Thus while he linger'd, his defign was heard;
A fpeedy procefs form'd, and death declar'd.
Witness there needed none of his offence,
Against himself the wretch was evidence :
Condemn'd, and deftitute of human aid,
To him, for whom he fuffer'd, thus he pray'd:
O Power, who hast deserv'd in heaven a throne
Not given, but by thy labours made thy own,
Pity thy fuppliant, and protect his cause,
Whom thou haft made obnoxious to the laws.

A custom was of old, and ftill remains,
Which life or death by fuffrages ordains;
White ftones and black within an urn are caft,
The first abfolve, but fate is in the last:
The judges to the common urn bequeath
Their votes, and drop the fable figus of death:
The box receives all black; but pour'd from
thence
[cence.
The ftones came candid forth, the hue of inno-
Thus Alimonides his fafety won,
Preferv'd from death by Alcumena's fon :
Then to his kinfman God his vows he pays,
And cuts with profperons gales th' Ionian feas :
He leaves Tarentum, favour'd by the wind,
And Thurine bays, and Temifes, behind;
Soft Sibaris, and all the capes that stand
Along the fhore, he makes in fight of land;
Still doubling, and still coafting, till he found
The mouth of Afaris, and promis'd ground:
Then faw where, on the margin of the flood,
The tomb that held the bones of Croton stood:
Here, by the God's command, he built and wall'd
The place predicted; and Crotona call'd:
Thus fame, from time to time, delivers down
The fure tradition of th' Italian town.

Here dwelt the man divine whom Samos bore, But now felf-banish'd from his native fhore, Because he hated tyrants, nor could bear

The chains which none but fervile fouls will wear: He, though from heaven remote, to heaven could

move,

With strength of mind, and tread th' abyss above;
And penetrate, with his interior light,
Thofe upper depths, which nature hid from fight:
And what he had obferv'd, and learnt from thence,
Lov'd in familiar language to dispense.

The crowd with filent admiration ftand, And heard him, as they heard their God's command;

While he difcours'd of heaven's myfterious laws,
The world's original, and nature's caufe;
And what was God, and why the fleecy fnows
In filence fell, and rattling winds arose;
What shook the stedfaft earth, and whence begun
The dance of planets round the radiant fun;
If thunder was the voice of angry Jove,
Or clouds, with nitre pregnant, burst above:
Of these, and things beyond the common reach,
He fpoke, and charm'd his audience with his
fpeech.

He first the tafte of flesh from tables drove,
And argued well, if arguments could move.
mortals! from your fellows blood abstain,
Nor taint your bodies with a food profane :

While corn and pulfe by nature are bestow 'd,
And planted orchards bend their willing load;
While labour'd gardens wholesome herbs produce,
And teeming vines afford their generous juice;
Nor tardier fruits of cruder kind are loft,
But tam'd with fire, or mellow'd by the froft;
While kine to pails diftended udders bring,
And bees their honey redolent of spring;
While earth not only can your reeds fupply,
But, lavish of her ftore, provides for luxury;
A guiltless feaft adminifters with ease,
And without blood is prodigal to please.
Wild beafts their maws with their flain brethren
And yet not all, for fome refuse to kill:
Sheep, goats, and oxen, and the nobler feed,
On browz, and corn, the flowery meadows feed.
Bears, tygers, wolves, the lion's angry brood,
Whom heaven endued with principles of blood,
He wifely funder'd from the reft, to yell
In forefts, and in lonely caves to dwell,
Where stronger beafts opprefs the weak by might,
And all in prey and purple feafts delight.

