F bodies chang'd to various forms I fing:
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, pois'd, did on her own foundations lie:
Nor feas about the fhores 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 difturb'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 inteftine 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:
Whofe 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 shore.
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 intó a spacious round:
Then, with a breath, he gave the winds to blow; And bade 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 lost.
He fhades the woods, the vallies he reftrains
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, inclosing all,
Surround the compass of this earthly ball:
The lighter parts lie next the fires above;
The groffer near the watry furface move:
Thick clouds are spread, and ftorms engender there,
And thunder's voice, which wretched mortals fear,
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 pafs;
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 Eastern realms, where early Perfians run,
To 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,
To invade the frozen waggon of the North.
While frowning Aufter feeks the fouthern sphere,
And rots, with endless rain, th' unwholfome year.
High o'er the clouds, and empty realms of wind,
The God a clearer space for heav'n design'd;
Where fields of light, and liquid æther flow,
Purg'd from the pond'rous dregs of earth below.
Scarce had the pow'r diftinguish'd thefe, when ftraight
The stars no longer overlaid with weight,
Exert their heads from underneath the mass,
And upward fhoot, and kindle as they pass,
And with diffufive light adorn the heav'nly place.
Then, ev'ry void of nature to fupply,
With forms of Gods he fills the vacant sky:
New herds of beafts he fends, the plains to fhare;
New colonies of birds, to people air;
And to their oozy beds the finny fish repair.
A creature of a more exalted kind
Was wanting yet, and then was man defign'd:
Conscious of thought, of more capacious breast,
For empire form'd, and fit to rule the reft:
Whether with particles of heav'nly fire
The God of nature did his foul inspire;
Or earth, but new divided from the sky,
And pliant ftill, retain'd th' ætherial energy:
Which wife Prometheus temper'd into paste,
And, mixt with living ftreams, the godlike image caft.
Thus, while the mute creation downward bend
Their fight, and to their earthly mother tend,
Man looks aloft, and with erected eyes
Beholds his own hereditary skies.
From fuch rude principles our form began,
And earth was metamorphos'd into man.
The golden age was firft; when man, yet new,
No rule but uncorrupted reason knew;
And, with a native bent, did good pursue.
Unforc'd by punishment, unaw'd by fear,
His words were fimple, and his foul fincere:
Needlefs was written-law, where none oppreft;
The law of man was written in his breast:
No fuppliant crowds before the judge appear'd;
No court erected yet, nor caufe was heard;
But all was fafe, for confcience was their guard.
The mountain-trees in distant prospect please,
Ere yet the pine descended to the feas;
Ere fails were spread, new oceans to explore;
And happy mortals, unconcern'd for more,
Confin'd their wishes to their native fhore.
No walls were yet, nor fence, nor mote, nor mound; Nor drum was heard, nor trumpet's angry found:
Nor fwords were forg'd; but, void of care and crime,
The foft creation flept away their time.
The teeming earth, yet guiltlefs of the plough,
And unprovok'd, did fruitful stores allow:
Content with food, which nature freely bred.
On wildings and on ftrawberries they fed;
Cornels and bramble-berries gave the rest,
And falling acorns furnish'd out a feast.
The flow'rs unfown in fields and meadows reign'd;
And western winds immortal spring maintain'd.
In following years the bearded corn enfu'd
From earth unafk'd, nor was that earth renew'd.
From veins of vallies milk and nectar broke
And honey fweating thro' the pores of oak.
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