Ye Gods, from whence these miracles did
Spring,
Infpire my numbers with celeftial heat;
'Till I my long laborious work compleat ;
And add perpetual tenor to my rhymes,
Deduc'd from nature's birth, to Cæfar's times.
Before the feas, and this terrestrial ball, And heaven's high canopy, that covers all, One was the face of nature, if a face; Rather a rude and indigested mass:
A lifeless lump, unfashion'd, and unfram'd,
Of jarring feeds, and justly Chaos nam'd.
No fun was lighted up the world to view
No moon did yet her blunted horns renew:
Nor yet was earth suspended in the sky ;
Nor, póis'd, did on her own foundations lie;
Nor feas about the shores their arms had thrown ;
But earth, and air, and water, were in one.
Thus air was void of light, and earth unstable,
And water's dark abyfs unnavigable.
No certain form on any was impreft;
All were confus'd, and each disturb'd the rest,
For hot and cold were in one body fixt,
And foft with hard, and light with heavy mixt.
But God, or Nature, while they thus contend, To these intestine difcords put an end.
Then earth from air, and feas from earth were driv'n,
And groffer air funk from ætherial heav'n.
Thus difembroil'd, they take their proper place;)
The next of kin contiguously embrace;
And foes are funder'd by a larger space.
The force of fire afcended firft on high,
And took its dwelling in the vaulted sky.
Then air fucceeds, in lightness next to fire:
Whose atoms from unactive earth retire.
Earth finks beneath, and draws a num'rous throng
Of pond'rous, thick, unwieldy feeds along.
About her coafts unruly waters roar,
And, rifing on a ridge, infult the fhore.
Thus when the God, whatever God was he,
Had form'd the whole, and made the parts agree,
That no unequal portions might be found,
He moulded earth into a spacious round:
Then, with a breath, he gave the winds to blow;
And bad the congregated waters flow.
He adds the running fprings, and standing lakes;
And bounding banks for winding rivers makes.
Some part in earth are fwallow'd up, the moft
In ample oceans, difembogu'd, are loft.
He shades the woods, the vallies he restrains
With rocky mountains, and extends the plains.
And as five zones th' ætherial regions bind,
Five, correfpondent, are to earth affign'd:
The fun with rays, directly darting down,
Fires all beneath, and fries the middle zone:
The two beneath the diftant poles complain
Of endless winter, and perpetual rain.
Betwixt th' extremes, two happier climates hold
The temper that partakes of hot and cold.
The fields of liquid air, inclofing all,
Surround the compass of this earthly ball :
The lighter parts lie next the fires above;
The groffer near the watry surface move:
Thick clouds are spread, and ftorms engender
And thunder's voice, which wretched mortals
And winds that on their wings cold winter bear.
Nor were those bluftring brethren left at large,
On feas and fhores their fury to discharge:
Bound as they are, and circumfcrib'd in place,
They rend the world, refiftlefs, where they pass,
And mighty marks of mischief leave behind;
Such is the rage of their tempeftuous kind.
First Eurus to the rifing morn is fent,
(The regions of the balmy continent)
And Eaftern realms, where early Perfians run,
Το
greet the bleft appearance of the fun.
Weftward the wanton Zephyr wings his flight,
Pleas'd with the remnants of departing light:
Fierce Boreas with his offspring iffues forth,
invade the frozen waggon of the North.
|