" & abandonnerent tous leur biens pour detonner dans "d'autres temples les vieux pfeaumes de Clement
Page 242.]"La crainte donna le jour à la credulité, " & l'amour propre intereffa bientot le ciel au deftin des "'hommes."
THE Nymphs, who prefide over fprings and rivulets, are addreffed at day-break, in honor of their feveral functions, and of the relations which they bear to the natural and to the moral world. Their origin is deduced from the firft allegorical deities, or powers of nature; according to the doctrine of the old mythological poets, concerning the generation of the gods and the rife of things. They are then fucceffively confidered, as giving motion to the air and exciting fummer-breezes; as nourishing and beautifying the vegetable creation; as contributing to the fullness of navigable rivers, and confequently to the maintenance of commerce; and by that means, to
the maritime part of military power. Next is reprefented their favourable influence upon health, when affifted by rural exercife: which introduces their connection with the art of phyfic, and the happy effects of mineral medicinal fprings. Laftly, they
are celebrated for the friendship which the Mufes bear them, and for the true infpiration which temperance only can receive: in oppofition to the enthufiafm of the more licentious poets.
'ER yonder eastern hill the twilight pale
Walks forth from darkness; and the God of day, With bright Aftræa seated by his side,
Waits yet to leave the ocean. Tarry, Nymphs, Ye Nymphs, ye blue-ey'd progeny of Thames, Who now the mazes of this rugged heath
Trace with your fleeting steps; who all night long Repeat, amid the cool and tranquil air,
Your lonely murmurs, tarry: and receive My offer'd lay. To pay you homage due, I leave the gates of fleep; nor fhall my lyre Too far into the fplendid hours of morn Ingage your audience: my obfervant hand Shall clofe the ftrain ere any fultry beam Approach you. To your fubterranean haunts. Ye then may timely fteal; to pace with care The humid fands; to loofen from the foil The bubbling fources; to direct the rills To meet in wider channels; or beneath Some grotto's dripping arch, at height of noon To flumber, shelter'd from the burning heaven. Where fhall my fong begin, ye Nymphs? or end? Wide is your praife and copious-Firft of things, First of the lonely powers, ere Time arofe,
Were Love and Chaos. Love, the fire of Fate; Elder than Chaos. Born of Fate was Time, Who many fons and many comely births Devour'd, relentlefs father: till the child Of Rhea drove him from the upper sky, And quell'd his deadly might. Then focial reign'd The kindred powers, Tethys, and reverend Ops, And spotlefs Vefta; while fupreme of fway Remain'd the cloud-compeller. From the couch Of Tethys fprang the fedgy crowned race, Who from a thoufand urns, o'er every clime, Send tribute to their parent; and from them Are ye, O Naiads: Arethufa fair,
And tuneful Aganippe; that fweet name, Bandufia; that foft family which dwelt With Syrian Daphne; and the honour'd tribes Belov'd of Pæon. Listen to my train,
Daughters of Tethys liften to your praise.
You, Nymphs, the winged offspring, which of old Aurora to divine Aftræus bore,
Owns ; and your aid befeecheth. When the might Of Hyperion, from his noontide throne, Unbends their languid pinions, aid from you They afk: Favonius and the mild South-west From you relief implore. Your fallying ftreams Fresh vigour to their weary wings impart. Again they fly, difporting; from the mead Half ripen'd and the tender blades of corn, To fweep the noxious mildew; or difpel Contagious teams, which oft the parched earth Breathes
Breathes on her fainting fons. From noon to eve, Along the river and the paved brook,
Afcend the cheerful breezes: hail'd of bards Who, faft by learned Cam, the Æolian lyre Solicit; nor unwelcome to the youth Who on the heights of Tibur, all inclin'd O'er rushing Anio, with a pious hand The reverend fcene delineates, broken fanes, Or tombs, or pillar'd aqueducts, the pomp Of ancient Time; and haply, while he scans The ruins, with a filent tear revolves The fame and fortune of imperious Rome. You too, O Nymphs, and your unenvious aid The rural powers confefs; and still prepare For you their choiceft treasures. Pan commands, Oft as the Delian king with Sirius holds The central heavens, the father of the grove Commands his Dryads over your abodes To fpread their deepest umbrage. Well the god Remembereth how indulgent ye fupplied Your general dews to nurfe them in their prime, Pales, the pafture's queen, where-e'er ye stray, Pursues your steps, delighted; and the path With living verdure clothes. Around your haunts The laughing Chloris, with profusest hand,
Throws wide her blooms, her odors. Still with you Pomona feeks to dwell and o'er the lawns,
And o'er the vale of Richmond, where with Thames -Ye love to wander, Amalthea pours
Well-pleas'd the wealth of that Ammonian horn,
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