But, oh! for ever fhalt thou now bemoan
The two extremes, by which thou wert undone,
The ruthless father, and too tender fon.
With fatal pity, Pompey, haft thou spar'd,
And given the blackest crime the best reward:
How had that one, one happy day, withheld
The blood of Utica, and Munda's field!
The Pharian Nile had known no crime more great
Than fome vile Ptolemy's untimely fate;
Nor Afric, then, nor Juba, had bemoan'd,
Nor Scipio's blood the Punic ghosts aton'd;
Cato had, for his country's good, furviv'd,
And long in peace a hoary patriot liv'd;
Rome had not worn a tyrant's hated chain,
And Fate had undecreed Pharfalia's plain.
But Cæfar, weary of th' unlucky land,
Swift to mathia leads his thatter'd band;
While Pompey's wary friends, with caution wise,
To quit the baffled foe's pursuit advise.
To Italy they point his open way,
And bid him make the willing land his prey.
Oh! never, (he replies) shall Pompey come,
Like Cæfar arm'd, and terrible to Rome;
Nor need I from thofe facred walls have fled,
Could I have borne our streets with flaughter red,
And feen the Forum pil'd with heaps of dead.
Much rather let me pine in Scythia's frost,
Or burn on fwarthy Libya's fultry coast;
No clime, no diftant region, is too far,
Where I can banish, with me, fatal war.
I fled, to bid my country's forrows ceafe;
And fhall my victories invade her peace?
Let her but fafe and free from arms remain,
And Cæfar ftill fhall think fhe wears his chain.
He spoke, and eastward fought the foreft wide,
That rifing clothes Candavia's fhady side;
Thence to Amathia took his deftin'd way,
Referv'd by fate for the deciding day.
Where Eurus blows, and wintery funs arife,
Theffalia's boundary proud Offa lies;
But when the god protracts the longer day,
Pelion's broad back receives the dawning ray.
Where through the Lion's fiery fign he flies,
Othrys his leafy groves for fhades fupplies.
On Pindus ftrikes the fady weftern light,
When glittering Vefper leads the ftarry night.
Northward, Olympus hides the lamps, that roll
Their paler fires around the frozen pole.
The middle fpace, a valley low deprefs'd,
Once a wide, lazy, ftanding lake poffefs'd;
While growing ftill the heapy waters stood,
Nor down through Tempe ran the rushing flood:
But when Alcides to the task apply'd,
And cleft a paffage through the mountains wide;
Gufhing at once the thundering torrent flow'd,
While Nereus groan'd beneath th' increafing load. 575
Then rofe (oh, that it ftill a lake had lain!)
Above the waves Pharfalia's fatal plain,
Once fubject to the great Achilles' reign,
Then Phylace was built, whofe warriors boast
Their chief first landed on the Trojan coast;
Then Pteleos ran her circling wall around,
And Dorion, for the Mufes' wrath renown'd:
Then Trachin high, and Meliboa stood,
Where Hercules his fatal fhafts bestow'd;
Lariffa ftrong arofe, and Argos, now
A plain, submitted to the labouring plow.
Here ftood the town, if there be truth in fame,
That from Boeotian Thebes receiv'd its name.
Here fad Agave's wandering sense return'd,
Here for her murder'd fon the mother mourn'd;
With ftreaming tears she wash'd his ghaftly head,
And on the funeral pile the precious relick laid.
The gushing waters various foon divide,
And every river rules a feparate tide i
The narrow as runs a limpid flood,
Evenos blushes with the Centaur's blood;
That gently mingles with th' Ionian sea,
While this, through Calydonia, cuts his way.
Slowly fair Io's aged father falls,
And in hoarfe murmurs his loft daughter calls.
Thick Acheloüs rolls his troubled waves,
And heavily the neighbour ifles he laves;
While pure Amphrysus winds along the mead,
Where Phoebus once was wont his flocks to feed:
Oft on the banks he fat a fhepherd swain,
And watch'd his charge upon the grassy plain.
Swift to the main his course Sperchios bends,
And, founding, to the Malian gulph defcends.
No breezy air near calm Anauros flies,
No dewy mifts, nor fleecy clouds arise.
Here Phoenix, Melas, and Afopus run,
And strong Apidanus drives flow Enipeus on.
A thousand little brooks, unknown to fame,
Are mix'd, and loft in Peneus' nobler name :
Bold Titarefus fcorns his rule, alone,
And, join'd to Peneus, ftill himself is known:
As o'er the land his haughty waters glide,
And roll, unmingling, a fuperior tide.
'Tis said, through secret channels winding forth,
Deep as from Styx he takes his hallow'd birth:
Thence, proud to be rever'd by gods on high,
He fcorns to mingle with a mean ally.
When rifing grounds uprear'd at length their heads,
And rivers fhrunk within their oozy beds;
Bebrycians first are faid, with early care,
In furrows deep to fink the fhining share.
The Lelegians next, with equal toil,
And Dolopes, invade the mellow foil.
To these the bold Æolidæ fucceed,
Magnetes, taught to rein the fiery steed,
And Minyæ, to explore the deep, decreed.
Here pregnant by Ixion's bold embrace,
The mother Cloud difclos'd the Centaurs' race:
In Pelethronian caves fhe brought them forth,
And fill'd the land with many a monftrous birth. 635
Here dreadful Monychus first saw the light,
And prov'd on Pholoe's rending rocks his might;
Here talleft trees uprooting Rhocus bore,
Which baffled ftorms had try'd in vain before.
Here Pholus, of a gentler human breast,
Receiv'd the great Alcides for his guest.
Here, with brute-fury, luftful Neffus try'd
To violate the hero's beauteous bride,
'Tis juftly by the fatal fhaft he dy'd.
This parent land the pious leach confeft,
Chiron, of all the double race the best :
'Midft golden ftars he stands refulgent now,
And threats the fcorpion with his bended bow.
Here love of arms and battle reign'd of old,
And form'd the first Theffalians fierce and bold:
Here, from rude rocks, at Neptune's potent ftroke,
Omen of war, the neighing courfer broke ;
Here, taught by fkilful riders to fubmit,
He champ'd indignant on the foamy bit.
From fair Theffalia's Pegafæan fhore,
The first bold pine the daring warriors bore,
And taught the fons of earth wide oceans to explore.
Here, when Itonus held the regal seat,
The ftubborn fteel he first subdued with heat,
And the tough bars on founding anvils beat :
In furnaces he ran the liquid brass,
And caft in curious works the molten mass.
He taught the ruder artist to refine,
Explor'd the filver and the golden mine,
And ftamp'd the coftly metal into coin.
From that old æra avarice was known,
Then all the deadly feeds of war were fown;
Wide o'er the world, by tale, the mischief ran,
And those curft pieces were the bane of man.
Huge Python, here, in many a fcaly fold,
To Cyrrha's cave a length enormous roll'd:
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