[fill,

O impious ufe! to Nature's laws oppos'd,
Where bowels are in other bowels clos'd:
Where, fatten'd by their fellows' fat, they thrive;
Maintain'd by murder, and by death they live.
'Tis then for nought that mother earth provides
The ftores of all the fhews, and all the hides,
If men with fleshly morfels must be fed,
And chaw with bloody teeth the breathing bread;
What else is this but to devour our guests,
And barbaroufly renew Cyclopean feasts!
We, by destroying life, our life sustain ;
And gorge th' ungodly maw with meats obscene.
Not fo the golden age, who fed on fruit,
Nor durft with bloody meals their mouths pollute.
Then birds in airy space might fafely move,
And timorous hares on heaths fecurely rove:
Nor needed fish the guileful hooks to fear,
For all was peaceful, and that peace fincere.
Whoever was the wretch, (and curs'd be he)
That envy'd first our food's fimplicity;
Th' effay of bloody feafts on brutes began,
And after forg'd the fword to murder man.
Had he the fharpen'd fteel alone employ'd
On beafts of prey that other beasts destroy'd,
Or men invaded with their fangs and paws,
This had been juftify'd by Nature's laws,
And felf-defence: but who did feasts begin
Of flesh, he ftretch'd neceffity to fin.
To kill man-killers, man has lawful power;
But not th' extended licence, to devour.

Ill habits gather by unseen degrees,
As brooks make rivers, rivers run to feas.
The fow, with her broad fnout for rooting up
Th' intrufted feed, was judg'd to fpoil the crop,
And intercept the sweating farmer's hope:
The covetous churl, of unforgiving kind,
Th' offender to the bloody priest refign'd:
Her hunger was no plea; for that the dy'd.
The goat came next in order, to be try'd :
The goat had cropt the tendrils of the vine:
In vengeance laity and clergy join,
Where one had lost his profit, one his wine.

How did the toiling or his death deserve, A downright fimple drudge, and born to serve? O tyrant! with what juftice canft thou hope The promise of the year, a plenteous crop; When thou destroy'st thy labouring steer, who till'd,

And plow'd, with pains, thy elfe ungrateful field?
From his yet reeking neck to draw the yoke,
That neck with which the furly clods he broke ;
And to the hatchet yield thy husbandman,
Who finish'd autumn, and the spring began!
Nor this alone but heaven itself to bribe,
We to the Gods our impious acts afcribe:
First recompenfe with death their creature's toil,
Then call the blefs'd above to fhare the fpoil:
The fairest victim must the powers appease:
(So fatal 'tis fometimes too much to please!)
A purple fillet his broad brows adorns,

With flowery garlands crown'd, and gilded horns:
He hears the murderous prayer the priest prefers,
But understands not, 'tis his doom he hears:
Beholds the meal betwixt his temples caft
(The fruit and product of his labours past);
And in the water views perhaps the knife
Uplifted, to deprive him of his life;
The broken up alive, his entrails fees
Torn out, for priests t' inspect th' Gods decrees.
From whence, O mortal men, this guft of blood
Have you deriv'd, and interdicted food?.
Be taught by me this dire delight to fhun,
Warn'd by my precepts, by my practice won :
And, when you eat the well-deferving beast,
Think, on the labourer of your field you feast!
Now fince the God infpires me to proceed,
Be that, whate'er infpiring Power, obey'd.
For I will fing of mighty myfteries,

Of truths conceal'd before from human eyes,
Dark oracles unveil, and open all the skies.
Pleas'd as I am to walk along the fphere
Of thining stars, and travel with the year,
To leave the heavy earth, and scale the height
Of Atlas, who fupports the heavenly weight:
To look from upper light, and thence furvey
Mistaken mortals wandering from the way,
And wanting wisdom, fearful for the state
Of future things, and trembling at their fate!
Thofe I would teach; and by right reafon bring
To think of death, as but an idle thing.
Why thus affrighted at an empty name,
A dream of darkness, and fictitious flame?
Vain themes of wit, which but in poems pass,
And fables of a world, that never was!
What feels the body when the foul expires,
By time corrupted, or confum'd by fires?
Nor dies the fpirit, but new life repeats
In other forms, and only changes feats.

Then death, fo call'd, is but old matter drefs'd In fome new figure, and a vary'd vest:

Thus all things are but alter'd, nothing dies;
And here and there th' unbody'd fpirit flies,
By time, or force, or sickness difpoffeft,
And lodges, where it lights, in man or beast;
Or hunts without, 'till ready limbs it find,
And actuates those according to their kind;
From tenement to tenement is tofs'd;
The foul is ftill the fame, the figure only loft:
And as the foften'd wax new feals receives,
This face affumes, and that impreffion leaves;
Now call'd by one, now by another name;
The form is only chang'd, the wax is fill the
fame :

So death, fo call'd, can but the form deface,
Th' immortal foul flies out in empty space;
To feek her fortune in fome other place.

