But when good Saturn banish'd from above,
Was driv'n to hell, the world was under Jove.
Succeeding times a filver age behold,
Excelling brass, but more excell'd by gold.
Then Summer, Autumn, Winter did appear;
And Spring was but a season of the year.
The fun his annual courfe obliquely made,
Good days contracted, and enlarg'd the bad.
Then air with fultry heats began to glow,
The wings of winds were clog'd with ice and fnow;
And fhivering mortals, into houses driv'n,
Sought shelter from th' inclemency of heav'n.
Thofe houses, then, were caves, or homely fheds,
With twining oziers fenc'd, and mofs their beds.
Then ploughs, for feed, the fruitful furrows broke,
And oxen labour'd first beneath the yoke.
The BRAZEN AGE.
To this next came in course the brazen age: A warlike offspring prompt to bloody rage, Not impious yet
The IRON AGE.
Hard fteel fucceeded then;
And stubborn as the metal were the men.
Truth, Modefty, and Shame, the world forfook:
Fraud, Avarice, and Force, their places took.
Then fails were spread to ev'ry wind that blew;
Raw were the failors, and the depths were new:
Trees rudely hollow'd, did the waves sustain;
Ere fhips in triumph plough'd the watry plain.
Then land-marks limited to each his right:
For all before was common as the light.
Nor was the ground alone requir'd to bear
Her annual income to the crooked fhare;
But greedy mortals rummaging her store,
Digg'd from her entrails firft the precious ore;
Which next to hell the pruder.t Gods had laid;
And that alluring ill to fight difplay'd;
Thus curfed iteel, and more accurfed gold
Gave mischief birth, and made that mischief bold:
And double death did wretched man invade,
By steel affaulted, and by gold betray'd.
Now (brandish'd weapons glitt'ring in their hands)
Mankind is broken loofe from moral bands;
No rights of hofpitality remain:
The gueft, by him who harbour'd him, is flain:
The fon-in-law pursues the father's life;
The wife her husband murders, he the wife.
The step-dame poifon for the fon prepares;
The fon inquires into his father's years.
Faith flies, and Piety in exile mourns;
And Juftice here oppreft, to heav'n returns.
Nor were the Gods themselves more fafe above; Against beleaguer'd heav'n the giants move.. Hills pil'd on hills, on mountains mountains lie, To make their mad approaches to the sky. Till Jove, no longer patient, took his time T' avenge with thunder their audacious crime: Red light'ning play'd along the firmament, And their demolish'd works to pieces rent. Sing'd with the flames, and with the bolts transfix'd, With native earth their blood the monfters mix'd; The blood, indu'd with animating heat,
Did in th' impregnate earth new fons beget:
They, like the feed from which they sprung, accurft
Against the Gods immortal hatred nurft:
An impious, arrogant, and cruel brood;
Expreffing their original from blood.
Which when the king of Gods beheld from high
(Withal revolving in his memory,
What he himself had found on earth of late,
Lycaon's guilt, and his inhuman treat)
He figh'd, nor longer with his pity ftrove;
But kindled to a wrath becoming Jove;
Then call'd a general council of the Gods;
Who, fummon'd, iffue from their bleft abodes,
And fill th' affembly with a fhining train.
A way there is in heav'n's expanded plain,
Which, when the skies are clear, is feen below,
And mortals by the name of milky know.
The ground-work is of ftars; through which the road
Lies open to the thunderer's abode.
The Gods of greater nations dwell around,
And, on the right and left the palace bound;
The commons where they can; the nobler fort,
With winding doors wide open, front the court.
This place, as far as earth with heav'n may vie,
I dare to call the Louvre of the sky.
When all were plac'd, in feats distinctly known,
And he their father had affum'd the throne,
Upon his iv'ry fcepter first he leant,
Then fhook his head that fhook the firmament:
Air, earth, and feas, obey'd th' almighty nod;
And, with a general fear, confefs'd the God.
At length with indignation, thus he broke
His awful filence, and the pow'rs befpoke.
I was not more concern'd in that debate
Of empire, when our univerfal ftate
Was put to hazard, and the giant race
Our captive skies were ready to embrace:
For tho' the foe was fierce, the feeds of all
Rebellion fprung from one original;
Now wherefoever ambient waters glide,
All are corrupt and all must be destroy'd.
Let me this holy proteftation make:
By hell and hell's inviolable lake,
I try'd whatever in the God-head lay,
But gangren'd members must be lopt away,
Before the nobler parts are tainted to decay.
There dwells below a race of Demi-gods,
Of nymphs in waters, and of fawns in woods!
Who, tho' not worthy yet in heav'n to live,
Let 'em at least enjoy that earth we give.
Can these be thought fecurely lodg'd below,
When I myself, who no fuperior know,
I, who have heav'n and earth at my command,
Have been attempted by Lycaon's hand?
At this a murmur thro' the fynod went,
And with one voice they vote his punishment.
Thus, when confpiring traitors, dar'd to doom
'The fall of Cæfar, and in him of Rome,
'The nations trembled with a pious fear;
All anxious for their earthly thunderer:
Nor was their care, O Cæfar, less esteem'd
By thee, than that of heaven for Jove was deem'd:
Who with his hand, and voice, did first restrain
Their murmurs, then refum'd his speech again,
The Gods to filence were compos'd, and fat
With rev'rence due to his fuperior state.
Cancel your pious cares; already he
Has paid his debt to justice, and to me.
Yet what his crimes, and what my judgments were,
Remains for me thus briefly to declare.
The clamours of this vile degenerate age,
The cries of orphans, and th' oppreffor's rage,
Had reach'd the ftars; I will defcend, faid E,
In hope to prove this loud complaint a lie.
Difguifs'd in human fhape, I travel'd round
The world, and more than what I heard, I found.
O'er Mænalus I took my steepy way,
By caverns infamous for beafts of prey:
Then crofs'd Cyllene, and the piny fhade,
More infamous by curft Lycaon made:
Dark night had cover'd heav'n and earth, before
I enter'd his unhofpitable door.
Juft at my entrance, I difplay'd the fign
That fomewhat was approaching of divine.
The proftrate people pray; the tyrant grins;
And, adding prophanation to his fins,
I'll try, faid he, and if a God appear,
Το prove his deity fhall cost him dear.
"Twas late; the graceless wretch my death
prepares,
When I should foundly fleep, oppreft with cares:
This dire experiment he chofe, to prove
If I were mortal, or undoubted Jove:
But first he had refolv'd to taste my pow'r:
Not long before, but in a luckless hour,
Some legates fent from the Moloffian ftate,
Were on a peaceful errand come to treat:
Of thefe he murders one, he boils the flesh,
And lays the mangled morfels in a dish:
Some part he roafts; then ferves it up fo dreft,
And bids me welcome to this human feast.
Mov'd with difdain, the table I o'erturn'd;
And with avenging flames the palace burn'd.
The tyrant in a fright, for fhelter gains
The neighb'ring fields, and fcours along the plains.
Howling he fled, and fain he wou'd have spoke,
But human voice his brutal tongue forfook.
About his lips the gather'd foam he churns,
And breathing flaughter, ftill with rage he burns,
But on the bleating flock his fury turns.
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