This faid, her hand within her hair fhe wound,
Swung her to earth, and dragg'd her on the ground:
The proftrate wretch lifts up her arms in prayer;
Her arms grow fhaggy, and deform'd with hair,
Her nails are sharpen'd into pointed claws,

Her hands bear half her weight, and turn to paws;
Her lips, that once could tempt a god, begin
To grow distorted in an ugly grin.

And; left the fupplicating brute might reach
The ears of Jove, he was depriv'd of speech:
Her furly voice through a hoarse passage came
In favage founds: her mind was still the fame.
The furry monfter fix'd her eyes above,

And heav'd her new unweildy paws to Jove,

And begg'd his aid with inward groans; and though She could not call him falfe, the thought him fo.

How did the fear to lodge in woods alone,

And haunt the fields and meadows once her own!
How often would the deep-mouth'd dogs pursue,
Whilft from her hounds the frighted huntress flew !
How did the fear her fellow brutes, and fhun
The shaggy bear, though now herself was one!
How from the fight of rugged wolves retire,
Although the grim Lycaon was her fire!

But now her fon had fifteen fummers told,
Fierce at the chace, and in the foreft bold;
When, as he beat the woods in queft of prey,
He chanc'd to roufe his mother where the lay.
She knew her fon, and kept him in her fight,
And fondly gaz'd: the boy was in a fright,

2

And

And aim'd a pointed arrow at her breast;

And would have flain his mother in the beast ;
But Jove forbad, and snatch'd them through the air
In whirlwinds up to heaven, and fix'd them there :
Where the new constellations nightly rise,

And add a luftre to the northern skies.

When Juno faw the rival in her height, Spangled with stars, and circled round with light, She fought old Ocean in his deep abodes,

And Tethys, both rever'd among the gods.

They ask what brings her there. "Ne'er afk, fays fhe, "What brings me here; heaven is no place for me. "You'll fee, when night has cover'd all things o'er, "Jove's ftarry baftard and triumphant whore

Ufurp the heavens; you'll fee them proudly roll "In their new orbs, and brighten all the pole. "And who fhall now on Juno's altar wait, "When those the hates grow greater by her hate? "I on the nymph a brutal form imprefs'd, "Jove to a goddess has transform'd the beaft: "This, this was all my weak revenge could do: "But let the gód his chaste amours pursue, "And, as he acted after Io's rape,

"Reftore th' adulterefs to her former shape; "Then may he cast his Juno off, and lead "The great Lycaon's offspring to his bed. "But you, ye venerable powers, be kind;

And, if my wrongs a due refentment find, "Receive not in your waves their fetting beams, "Nor let the glaring ftrumpet taint your streams."

The

The goddefs ended, and her with was given. Back the return'd in triumph up to heaven; Her gaudy peacocks drew her through the skies, Their tails were fpotted with a thousand eyes; The eyes of Argus on their tails were rang'd, At the fame time the raven's colour chang'd.

THE STORY OF CORONIS, AND BIRTH OF ESCULAPIUS.

THE raven once in fnowy plumes was dreft,
White as the whiteft dove's unfully'd breast,
Fair as the guardian of the capitol,

Soft as the swan; a large and lovely fowl;
His tongue, his prating tongue, had chang'd him quite
To footy blacknefs from the pureft white.

The ftory of his change fhall here be told;
In Theffaly there liv'd a nymph of old,
Coronis nam'd; a peerless maid she shin'd,
Confeft the faireft of the fairer kind.
Apollo lov'd her, till her guilt he knew ;
While true she was, or whilst he thought her true.
But his own bird the raven chanc'd to find
The falfe-one with a secret rival join'd.
Coronis begg'd him to fupprefs the tale,
But could not with repeated prayers prevail.
His milk-white pinions to the god he ply'd;
The busy daw flew with him fide by fide,
And by a thousand teazing questions drew
Th' important fecret from him as they flew,
The daw gave honeft counsel, though despis'd,
And, tedious in her tattle, thus advis'd.

"Stay

"Stay, filly bird, th' ill-natur'd task refuse,
"Nor be the bearer of unwelcome news.
"Be warn'd by my exainple: you difcern
"What now I am, and what I was fhall learn.

My foolish honesty was all my crime;

"Then hear my ftory. Once upon a time,
"The two-fhap'd Ericthonius had his birth
" (Without a mother) from the teeming earth;
"Minerva nurs'd him, and the infant laid
"Within a cheft, of twining ofiers made.
"The daughters of king Cecrops undertook
"To guard the cheft, commanded not to look
"On what was hid within. I ftood to fee

"The charge obey'd, perch'd on a neighbouring tree. "The fifters Pandrofos and Hersè keep

"The ftrict command; Aglauros needs would peep, "And faw the monstrous infant in a fright, "And call'd her fifters to the hideous fight: "A boy's foft shape did to the waist prevail, "But the boy ended in a dragon's tail. "I told the ftern Minerva all that pafs'd, "But, for my pains, difcarded and difgrac'd, "The frowning goddess drove me from her fight, "And for her favourite chose the bird of night. "Be then no tell-tale; for I think my wrong << Enough to teach a bird to hold her tongue. "But you, perhaps, may think I was remov'd, "As never by the heavenly maid belov'd ; "But I was lov'd; ask Pallas if I lie;

Though Pallas hate me now, the won't deny ;

"For I, whom in a feather'd shape you view, "Was once a maid (by heaven the story 's true) "A blooming maid, and a king's daughter too. “A croud of lovers own'd my beauty's charms; "My beauty was the cause of all my harms; "Neptune, as on his fhores I went to rove, "Obferv'd me in my walks, and fell in love. "He made his courtship, he confess'd his pain, "And offer'd force when all his arts were vain; "Swift he pursued : I ran along the strand, "Till, fpent and weary'd on the finking fand, "I fhriek'd aloud, with cries I fill'd the air “To gods and men; nor god nor man was there : "A virgin goddess heard a virgin's prayer. "For, as my arms I lifted to the skies, "I faw black feathers from my fingers rife ; "I ftrove to fling my garment on the ground; "My garment turn'd to plumes, and girt me round. "My hands to beat my naked bosom try; "Nor naked bofom now nor hands had I,

" Lightly I tript, nor weary as before

« Sunk in the sand, but skimm'd along the shore
« Till, rifing on my wings, I was prefer'd
"To be the chafte Minerva's virgin bird:
« Prefer'd in vain! I now am in disgrace :
Nyctimene the owl enjoys my place.
"On her inceftuous life I need not dwell
"(In Lesbos ftill the horrid tale they tell);
« And of her dire amours you must have heard,
"For which fhe now does penance in a bird,

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