Darkness we see emerges into light, And fhining funs defcend to fable night; Ev'n heaven itself receives another die, When weary'd animals in flumbers lie Of midnight eafe; another, when the gray Of morn preludes the splendor of the day. The disk of Phoebus, when he climbs on high, Appears at first but as a bloodshot eye; And when his chariot downward drives to bed, His ball is with the fame fuffufion red; But mounted high in his meridian race All bright he fhines, and with a better face: For there, pure particles of æther flow, Far from th' infection of the world below. Nor equal light th' unequal moon adorns, Or in her wexing, or her waning horns. For every day the wanes, her face is lefs, But, gathering into globe, the fattens at increase. Per ceiv'ft thou not the process of the year, How the four feafons in four forms appear, Refembling human life in every fhape they wear? Spring firft, like infancy, fhoots out her head, With milky juice requiring to be fed : Helpless, though fresh, and wanting to be led. The green ftem grows in ftature and in fize, But only feeds with hope the farmer's eyes ; Then laughs the childish year with flowerets crown'd, And lavishly perfumes the fields around, But no fubftantial nourishment receives, Infirm the ftalks, unfolid are the leaves.

Proceeding

1

Proceeding onward whence the year began,
The fummer grows adult, and ripens into man.
This feafon, as in men, is moft repleat
With kindly moisture, and prolific heat.
Autumn fucceeds, a fober tepid age,
Not froze with fear, nor boiling into rage;
More than mature, and tending to decay,

When our brown locks repine to mix with odious grey.

Laft, winter creeps along with tardy pace, Sour is his front, and furrow'd is his face. His fcalp if not dishonour'd quite of hair,

The ragged fleece is thin, and thin is worse than bare.
Ev'n our own bodies daily change receive,

Some part of what was theirs before they leave;
Nor are to-day what yesterday they were;

Nor the whole fame to-morrow will appear.

Time was, when we were sow'd, and just began, From fome few fruitful drops, the promise of a man ; Then Nature's hand (fermented as it was) Moulded to shape the foft, coagulated mass; And when the little man was fully form'd, The breathless embryo with a spirit warm'd; But when the mother's throes begin to come, The creature, pent within the narrow room, Breaks his blind prifon, pushing to repair His ftifled breath, and draw the living air; Caft on the margin of the world he lies, A helpless babe, but by inftinct he cries. He next effsays to walk, but downward prefs'd On four feet imitates his hrother beaft:

By

By flow degrees he gathers from the ground
His legs, and to the rolling chair is bound;
Then walks alone; a horfeman now become,
He rides a ftick, and travels round the room :
In time he vaunts among his youthful peers,
Strong-bon'd, and ftrung with nerves, in pride of years,
He runs with mettle his firft merry stage,
Maintains the next, abated of his rage,

But manages his ftrength, and spares his age.
Heavy the third, and stiff, he finks apace,

}

And though 'tis down-hill all, but creeps along the race.
Now fapless on the verge of death he stands,
Contemplating his former feet and hands;
And, Milo-like, his slacken'd finews fees,
And wither'd arms, once fit to cope with Hercules,
Unable now to shake, much lefs to tear, the trees.
So Helen wept, when her too faithful glass
Reflected to her eyes the ruins of her face :
Wondering what charms her ravishers could fpy,
To force her twice, or ev'n but once enjoy!
Thy teeth, devouring time, thine, envious age,
On things below ftill exercise your rage :
With venom'd grinders you corrupt your meat,
And then, at lingering meals, the morsels eat.
Nor thofe, which elements we call, abide,
Nor to this figure, nor to that, are ty’d;
For this eternal world is faid of old

But four prolific principles to hold,

Four different bodies; two to heaven afcend,
And other two down to the centre tend:

VOL. IV.

L

Fire

Fire firft with wings expanded mounts on high,
Pure, void of weight, and dwells in upper sky ;
Then air, because unclog'd in empty space,
Flies after fire, and claims the fecond place:
But weighty water, as her nature guides,

Lies on the lap of earth, and mother earth fubfides.
All things are mixt with thefe, which all contain,
And into thefe are all refolv'd again :
Earth rarifies to dew; expanded more
The fubtil dew in air begins to foar;
Spreads as the flies, and weary of her name
Extenuates ftill, and changes into flame ;
Thus having by degrees perfection won,
Restless they soon untwist the web they spun,
And fire begins to lose her radiant hue,
Mix'd with grofs air, and air defcends to dew;
And dew, condensing, does her form forego,
And finks, a heavy lump of earth, below.
Thus are their figures never at a stand,
But chang'd by Nature's innovating hand;
All things are alter'd, nothing is deftroy'd,
The shifted scene for fome new fhow employ'd
Then, to be born, is to begin to be
Some other thing we were not formerly:
And what we call to die, is not t' appear,
Or be the thing that formerly we were.
Thofe very elements, which we partake
Alive, when dead fome other bodies make
Tranflated grow, have sense, or can discourse;
But death on deathlefs fubftance has no force.

That

That forms are chang'd I grant, that nothing can

Continue in the figure it began:

The golden age to filver was debas'd :

To copper that; our metal came at last.

The face of places, and their forms, decay; And that is folid earth, that once was fea : Seas in their turn, retreating from the shore, Make folid land, what ocean was before; And far from strands are thells of fishes found, And rufty anchors fix'd on mountain ground; And what were fields before, now wafh'd and worn, By falling floods from high, to valleys turn, And crumbling still defcend to level lands; And lakes, and trembling bogs, are barren fands; And the parch'd defart floats in streams unknown; Wondering to drink of waters not her own.

Here nature living fountains opes; and there
Seals up the wombs where living fountains were;
Or earthquakes ftop their ancient course, and bring
Diverted streams to feed a diftant fpring.

So Lycus, fwallow'd up, is feen no more,
But far from thence knocks out another door.
Thus Erafinus dives; and blind in earth

Runs on, and gropes his way to second birth,
Starts up in Argos meads, and fhakes his locks
Around the fields, and fattens all the flocks.
So Myfus by another way is led,

And, grown a river, now difdains his head:
Forgets his humble birth, his name forfakes,
And the proud title of Caïcus takes.
L 2

Large