Then fix'd the beamy circle on his head,
And fetch'd a deep fore-boding figh, and faid.
"Take this at least, this last advice, my fon :
Keep a ftiff rein, and move but gently on :
"The courfers of themfelves will run too fast,
"Your art must be to moderate their hafte.
“Drive them not on directly through the skies,
"But where the Zodiac's winding circle lies,

Along the midmoft Zone; but fally forth
"Nor to the diftant fouth, nor ftormy north.
"The horfes' hoofs a beaten track will show,
"But neither mount too high, nor fink too low,
"That no new fires or heaven or earth infeft;

66 Keep the mid-way, the middle way is best.
"Nor, where in radiant folds the Serpent twines,
“Direct your course, nor where the Altar fhines.
"Shun both extremes; the reft let fortune guide,
"And better for thee than thyself provide!
"See, while I speak, the fhades disperse away,
"Aurora gives the promise of a day;

"I'm call'd, nor can I make a longer stay.
"Snatch up the reins; or still th' attempt forfake,
"And not my chariot, but my counsel take,
"While yet fecurely on the earth you stand;
"Nor touch the horses with too rafh a hand,
"Let me alone to light the world, while you

Enjoy thofe beams which you may safely view."
He spoke in vain; the youth with active heat
And fprightly vigour vaults into the feat;
And joys to hold the reins, and fondly gives
Thofe thanks his father with remorfe receives.

}

Mean

Mean while the reftlefs horses neigh'd aloud,
Breathing out fire, and pawing where they stood.
Tethys, not knowing what had past, gave way,
And all the waste of heaven before them lay.
They fpring together out, and fwiftly bear
The flying youth through clouds and yielding air ;
With wingy speed outstrip the eastern wind,
And leave the breezes of the morn behind.
The youth was light, nor could he fill the feat,
Or poife the chariot with its wonted weight:
But as at fea th' unbalast vessel rides,

Caft to and fro, the sports of winds and tides;
So in the bounding chariot toss'd on high,
The youth is hurry'd headlong through the sky.
Soon as the steeds perceive it, they forfake
Their stated course, and leave the beaten track.
The youth was in a maze, nor did he know
Which way to turn the reins, or where to go;
Nor would the horses, had he known, obey.
Then the Seven Stars first felt Apollo's ray,
And wifh'd to dip in the forbidden fea.
The folded Serpent next the frozen pole,
Stiff and benumb'd before, began to roll,
And rag'd with inward heat, and threaten'd war,
And shot a redder light from every star;

Nay, and 'tis, faid, Boötes too, that fain

}

Thou wouldst have fled, though cumber'd with thy wain.
Th' unhappy youth then, bending down his head,
Saw earth and ocean far beneath him spread :
His colour chang'd, he startled at the fight,
And his eyes darken'd by too great a light.

Now

Now could he with the fiery steeds untry'd,
- His birth obfcure, and his request deny'd:
-Now would he Merops for his father own,
And quit his boasted kindred to the Sun.

So fares the pilot, when his ship is tot
In troubled seas, and all its fiteerage loft;
He gives her to the winds, and in despair
Seeks his last refuge in the Gods and prayer.
What could he do? His eyes, if backward caft
-Find a long path he had already past;

If forward, still a longer path they find:
Both he compares, and measures in his mind;
And fometimes cafts an eye upon the east,
And fometimes looks on the forbidden west.
The horses' names he knew not in the fright:
Nor would he loose the reins, nor could he hold them tight:
Now all the horrors of the heavens he fpies,

And monstrous fhadows of prodigious fize,

There is a place above, where Scorpio bent
In tail and arms furrounds a vast extent;
In a wide circuit of the heavens he fhines,
And fills the space of two celestial signs.
Soon as the youth beheld him, vex`d with heat,
Brandish his sting, and in his poison sweat,
Half dead with fudden fear he dropt the reins;
The horfes felt them loofe upon their manes,
And, flying out through all the plains above,
Ran uncontrol'd where- e'er their fury drove;
Rush'd on the stars, and through a pathless way,
Of unknown regions hurry'd on the day.

And now above, and now below they flew,
And near the earth the burning chariot drew.

The clouds difperse in fumes, the wondering moon
Beholds her brother's fteeds beneath her own;
The highlands fmoke, cleft by the piercing rays,
Or, clad with woods, in their own fuel blaze.
Next o'er the plains, where ripen'd harvests grow,
The running conflagration spreads below,
But thefe are trivial ills: whole cities burn,
And peopled kingdoms into ashes turn.

The mountains kindle as the car draws near,
Athos and Tmolus red with fires appear;
Oeagrian Hamus (then a fingle name)
And virgin Helicon increafe the flame
Taurus and Oete glare amid the sky,
And Ida, fpite of all her fountains, dry.
Eryx, and Othrys, and Cithæron, glow;
And Rhodope, no longer cloath'd in snow ;'
High Pindus, Mimas, and Parnaffus, fweat,
And Ætna rages with redoubled heat.

Ev'n Scythia, through her hoary regions warm'd,
In vain with all her native froft was arm'd.
Cover'd with flames, the towering Appennine,
And Caucafus, and proud Olympus, shine;
And, where the long-extended Alps afpire,
Now stands a huge continued range of fire.

Th' aftonish'd youth, where-e'er his eyes could turn, Beheld the univerfe around him burn:

The world was in a blaze; nor could he bear

The fultry vapours and the fcorching air,

Which from below, as from a furnace, flow'd;
And now the axle-tree beneath him glow'd:
Loft in the whirling clouds, that round him broke,
And white with afhes, hovering in the smoke,
He flew where-e'er the horfes drove, nor knew
Whither the horses drove, or where he flew.

'Twas then, they fay, the fwarthy Moor begun
To change his hue, and blacken in the fun.
Then Libya first, of all her moisture drain'd,
Became a barren wafte, a wild of fand.
The water-nymphs lament their empty urns;
Boeotia, robb'd of filver Dirce, mourns;
Corinth Pyrene's wafted spring bewails;
And Argos grieves whilft Amymonè fails.
The floods are drain'd from every distant coaft:
Ev'n Tanaïs, though fix'd in ice, was loft;
Enrag'd Caïcus and Lycormas roar,

And Xanthus, fated to be burnt once more.
The fam'd Mxander, that unweary'd strays
Through mazy windings, fiokes in every maze.
From his lov'd Babylon Euphrates flies;
The big-fwoln Ganges and the Danube rise
In thickening fumes, and darken half the skies.
In flames Ifmenos and the Phasis roll'd,
And Tagus floating in his melted gold.

The swans, that on Cäyster often try’d

Their tuneful fongs, now fung their last, and dy'd.
The frighted Nile ran off, and under ground
Conceal'd his head, nor can it yet be found :
His feven divided currents are all dry,

And where they roll'd, feven gaping trenches lic.