While frowning Aufter feeks the fouthern sphere,
And rots, with endless rain, th' unwholsome year.
High o'er the clouds, and empty realms of wind,
The God a clearer fpace for heav'n defign'd;
Where fields of light, and liquid æther flow,
Purg'd from the pond'rous dregs of earth below.
Scarce had the pow'r distinguish'd these, when straight
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 beasts he sends, 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:
Confcious of thought, of more capacious breaft,
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 still, 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 breaft:
No fuppliant crowds before the judge appear'd;
No court erected yet, nor cause was heard;
But all was fafe, for confcience was their guard.
The mountain-trees in diftant prospect please,
Ere yet the pine defcended 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 soft creation flept away their time.
The teeming earth, yet guiltlefs of the plough,
And unprovok'd, did fruitful ftores 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 fpring 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.
The SILVER AGE.
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 brafs, but more exceli'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 houfes 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 AG E.
To this next came in course the brazen age: A warlike offspring prompt to bloody rage, Not impious yet
Hard fteel fucceeded then;
And ftubborn 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 share;
But greedy mortals rummaging her store,
Digg'd from her entrails firft the precious ore;
Which next to hell the prudent Gods had laid;
And that alluring ill to fight difplay'd;
Thus curfed fteel, 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 guest, 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 Justice 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 monsters mix'd; The blood, indu'd with animating heat,
Did in th' impregnate earth new fons beget:
They, like the feed from which they fprung, 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 fkies 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 seats diftinctly known,
And he their father had affum'd the throne,
Upon his iv'ry scepter firft he leant,
Then shook his head that shook 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 bespoke.
I was not more concern'd in that debate
Of empire, when our universal state
Was put to hazard, and the giant race
Our captive skies were ready to embrace:
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