"That, confcious of her shame, avoids the light, And found him out, and told the fatal truth The god was wroth; the colour left his look, Down fell the wounded nymph, and fadly groan'd, The god diffolves in pity at her death; He hates the bird that made her falfehood known, K 2 } With With fighs and groans her obfequies he kept, But, left his offspring fhould her fate partake, OCYRRHÖE TRANSFORM'D TO a mare. OLD Chiron took the babe with secret joy, Proud of the charge of the celestial boy, His daughter too, whom on the fandy fhore, The nymph Chariclo to the centaur bore, With hair dishevel'd on her fhoulders, came To fee the child, Ocyrrhöe was her name; She knew her father's art, and could rehearse The depths of prophecy in founding verse. Once, as the facred infant she survey'd, The god was kindled in the raving maid, And thus fhe utter'd her prophetic tale; "Hail, great physician of the world, all hail; "Hail, mighty infant, who in years to come "Shall heal the nations, and defraud the tomb; "Swift be thy growth! thy triumphs unconfin'd! "Make kingdoms thicker, and increase mankind. "Thy daring art shall animate the dead, "And draw the thunder on thy guilty head: 6 Then "Then fhalt thou die; but from the dark abode "Rife up victorious, and be twice a god. "And thou, my fire, not deftin'd by thy birth "To turn to dust, and mix with common earth, "How wilt thou tofs, and rave, and long to die, "And quit thy claim to immortality; "When thou shalt feel, inrag'd with inward pains, "The Hydra's venom rankling in thy veins ? "The gods in pity fhall contract thy date ; "And give thee over to the power of fate." Thus, entering into deftiny, the maid The fecrets of offended Jove betray'd: More had the ftill to fay; but now appears Opprefs'd with fobs and fighs, and drown'd in tears. My voice, fays fhe, is gone, my language fails; "Through every limb my kindred shape prevails; "Why did the god this fatal gift impart, "And with prophetic raptures fwell my heart? "What new defires are these? I long to pace "O'er flowery meadows, and to feed on grass; "I haften to a brute, a maid no more; "But why, alas! am I transform'd all o'er ? "My fire does half a human shape retain, "And in his upper parts preserves the man." Her tongue no more distinct complaints affords, But in fhrill accents and mif-fhapen words Pours forth fuch hideous wailings, as declare The human form confounded in the mare : Till by degrees, accomplish'd in the beaft, She neigh'd outright, and all the steed expreft. Her stooping body on her hands is borne, Her hands are turn'd to hoofs, and fhod in horn; And in her flowing tail the frisks her train. THE TRANSFORMATION OF BATTUS TO SORE wept the centaur, and to Phœbus pray'd; In Elis then a herd of beeves he drove; As once, attentive to his pipe, he play'd, His favourite mares, and watch the generous breed. The + The god withdrew, but ftraight return'd again, In fpeech and habit like a country swain; And cried out, Neighbour, haft thou seen a stray "Of bullocks and of heifers pass this way? "In the recovery of my cattle join, "A bullock and a heifer fhall be thine." The peafant quick replies, "You'll find them there "In yon dark vale :" and in the vale they were. The double bribe had his falfe heart beguil'd: The god, fuccefsful in the trial, smil'd; "And doft thou thus betray myself to me? "Me to myself doft thou betray?" fays he : Then to a Touch-ftone turns the faithless spy, And in his name records his infamy. THE STORY OF AGLAUROS, TRANSFORM D INTO A STATUE. THIS done, the god flew up on high, and pass'd O'er lofty Athens, by Minerva grac'd, And wide Munichia, whilft his eyes furvey All the vast region that beneath him lay. 'Twas now the feaft, when each Athenian maid Her yearly homage to Minerva paid; In canisters, with garlands cover'd o'er ; The god well-pleas'd beheld the pompous fhow, K4 That |