why the change was wrought,
You'll find it his misfortune, not his fault;
Or if a fault, it was the fault of chance:
For how can guilt proceed from ignorance?

THE TRANSFORMATION OF ACTÆON.
INTO A STAG.

IN a fair chace a fhady mountain flood,

Well ftor'd with game, and mark'd with trail's of blood.
Here did the huntfmen till the heat of day
Purfue the ftag, and load themfelves with prey;
When thus Acteon calling to the reft:

"My friends, fays he, our fport is at the best.

"The

The fun is high advanc'd, and downward fheds "His burning beams directly on our heads; "Then by confent abstain from further spoils, "Call off the dogs, and gather up the toils; "And ere to-morrow's fun begins his race, "Take the cool morning to renew the chace.” They all confent, and in a chearful train The jolly huntfmen, loaden with the flain, Return in triumph from the fultry plain.

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Down in a vale with pine and cyprefs clad, Refresh'd with gentle winds, and brown with fhade, The chafte Diana's private haunt, there stood Full in the center of the darkfome wood A fpacious grotto, all around o'er-grown With hoary mofs, and arch'd with pumice-stone: From out its rocky clefts the waters flow, And trickling fwell into a lake below. Nature had every where fo play'd her part, That every where she seem'd to vie with art. Here the bright goddess, toil'd and chaf'd with heat, Was wont to bathe her in the cool retreat.

Here did the now with all her train refort,

Panting with heat, and breathless from the sport;

Her armour-bearer laid her bow aside,

Some loos'd her fandals, fome her veil unty'd ; »

Each busy nymph her proper part undrest;
While Crocalè, more handy than the reft,

Gather'd her flowing hair, and in a noose
Bound it together, whilft her own hung loose.
Five of the more ignoble fort by turns

Fetch up the water, and unlade their urns.
Ꮮ Ꮞ

Now

Now all undreft the fhining goddess stood,
When young Acteon, wilder'd in the wood,
To the cool grot by his hard fate betray'd,
The fountains fill'd with naked nymphs furvey'd.
The frighted virgins fhriek'd at the furprize
(The forest echo'd with their piercing cries).
Then in a huddle round their goddess preft:
She, proudly eminent above the rest,
With blushes glow'd; fuch blushes as adorn
The ruddy welkin, or the purple morn :
And though the crowding nymphs her body hide,
Half backward fhrunk, and view'd him from aside.
Surpriz'd, at first she would have fnatch'd her bow,
But fees the circling waters round her flow;
Thefe in the hollow of her hand she took,

And dafh'd them in his face, while thus fhe spoke : "Tell, if thou canft, the wondrous fight difclos'd; "A goddess naked to thy view expos'd."

This faid, the man begun to disappear

By flow degrees, and ended in a deer.
A rifing horn on either brow he wears,

And ftretches out his neck, and pricks his ears;
Rough is his skin, with fudden hairs o'er-grown,
His bofom pants with fears before unknown.
'Transform'd at length, he flies away in haste,
And wonders why he flies away so fast.
But as by chance, within a neighbouring brook,
He saw his branching horns and alter'd look,
Wretched Acteon! in a doleful tone

He try'd to speak, but only gave a groan;

And

And as he wept, within the watery glass
He saw the big round drops, with silent pace,
Run trickling down a favage hairy face.
What should he do? Or feek his old abodes,
Or herd among the deer, and sculk in woods?
Here shame diffuades him, there his fear prevails,
And each by turns his aking heart affails.

As he thus ponders, he behind him spies
His opening hounds, and now he hears their cries :
A generous pack, or to maintain the chace,
Or fnuff the vapour from the fcented grass.

He bounded off with fear, and swiftly ran
O'er craggy mountains, and the flowery plain;
Through brakes and thickets forc'd his way, and flew
Through many a ring, where once he did pursue.
In vain he oft endeavour'd to proclaim

His new misfortune, and to tell his name;
Nor voice nor words the brutal tongue fupplies ;
From thouting men, and horns, and dogs, he flies,
Deafen'd and stunn'd with their promifcuous cries.
When now the fleeteft of the pack, that preft.
Clofe at his heels, and fprung before the reft,
Had faften'd on him, ftraight another pair
Hung on his wounded haunch, and held him there,
Till all the pack came up, and every hound
Tore the fad huntsman groveling on the ground,
Who now appear'd but one continued wound.
With dropping tears his bitter fate he moans,
And fills the mountain with his dying groans.
His fervants with a piteous look he spies,
And turns about his fupplicating eyes.

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