Then let not piety be put to flight,
To please the taste of glutton appetite;
But fuffer inmate fouls fecure to dwell,
Left from their feats your parents you expel;'
With rabid hunger feed upon your kind,

Or from a beaft diflodge a brother's mind.

And fince, like Tiphys, parting from the shore In ample feas I fail, and depths untry'd before,' This let me farther add, that nature knows No ftedfaft ftation; but, or ebbs, or flows: Ever in motion; fhe deftroys her old, And cafts new figures in another mold., Ev'n times are in perpetual flux ; and run, Like rivers from their fountain, rolling on; For time, no more than ftreams, is at a flay: The flying hour is ever on her way; And as the fountain ftill firpplies her store, The wave behind impels the wave before; Thus in fucceffive courfe the minutes run, And urge their predeceffor minutes on, Still moving, ever new: for former things Are fet afide, like abdicated kings: And every moment alters what is done,' And innovates fome act till then unknown. Darkness we fee emerges into light, And fhining fums defcend to fable night; Ev'n heaven itself receives another die, When weary'd animals in flumbers lie Of midnight eafe; another, when the gray Of morn preludes the fplendor of the day. The difk of Phoebus, when he climbs on high, Appears at first but as a bloodshot eye; And when his chariot downward drives to bed, His ball is with the fame fuffufion red; But mounted high in his meridian race All bright he fhines, and with a better face: For there, pure particles of æther flow, Far from th' infection of the world below. Nor equal light th' unequal moon adorns, Or in her wexing, or her waning horns.

For every day fhe wanes, her face is lefs,
But, gathering into globe, fhe fattens at increase.
Perceiv't not thou the procefs of the year,
How the four feafons in four forms appear,
Refembling human life in every fhape they s
wear?

Spring first, like infancy, fhoots out her head,
With milky juice requiring to be fed:
Helplets, though fresh, and wanting to be led.
The green ftem grows in ftature and in fize,
But only feeds with hope the farmer's eyes;
Then laughs the childish year with flowrets
crown'd,

And lavishly perfumes the fields around,
But no fubitantial nourishment receives,
Infirm the stalks, unfolid are the leaves.

Proceeding onward whence the year began,
The fummer grows adult, and ripens into man.
This feafon, as in men, is moft repleat
With kindly moisture, and prolific heat,

Autumn fucceeds, a fober tepid age,
Not froze with fear, nor boiling into rage;
More than mature, and tending to decay,
When our brown locks repine to mix with odi-

gan,

Ev'n our own bodies daily change receive, Some part of what was their's before they leave; Nor are to-day what yesterday they were; Nor the whole fame to-morrow will appear. Time was, when we were fow'd, and juft be[man; From fome few fruitful drops, the promife of a Then Nature's hand (fermented as it was) Moulded to fhape the foft, coagulated mafs; And when the little man was fully form'd, The breathlefs embryo with a fpirit warm'd; But when the mother's throes begin to come, The creature, pent within the narrow room, Breaks his blind prifon, pufhing to repair His ftifled breath, and draw the living air; Caft on the margin of the world he lies, A helpless babe, but by inftinct he cries. He next effays to walk, but downward prefs'd On four feet imitates his brother beaft: By flow degrees he gathers from the ground His legs, and to the rolling chair is bound; Then walks alone; a horfeman now become, He rides a flick, and travels round the room: In time he vaunts among his youthful peers,

And, Milo-like, his flaken'd finews fecs,
And wither'd arms, once fit to cope with Her-
cules,

Unable now to fhake, much lefs to tear, the trees.,
So Helen wept, when her too faithful glass
Reflected to her eyes the ruins of her face:
Wondering what charms her ravifhers could spy,
To force her twice, or ev'n but once enjoy!
Thy teeth, devouring time, thine, envious age,
On things below ftill exercife your rage:
With venom'd grinders you corrupt your meat,
And then, at lingering meals, the morfels eat.
Nor thofe, which elements we call, abide.
Nor to this figure, nor to that, are ty'd;
For this eternal world is faid of eld
But four prolific principles to hold,
Four different bodies; two to heaven afcend,
And other two down to the centre tend:

Fire firft with wings expanded moants on high,
Pure, void of weight, and dwells in upper sky;
Then air, becaufe unclog'd in empty space,
Flies after fire, and claims the fecond place :
But weighty water, as her nature guides,
Lies on the lap of earth, and mother earth fub-
fides.

