That smells the flaughter'd victim from on high,
Flies at a diftance, 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 meaneft ftar,
Or, as the full-orb'd Phobe Lucifer;
So much did Hersè all the reft 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 ftrives to better them by art.
He hangs his mantle loose, and fets to show
The golden edging on the seam 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 niceft 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 tortoise thin'd.
Three rooms contiguous in a range were plac'd;
The midmoft by the beauteous Hersè grac'd;
Her virgin fisters lodg'd on either side.
Aglauros first th' approaching god descry'd,
And, as he crofs'd her chamber, afk'd his name, And what his bufinefs was, and whence he came. "I come, reply'd the god, from heaven to woo "Your fifter, and to make an aunt of you; "I am the fon and meffenger of Jove, "My name is Mercury, my business love; "Do you, kind damfel, 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 fee the nymph fucceed; And now remembring the late impious deed, When, disobedient to her ftrict command, She touch'd the cheft 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,
Difmal and cold, where not a beam of light
Invades the winter, or disturbs the night.
Directly to the cave her courfe she steer'd;
Against the gates her martial lance she rear'd;
The gates flew open, and the fiend appear'd.
A poisonous morfel in her teeth fhe chew'd,
And gorg'd the flesh of vipers for her food.
Minerva, loathing, turn'd away her eye;
The hideous monfter, rifing heavily,
Came ftalking forward with a fullen pace,
And left her mangled offals on the place.
Soon as she saw the goddess gay and bright,
She fetch'd a groan at fuch a chearful fight,
Livid and meagre were her looks, her eye
In foul distorted glances turn'd awry ;
A hoard of gall her inward parts poffefs'd,
And spread a greenness o'er her canker'd breaft;
Her teeth were brown with ruft; and from her tongue,
In dangling drops, the ftringy poifon hung,
She never smiles but when the wretched weep,
Nor lulls her malice with a moment's fleep.
Reftlefs in fpite: while, watchful to destroy,
She pines and fickens at another's joy;
Foe to herself, diftreffing and diftreft,
She bears her own tormenter in her breast.
The goddess gave (for she abhorr'd her fight)
A fhort command: "To Athens speed thy flight;
"On curft Aglauros try thy utmost art,
“ And fix thy rankest venoms in her heart.”
This faid, her fpear fhe push'd against the ground,
And, mounting from it with an active bound,
Flew off to heaven: The hag with eyes askew
Look'd up, and mutter'd curfes as the flew;
For fore the fretted, and began to grieve
At the fuccefs which she herself must give.
Then takes her staff, hung round with wreaths of thorn,
And fails along, in a black whirlwind borne,
O'er fields and flowery meadows: where she steers
Her baneful course a mighty blaft appears,
Mildews and blights; the meadows are defac'd,
The fields, the flowers, and the whole year, laid waste ::
On mortals next, and peopled towns she falls,
And breathes a burning plague among their walls.
When Athens the 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 fhe enter'd, where at rest
Aglauros lay, with gentle fleep opprest.
To execute Minerva's dire command,
She ftrok'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 fcene fhe drew
And plac'd before the dreaming virgin's view
Her fifter's marriage, and her glorious fate;
Th' imaginary bride appears in ftate;
The bridegroom with unwonted beauty glows;
For Envy magnifies whate'er fhe fhows.
Full of the dream, Aglauros pin'd away
In tears all night, in darkness all the day;
Confum'd like ice, that just begins to run,
When feebly fmitten by the distant fun ;
Or like unwholesome weeds, that set 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 did fhe call on death, as oft decreed,
Rather than fee her fifter's wish succeed,
To tell her awful father what had past :
At length before the door herself she caft
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 seat, and never rise.”
Then keep thy feat for ever," cries the god,
And touch'd the door, wide opening to his rod.
Fain would she rise, and stop him, but she found
Her trunk too heavy to forfake 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 seen.
EUROPA'S RAPE.
When now the god his fury had allay`d, And taken vengeance of the ftubborn maid, From where the bright Athenian turrets rife He mounts aloft, and re-afcends the skies.
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