Crete, fam'd for monfters, wanted of her store,
Till my new love produc'd one monster more.
The daughter of the fun a bull defir'd,
And yet ev'n then a male a female fir'd:
Her paffion was extravagantly new:

But mine is much the madder of the two.
To things impoffible fhe was not bent,
But found the means to compafs her intent.
To cheat his eyes, fhe took a different shape;
Yet ftill fhe gain'd a lover, and a leap.
Should all the wit of all the world conspire,
Should Doedalus affift my wild defire,
What art can make me able to enjoy,
Or what can change Ianthe to a boy?
Extinguish then thy paffion, hopeless maid,
And recollect thy reason for thy aid.

Know what thou art, and love as maidens ought,
And drive thefe golden wishes from thy thought.
Thou canst not hope thy fond defires to gain;
Where hope is wanting, wishes are in vain.
And yet no guards against our joys conspire;
No jealous hufband hinders our defire;
My parents are propitious to my wish,
And the herself confenting to the blifs.
All things concur to prosper our design ;
All things to profper any love but mine.
And yet I never can enjoy the fair;

"Tis paft the power of heaven to grant my prayer.
Heaven has been kind, as far as heaven can be
Our parents with our own defires agree;

But

But Nature, ftronger than the Gods above,
Refufes her affiftance to my love;

She fets the bar that caufes all my pain:
One gift refus'd makes all their bounty vain.
And now the happy day is juft at hand,
To bind our hearts in Hymen's holy band:
Our hearts, but not our bodies: Thus accurs'd,
In midst of water I complain of thirst.
Why com'ft thou, Juno, to these barren rites,
To blefs a bed defrauded of delights?
And why fhould Hymen lift his torch on high,
To fee two brides in cold embraces lie?

Thus love-fick Iphis her vain paffion mourns
With equal ardor fair Ianthe burns,
Invoking Hymen's name, and Juno's power,
To speed the work, and hafte the happy hour.
She hopes, while Telethufa fears the day,
And ftrives to interpose some new delay:
Now feigns a ficknefs, now is in a fright
For this bad omen, or that boding fight.
But, having done whate'er fhe could devife,
And empty'd all her magazine of lies,
The time approach'd; the next enfuing day
The fatal fecret muft to light betray.
Then Telethufa had recourse to prayer,
She and her daughter with difhevel'd hair;
Trembling with fear, great Ifis they ador'd,
Embrac'd her altar, and her aid implor'd.
Fair queen, who doft on fruitful Egypt fimile,
Who fway'ft the fceptre of the Pharian ifle,
And seven-fold falls of difemboguing Nile;

Relieve,

Relieve, in this our laft diftrefs, the faid,
A fuppliant mother, and a mournful maid.
Thou, Goddess, thou wert present to my fight;
Reveal'd I faw thee by thy own fair light:

I faw thee in my dream, as now I fee,
With all thy marks of awful majesty :

The glorious train that compass'd thee around;
And heard the hollow timbrel's holy found.
Thy words I noted; which I ftill retain ;
Let not thy facred oracles be vain.
That Iphis lives, that I myself am free
From shame, and punishment, I owe to thee.
On thy protection all our hopes depend:
Thy counfel fav'd us, let thy power defend.

Her tears pursued her words; and while she spoke The Goddess nodded, and her altar fhook :

The temple doors, as with a blast of wind,
Were heard to clap; the lunar horns that bind
The brows of Ifis caft a blaze around;

The trembling timbrel made a murmuring found.
Some hopes thefe happy omens did impart;
Forth went the mother with a beating heart,
Not much in fear, nor fully fatisfy'd;
But Iphis follow'd with a larger ftride :
The whiteness of her skin forfook her face;
Her looks embolden'd with an awful grace;
Her features and her ftrength together grew,
And her long hair to curling locks withdrev.
Her fparkling eyes with manly vigour shone;
Big was her voice, audacious was her tone.

The

The latent parts, at length reveal'd, began
To fhoot, and fspread, and burnish into man.
The maid becomes a youth; no more delay
Your vows, but look, and confidently pay.
Their gifts the parents to the temple bear :
The votive tables this infcription wear :
Iphis, the man, has to the Goddess paid
The vows, that Iphis offer'd when a maid.
Now when the ftar of day had fhewn his face,
Venus and Juno with their presence grace
The nuptial rites, and Hymen from above
Defcended to complete their happy love;
The Gods of marriage lend their mutual aid;
And the warm youth enjoys the lovely maid.

PYG.

PYGMALION and the STATUE.

From the TENTH BOOK of

OVID's METAMORPHOSES.

The Propatides, for their impudent behaviour, being turned into fone by Venus, Pygmalion, prince of Cyprus, detefted all women for their fake, and resolved never to marry. He falls in love with a fiatue of his own making, which is changed into a maid, whom be marries. One of his defcendants is Cinyras, the father of Myrrha: the daughter incefluously loves her own father; for which he is changed into a tree which bears her name. Thefe two ftories immediately follow each other, and are admirably well connected.

Ygmalion, loathing their lafcivious life,

Abhorr'd all womankind, but most a wife :
So fingle chofe to live, and fhunn'd to wed,
Well pleas'd to want a confort of his bed:
Yet, fearing idlenefs, the nurfe of ill,
In fculpture exercis'd his happy skill;
And carv'd in ivory such a maid, so fair,
As nature could not with his art compare,
Were fhe to work; but, in her own defence,
Muft take her pattern here, and copy hence.

Pleas'd