Came stalking forward with a fullen pace,
And left her mangled offals on the place.
Soon as the faw 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 greennefs o'er her canker'd breast;
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.
Restless in spite: while, watchful to destroy,
She pines and fickens at another's joy;
Foe to herself, diftreffing and distrest,
She bears her own tormenter in her breast.
The goddess gave (for fhe 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 the pufh'd against the ground,
And, mounting from it with an active bound,
Flew off to heaven: The hag with eyes afkew
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 ftaff, hung round with wreaths of thorn,
And fails along, in a black whirlwind borne,

O'er fields and fowery meadows: where the fteers
Her baneful courfe 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 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 deserv'd a tear.
Th' apartment now fhe enter'd, where at rest
Aglauros lay, with gentle fleep oppreft.
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 flung 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 state;
The bridegroom with unwonted beauty glows;
For Envy magnifies whate'er fhe 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 distant fun;
Or like unwholefome 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 fee her fifter's wifh fucceed,
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 feat, and never rife."

Then keep thy feat for ever," cries the god,
And touch'd the door, wide opening to his rod.
Fain would the rise, and stop him, but the 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 fpeechlefs 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 RAP E..

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,
Beekon'd him out, and drew him from the reít,
And in foft whispers thus his will expreft:

My trufty Hermes, by whose 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 spoke the God, concealing his intent.
The trufty Hermes on his meffage went,

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

(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 shoulders 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 fkies;
Small fhining horns on his curl'd forehead stand,
As turn'd and polish'd by the workman's hand;
His eye- balls roll'd, not formidably bright,
But gaz'd and languish'd with a gentle light.

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

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

At length she pluck'd the rifing flowers, and fed
The gentle beaft, and fondly strok'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 ftrand,
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 breaft 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 grafps a horn:

Her