[tain,

All things are mixt with thefe, which all conAnd into these are all refolv'd again : Earth rarifies to dew; expanded more The fubtil dew in air begins to foar : Spreads as the flies, and weary of her name Extenuates ftill, and changes into flame; Thus having by degrees perfection won, Reftlefs they foon untwill the web they spun, And fire begins to lose her radiant hue, Mixt with grofs air, and air defcends to dew; And dew, condenûing, does her form forego, And finks, a heavy lump of earth, below.

Thus are their figures never at a stand,
But chang'd by Nature's innovating hand;
All things are alter'd, nothing is destroy'd,
The fhifted fcene for fome new fhew employ'd.
Then, to be born, is to begin to be
Some other thing we were not formerly:
And what we call to die, is not t' appear,
Or be the thing that formerly we were.
Thofe very elemen's, which we partake
Alive, when dead fome other bodies make :
Tranflated grow, have fenfe, or can difcourfe ;
But death on deathlefs fubftance has no force.
That forms are chang'd I grant, that nothing
Continue in the figure it began:

The golden age to filver was debas'd:
To copper that; our metal came at last.
The face of places, and their forms decay;

[can

Seas in their turn, retreating from the fhore,
Make folid land what ocean was before;
And far from ftrands are fhells of fifhes found,
And rufty anchors fix'd on mountain ground;
And what were fields before, now wash'd and

worn,

By falling floods from high, to vallies turn,
And crumbling flill defcend to level lands;
And lakes, and trembling bogs, are barren fands;

And the parch'd defart floats in ftreams unknown;
Wondering to drink of waters not her own.
Here nature living fountains opes; and there
Seals up the wombs where living fountains were;
Or earthquakes ftop their ancient course, and
Diverted freams to feed a diftant fpring. [bring
So Lycus, fwallow'd up, is feen no more,
But far from thence knocks out another door.
Thus Erafinus dives; and blind in earth
Runs on, and gropes his way to fecond birth,
Starts up in Argos meads, and thakes his locks
Around the fields, and fattens all the flocks.
So Myfus by another way is led,

And, grown a river, now difdains his head:
Forgets his humble birth, his name forfakes,
And the proud title of Caicus takes.
Large Amenane, impure with yellow fands,
Runs rapid often, and as often ftands;

And here he threats the drunken fields to drown,
And there his dugs deny to give their liquor down.
Anigros once did wholefome draughts afford,
But now his deadly waters are abhorr'd:
Since hurt by Hercules, as fame refunds,
The Centaur in his current wafh'd their wounds.
The ftreams of Hypanis are fweet no more,
But brackish lofe their tafte they had before.
Antifla, Pharos, Tyre, in feas were pent,
Once ifles, but now increase the continent;
While the Leucadian coaft, main-land before,
By rushing feas is fever'd from the shore.
So Zancle to th' Italian earth was ty'd,.
And men once walk'd where fhips at anchor ride;
Till Neptune overlook'd the narrow way,
And in difdain pour'd in the conquering fea.

Two cities that adorn'd th' Achaian ground,"
Buris and Helice, no more are found,
But, whelm'd beneath a lake, are funk and
drown'd;

And boatsmen through the crystal water fhew,
To wondering paffengers, the walls below.

