No more the Rhine or Rhone their course maintain, Nor Tiber, of his promis'd empire vain.

The ground, deep cleft, admits the dazzling ray, And ftartles Pluto with the flash of day.

The feas fhrink in, and to the fight disclose

Wide naked plains, where once their billows rofe;
Their rocks are all discover'd, and increase
The number of the fcatter'd Cyclades.
The fish in fholes about the bottom creep,
Nor longer dares the crooked dolphin leap:
Gafping for breath, th' unfhapen Phocæ die,
And on the boiling wave extended lie.
Nereus, and Doris with her virgin train,
Seek out the laft receffes of the main;
Beneath unfathomable depths they faint,
And fecret in their gloomy caverns pant.
Stern Neptune thrice above the waves upheld
His face, and thrice was by the Aames repella.
The earth at length on every fide embrac’d

With scalding feas, that floated round her wafte,
When now the felt the fprings and rivers come,
And crowd within the hollow of her womb,
Up-lifted to the heavens her blafted head,
And clapt her hands upon her brows, and faid;
(But first, impatient of the fultry heat,

Sunk deeper down, and fought a cooler seat :)

"If you, great King of Gods, my death approve, "And I deferve it, let me die by Jove;

"If I muft perifh by the force of fire,
"Let me transfix'd with thunderbolts expire.

4 See

See, whilft I speak, my breath the vapours choke, (For now her face lay wrapt in clouds of fmoke). "See my fing'd hair, behold my faded eye,

And wither'd face, where heaps of cinders lie! "And does the plough for this my body tear? "This the reward for all the fruits I bear, "Tortur'd with rakes, and harass'd all the year? "That herbs for cattle daily I renew,

}

"And food for man, and frankincenfe for you ? "But grant me guilty; what has Neptune done? "Why are his waters boiling in the fun? "The wavy empire, which by lot was given, "Why does it wafte, and further fhrink from heaven? "If I nor he your pity can provoke,

"See your own heavens, the heavens begin to fmoke! "Should once the fparkles catch those bright abodes, "Deftruction feizes on the heavens and gods; "Atlas becomes unequal to his freight,

"And almost faints beneath the glowing weight. "If heaven, and earth, and fea, together burn,. "All muft again into their chaos turn.

66

Apply fome speedy cure, prevent our fate,

"And fuccour nature, ere it be too late."

She ceas'd; for, chok'd with vapours round her fpread,
Down to the deepeft fhades the funk her head.
Jove call'd to witnefs every power above,

And ev'n the God, whofe fon the chariot drove,
That what he acts he is compell'd to do,

Or univerfal ruin muft enfue.

Straight he afcends the high ethereal throne,
From whence he us'd to dart his thunder down,

From whence his fhowers and ftorms he us'd to pour,
But now could meet with neither ftorm nor fhower.
Then, aiming at the youth, with lifted hand,
Full at his head he hurl'd the forky brand,
In dreadful thunderings. Thus th' Almighty fire
Supprefs'd the raging of the fires with fire.

At once from life and from the chariot driven, Th' ambitious boy fell thunder-ftruck from heaven. The horfes ftarted with a fudden bound,

And flung the reins and chariot to the ground:
The ftudded harness from their necks they broke ;
Here fell a wheel, and here a filver spoke,

Here were the beam and axle torn away;

And, fcatter'd o'er the earth, the fhining fragments lay, The breathlefs Phaeton, with flaming hair,

Shot from the chariot, like a falling star,

That in a fummer's evening from the top

Of heaven drops down, or feems at least to drop;
Till on the Po his blasted corpse was hurl'd,
Far from his country, in the western world.

PHAETON'S SISTERS TRANSFORMED
INTO TREES.

THE Latian nymphs came round him, and amaz'd On the dead youth, transfix'd with thunder, gaz'd; And, whilft yet smoking from the bolt he lay, His fhatter'd body to a tomb convey,

And o'er the tomb an epitaph devise :

"Here he who drove the fun's bright chariot lies; "His father's fiery fteeds he could not guide,

"But in the glorious enterprize he dy'd."

Apollo

Apollo hid his face, and pin'd for grief,
And, if the story may deserve belief,
The space of one whole day is faid to run,
From morn to wonted eve, without a fun :
The burning ruins, with a fainter ray,
Supply the fun, and counterfeit a day,
A day, that ftill did nature's face difclofe:
This comfort from the mighty mischief rose,

But Clymenè, enrag'd with grief, laments,
And, as her grief infpires, her paffion vents:
Wild for her fon, and frantic in her woes,
With hair dishevel'd, round the world she goes,
To feek where-e'er his body might be caft;
Till, on the borders of the Po, at laft

The name infcrib'd on the new tomb appears,
The dear dear name fhe bathes in flowing tears;
Hangs o'er the tomb, unable to depart,

And hugs the marble to her throbbing heart.
Her daughters too lament, and figh, and mourn,
(A fruitless tribute to their brother's urn ;)
And beat their naked bofoms, and complain,
And call aloud for Phaeton in vain :

All the long night their mournful watch they keep,
And all the day ftand round the tomb and weep.

Four times, revolving, the full moon return'd;
So long the mother and the daughters mourn'd;
When now the eldeft, Phaethufa, ftrove

To reft her weary limbs, but could not move;
Lampetia would have help'd her, but the found
Herfelf withheld, and rooted to the grounds

A third

A third in wild affliction, as the grieves,

Would rend her hair, but fills. her hand with leaves ; :
One fees her thighs transform'd, another views

Her arms fhot out, and branching into boughs.
And now their legs, and breafts, and bodies, ftood:
Crufted with bark, and hardening into wood;

But ftill above were female heads display'd,
And mouths, that call'd the mother to their aid.
What could, alas! the weeping mother do?
From this to that with eager haste she flew,
And kifs'd her fprouting daughters as they grew.
She tears the bark that to each body cleaves :
And from the verdant fingers ftrips the leaves :
The blood came trickling, where the tore away
The leaves and bark: the maids were heard to fay,
"Forbear, mistaken parent, oh! forbear;
"A wounded daughter in each tree you tear;
Here the bark increas'd,

Farewel for ever.

Clos'd on their faces, and their words fupprefs'd.

The new-made trees in tears of amber run,
Which, harden'd into value by the fun,
Diftil for ever on the streams below:

The limpid ftreams their radiant treasure show,
Mix'd in the fand; whence the rich drops convey'd
Shine in the dress of the bright Latian maid.

}

THE TRANSFORMATION OF CYCNUS INTO A SWAN.

CYCNUS beheld the nymphs transform'd, ally'd To their dead brother, on the mortal side,

In