No more the Rhine or Rhone their course maintain, Nor Tiber, of his promis'd empire vain.

The ground, deep cleft, admits the dazzling ray, And startles Pluto with the flash of day.

The feas fhrink in, and to the fight disclose

Wide naked plains, where once their billows rofe.;
Their rocks are all difcover'd, and increase
The number of the fcatter'd Cyclades.
The fish in fholes about the bottom creep,
Nor longer dares the crooked dolphin leap :
Gafping for breath, th' unfhapen Phocæ die,
And on the boiling wave extended lie.
Nereus, and Doris with her virgin train,
Seek out the laft receffes of the main ;
Beneath unfathomable depths they faint,
And fecret in their gloomy caverns pant.
Stern Neptune thrice above the waves upheld
His face, and thrice was by the flames repell'a.

The earth at length on every side embrac'd

With fcalding feas, that floated round her waste,
When now she felt the fprings and rivers come,
And crowd within the hollow of her womb,
Up-lifted to the heavens her blafted head,
And clapt her hands upon her brows, and said;
(But first, impatient of the fultry heat,

Sunk deeper down, and fought a cooler feat :)

"If you, great King of Gods, my death approve, "And I deferve it, let me die by Jove;

"If I muft perish by the force of fire,

"Let me transfix'd with thunderbolts expire.

5

-44 See

"See, whilst I speak, my breath the vapours choke,
(For now her face lay wrapt in clouds of fmoke)
"See my fing'd hair, behold my faded eye,
“And wither'd face, where heaps of cinders lie l
"And does the plough for this my body tear?
"This the reward for all the fruits I bear,

Tortur'd with rakes, and harais'd all the year?
That herbs for cattle daily I renew,

}

"And food for man, and frankincense for you? "But grant me guilty; what has Neptune done? "Why are his waters boiling in the fun? "The wavy empire, which by lot was given, "Why does it wafte, and further fhrink from heaven? "If I nor he your pity can provoke,

"See your own heavens, the heavens begin to fmoke! "Should once the fparkles catch those bright abodes, "Destruction feizes on the heavens and gods; "Atlas becomes unequal to his freight,

"And almost faints beneath the glowing weight. "If heaven, and earth, and fea, together burn, "All must again into their chaos turn.

Apply fome speedy cure, prevent our fate, "And fuccour nature, ere it be too late."

She ceas'd; for, chok'd with vapours round her spread,
Down to the deepest fhades fhe funk her head.
Jove call'd to witness every power above,

And ev'n the God, whofe fon the chariot drove,
That what he acts he is compell'd to do,
Or univerfal ruin must enfue.

Straight he afcends the high ethereal throne,

From whence he us'd to dart his thunder down,

From whence his fhowers and ftorms he us'd to pour,
But now could meet with neither storm nor fhower.
Then, aiming at the youth, with lifted hand,
Full at his head he hurl'd the forky brand,

In dreadful thunderings. Thus th' Almighty fire
Supprefs'd the raging of the fires with fire.

At once from life and from the chariot driven,
Th' ambitious boy fell thunder-ftruck from heaven.
The horfes ftarted with a fudden bound,

And flung the reins and chariot to the ground:
The ftudded harness from their necks they broke;
Here fell a wheel, and here a filver spoke,

Here were the beam and axle torn away;

And, fcatter'd o'er the earth, the fhining fragments lay. The breathlefs Phaeton, with flaming hair,

Shot from the chariot, like a falling star,

That in a fummer's evening from the top

Of heaven drops down, or feems at least to drop;
Till on the Po his blafted corpfe was hurl'd,
Far from his country, in the western world;

PHAETON'S SISTERS TRANSFORMED
INTO TREES.

THE Latian nymphs came round him, and amaz'd
On the dead youth, transfix'd with thunder, gaz'd;
And, whilft yet smoking from the bolt he lay,
His fhatter'd body to a tomb convey,

And o'er the tomb an epitaph devife :

"Here he who drove the fun's bright chariot lies; "His father's fiery steeds he could not guide,

But in the glorious enterprize he dy'd."

Apollo

Apollo hid his face, and pin'd for grief,.
And, if the story may deserve belief,
The space of one whole day is faid to run,.
From morn to wonted eve, without a fun :
The burning ruins, with a fainter ray,
Supply the fun, and counterfeit a day,
A day, that ftill did nature's face difclofe :
This comfort from the mighty mischief rofe.
But Clymenè, enrag'd with grief, laments,、
And, as her grief infpires, her passion vents:
Wild for her fon, and frantic in her woes,
With hair dishevel'd, round the world he goes,
To feek where-e'er his body might be caft;
Till, on the borders of the Po, at last
The name infcrib'd on the new tomb appears,
The dear dear name fhe bathes in flowing tears;
Hangs o'er the tomb, unable to depart,

And hugs the marble to her throbbing heart.
Her daughters too lament, and figh, and mourn,
(A fruitless tribute to their brother's urn;)
And beat their naked bofoms, and complain,
And call aloud for Phaeton in vain.:

All the long night their mournful watch they keep, And all the day stand round the tomb and weep.

Four times, revolving, the full moon return'd;
So long the mother and the daughters mourn'd ;
When now the eldeft, Phaethufa, ftrove

To reft her weary. limbs, but could not move;
Lampetia would have help'd her, but she found ́ ́
Herfelf withheld, and rooted to the ground:

A third in wild affliction, as fhe grieves,

Would rend her hair, but fills her hand with leaves;
One fees her thighs transform'd, another views

Her arms shot out, and branching into boughs,
And now their legs, and breafts, and bodies, ftood:
Crufted with bark, and hardening into wood;

But ftill above were female heads display'd,
And mouths, that call'd the mother to their aid.
What could, alas! the weeping mother do ?
From this to that with eager haste she flew,.
And kifs'd her fprouting daughters as they grew.
She tears the bark that to each body cleaves :
And from the verdant fingers ftrips the leaves:
The blood came trickling, where the tore away
The leaves and bark: the maids were heard to says.
"Forbear, miftaken parent, oh! forbear;
"A wounded daughter in each tree you tear;
4 Farewel for ever," Here the bark increas'd,
Clos'd on their faces, and their words fupprefs'd.
The new-made trees in tears of amber run,
Which, harden'd into value by the fun,
Ditil for ever on the ftreams below:

The limpid streams their radiant treasure show,
Mix'd in the fand; whence the rich drops convey'd:
Shine in the dress of the bright Latian maid.

THE TRANSFORMATION OF CYCNUS. INTO A SWAN.

CYCNUS beheld the nymphs transform'd, ally'd To their dead brother, on the mortal fide,

In.