Near Trazen ftands a hill, expos'd in air
To winter winds, of leafy fhadows bare:
This once was level ground: but (ftrange to tell)
Th' included vapours, that in caverns dwell,
Labouring with colic pangs, and close confin'd,
In vain fought iffue from the rumbling wind:
Yet ftill they heav'd for vent, and heaving till
Inlarg'd the concave, and fhot up the hill;
As breath extends a bladder, or the skins

Of goats are blown t'inclofe the hoarded wines:
The mountain ftill retains a mountain's face,
And gather'd rubbish heals the hollow space.
Of many wonders, which I heard or knew,
Retrenching moft, I will relate but few:
What, are not fprings with qualitics oppos'd
Endued at feafons, and at feafons loft?
Thrice in a day thine, Ammon, change their form,
Cold at high noon, and at morn and even warm :
Thine, Athaman, will kindle wood, if thrown
On the pil'd earth, and in the waning moon.
The Thracians have a stream, if any try
The tafte, his harden'd bowels petrify;
Whate'er it touches it converts to ftones,
And makes a marble pavement where it runs.

Grathis, and Sibaris her fifter flood, That flide through our Calabrian neighbour wood, With gold and amber dye the shining hair, And thither youth refort; (for who would not be fair?)

But ftranger virtues yet in ftreams we find, Some change not only bodies, but the mind: Who has not heard of Salmacis obfcene, Whofe waters into women foften meu? Of Ethiopian lakes, which turn the brain To madness, or in heavy fleep constrain? Clytorean ftreams the love of wine expel, (Such is the virtue of th' abftemious well,) Whether the colder nymph that rules the flood Extinguishes, and balks the drunken God; Or that Melampus (fo have fome affur'd) When the mad Pratides with charms he cur'd, And powerful herbs, both charms and fimples

caft

Into the fober fpring, where fill their virtues laft.
Unlike effects Lynceflis will produce;

Who drinks his waters, though with moderate ufe,
Reels as with wine, and fees with double fight:
His heels too heavy, and his head too light.
Ladon, once Pheneos, an Arcadian stream,
(Ambiguous in th' effects, as in the name)
By day is wholefome beverage; but is thought
By night infected, and a deadly draught.

Thus running rivers, and the ftanding lake,
Now of thefe virtues, now of thofe partake:
Time was (and all things time and fate obey),
When firft Ortygia floated on the fea;
Such were Cyanean ifles when Typhis steer'd
Betwixt their ftraits, and their collifion fear'd;
They fwam where now they fit; and firmly join'd
Secure of rooting up, refift the wind.
Nor Etna vomiting fulphureous fire
Will ever belch; for fulphur will expire
(The veins exhaufted of the liquid ftore);
Time was the caft no flames; in time will caft

Or when the winds in hollow caves are clos'd,
And fubtil fpirits find that way oppos'd,"
They tofs up flints in air; the flints that hide
The feeds of fire, thus tofs'd in air, collide,
Kindling the fulphur, till the fuel spent
The cave is cool'd, and the fierce winds relent.
Or whether fulphur, catching fire, feeds on,
Its unctuous parts till all the matter gone
The flames no more afcend; for earth fupplies
The fat that feeds them; and when earth donies
That food, by length of time confum'd, the fire
Famifh'd for want of fuel must expire.

A race of men there are, as fame has told,
Who fhivering fuffer Hyperborean cold,
Till, nine times bathing in Minerva's lake,
Soft feathers to defend their naked fides they take,

'Tis faid, the Scythian wives (believe who will) Transform themfelves to birds by magic skill; Smear'd over with an oil of wondrous might, That adds new pinions to their airy flight.

But this by fure experiment we know,
That living creatures from corruption grow:
Hide in a hollow pit a flaughter'd steer,
Bees from his putrid bowels will appear;
Who like their parents haunt the field, and bring
Their honey harvest home, and hope another
fpring.

The warlike fteed is multiply'd, we find,
To wafps and hornets of the warrior kind.
Cut from a crab his crooked claws, and hide
The rest in earth, a scorpion thence will glide
And shoot his fting, his tail in circles tofs'd
Refers the limbs his backward father loft.

And worms, that stretch on leaves their filthy loom,

Crawl from their bags and butterflies become.
Ev'n flime begets the frog's loquacious race:
Short of their feet at first, in little space
With arms and legs endued, long leaps they take,
Rais'd on their hinder part, and swim the lake,
And waves repel; for nature gives their kind,
To that intent, a length of legs behind.

The cubs of bears a living lump appear,
When whelp'd, and no determin'd figure wear.
The mother licks them into shape, and gives
As much of form as the herfelf receives.

The grubs from their fexangular abode Crawl out unfinish'd, like the maggot's brood: Trunks without limbs, till time at leifnre brings The thighs they wanted, and their tardy wings. The bird who draws the car of Juno, vain Of her crown'd head, and of her starry train; And he that bears th' artillery of Jove, The strong pounc'd eagle, and the billing dove : And all the feather'd kind, who could fuppofe (But that from fight, the fur eft fenfe, he knows) 'They from th' included yolk, not ambient white arofe?

There are who think the marrow of a man, Which in the spine, while he was living, ran; When dead, the pitch corrupted, will become A fnake, and hifs within the hollow tomb.

All these receive their birth from other things;
But from himself the phoenix only springs :
Self-born, begotten by the parent flame
In which he burn'd, another and the fame :
Who not by corn or herbs his life fuftains,
But the fweet effence Amomum drains;
And watches the rich gums Arabia bears,
While yet in tender dew they drop their tears.
He (his five centuries of life fulfill'd)
His neft on oaken boughs begins to build,
Or trembling tops of palm: and first he draws
'The plan with his broad bill and crooked claws,
Nature's artificers; on this the pile

Is form'd, and rifes round; then with the spoil
Of Caffia, Cynamon, and stems of Nard,
(For softness ftrew'd beneath) his funeral bed is
Funeral and bridal both; and all around [rear'd:
The borders with corruptlefs myrrh are crown'd:

On this incumbent; till ætherial flame
First catches, then confumes, the costly frame;
Confumes him too, as on the pile he lies:
He liv'd on odours, and in odours dies.

An infant phoenix from the former springs,
His father's heir, and from his tender wings
Shakes off his parent duft, his method he pursues,
And the fame leafe of life on the fame terms re-

news:

When grown to manhood he begins his reign,
And with stiff pinions can his flight sustain,
He lightens of its load the tree that bore
His father's royal fepulchre before,
And his own cradle: this with pious care
Plac'd on his back, he cuts the buxom air,
Seeks the fun's city, and his facred church,
And decently lays down his burden in the porch.
A wonder more amazing would we find?
The Hyæna fhews it, of a double kind,
Varying the fexes in alternate years,
In one begets, and in another bears.
The thin cameleon, fed with air, receives
The colour of the thing to which he cleaves.

India, when conquer'd, on the conquering God
For planted vines the fharp ey'd lynx bestow'd,
Whofe urine, fhed before it touches earth,
Congeals in air, and gives to gems their birth.
So coral, foft and white in ocean's bed,
Comes harden'd up in air, and glows with red.

All changing fpecies fhould my fong recite; Before I ceas'd, would change the day to night. Nations and empires flourish and decay, By turns command, and in their turns obey; Time foftens hardy people, time again Hardens to war a foft, unwarlike train. Thus Troy, for ten long years, her foes withstood, And daily bleeding bore th' expence of blood: Now for thick ftreets it fhews an empty space, Or, only fill'd with tombs of her own perith'd

race,

Herself becomes the fepulchre of what the was.
Mycene, Sparta, Thebes of mighty fame,
Are vanish'd out of fubftance into name,
And Dardan Rome, that just begins to rife,
On Tiber's banks, in time fall mate the skies;
Widening her bounds, and working on her way;
Ev'n now the meditates imperial fway:

Yet this is change, but the by changing thrives,
Like moons new born, and in her cradle ftrives
To fill her infant horns; an hour shall come
When the round world fhall be contain'd in
Rome.

For this old faws foretel, and Helenus Anchifes' drooping fon enliven'd ihus, When Ilium now was in a finking fate, And he was doubtful of his future fate: O Goddess-born, with thy hard fortune ftrive, Troy never can be loft, and thou alive, Thy paffage thou shalt free through fire and sword, And Troy in foreign lands fhall be reftor'd. In happier fields a rifing town I fee, Greater than what e'er was, or is, or e'er fhall be: And heaven yet owes the world a race deriv'd from thee.