And fure the fages of your schools have known
No foul more form'd for fcience than my own.
Fame of my potent rival's flight, 'tis true,
To this your Pharian fhore my journey drew ;
Yet know, the love of learning led me too.
In all the hurries of tumultuous war,
The ftars, the gods, and heavens, were ftill my care. Nor fhall my skill to fix the rolling year
Inferior to Eudoxus' art appear.
Long has my curious foul, from early youth,
Toil'd in the noble fearch of facred truth:
Yet ftill no views have urg'd my ardour more,
Than Nile's remoteft fountain to explore,
Then fay what fource the famous ftream fupplies,
And bids it at revolving periods rife;
Shew me that head from whence, fince time begun,
The long fucceffion of his waves has run;
This let me know, and all my toils shall cease,
The fword be fheath'd, and earth be bleft with peace..
The warrior fpoke; and thus the feer reply'd:
Nor fhalt thou, mighty Cæfar, be deny`d.
Our fires for bad all, but themfelves, to know,
And kept with care profaner laymen low:
My foul, I own, more generoufly inclin'd,
Would let in daylight to inform the blind.
Nor would I truth in myfteries reftrain,
But make the gods, their power, and precepts, plain ; 295
Would teach their miracles, would fpread their praise,
And well-taught minds to juft devotion raise.
Know then, to all thofe ftars, by nature driven
In oppofition to revolving heaven,
Some one peculiar influence was given.
The fun the feafons of the year fupplies,
And bids the evening and the morning rife;
Commands the planets with fuperior force,
And keeps each wandering light to his appointed courfe. The filver moon o'er briny feas prefides,
And heaves huge ocean with alternate tides.
Saturn's cold rays in icy climes prevail;
Mars rules the winds, the storm, and rattling hail;
Where Jove afcends, the fkies are still ferene;
And fruitful Venus is the genial queen :
While every limpid spring, and falling ftream,
Submits to radiant Hermes' reigning beam.
When in the Crab the humid ruler fhines,
And to the fultry Lion near inclines,
There fix'd immediate o'er Nile's latent fource,
He ftrikes the watery ftores with ponderous force;
Nor can the flood bright Maia's fon withstand,
But heaves, like ocean at the moon's command;
His waves afcend, obedient as the feas,
And reach their deftin'd height by just degrees.
Nor to its bank returns th' enormous tide,
Till Libra's equal scales the days and nights divide. Antiquity, unknowing and deceiv'd,
In dreams of Ethiopian fnows believ'd:
From hills they taught, how melting currents ran, 325
When the firft fwelling of the flood began.
But, ah, how vain the thought! no Boreas there
In icy bonds constrains the wintery year,
But fultry fouthern winds eternal reign,
And scorching funs the fwarthy natives stain.
Yet more, whatever flood the froft congeals,
Melts as the genial spring's return he feels;
While Nile's redundant waters never rife,
Till the hot Dog inflames the summer skies ;
Nor to his banks his fhrinking ftream confines,
Till high in heaven th' autumnal balance thines.
Unlike his watery brethren he prefides,
And by new laws his liquid empire guides.
From dropping feasons no increase he knows,
Nor feels the fleecy showers of melting fnows.
His river fwells not idly, ere the land
The timely office of his waves demand;
But knows his lot, by Providence affign'd,
To cool the feafon, and refresh mankind.
Whene'er the Lion fheds his fires around,
And Cancer burns Syene's parching ground;
Then, at the prayer of nations, comes the Nile,
And kindly tempers up the mouldering foil.
Nor from the plains the covering god retreats,
Till the rude fervour of the skies abates;
Till Phoebus into milder autumn fades,
And Meroä projects her lengthening fhades.
Nor let inquiring fcepticks afk the cause,
'Tis Jove's command, and thefe are Nature's laws.
Others of old, as vainly too, have thought
By western winds the fpreading deluge brought;
While at fix'd times, for many a day, they last,
Poffefs the fkies, and drive a constant blaft;
Collected clouds united Zephyrs bring,
And shed huge rains from many a dropping wing,
To heave the flood, and fwell th' abounding fpring.
Or when the airy brethren's ftedfaft force
Refifts the rufhing current's downward course,
Backward he rolls indignant, to his head:
While o'er the plains his heapy waves are spread. 365
Some have believ'd, that fpacious channels go
Through the dark entrails of the earth below;
Through these, by turns, revolving rivers pass,
*And fecretly pervade the mighty mass;
Through these the fun, when from the north he flies, 370
And cuts the glowing Æthiopic skies,
From diftant ftreams attracts their liquid ftores,
And through Nile's fpring th' affembled waters pours:
Till Nile, o'er-burden'd, difembogues the load,
And fpews the foamy deluge all abroad.
Sages there have been too, who long maintain'd, That ocean's waves through porous earth are drain'd; 'Tis thence their faltnefs they no longer keep, By flow degrees ftill freshening as they creep: Till at a period, Nile receives them all, And pours them loosely spreading, as they fall. The ftars, and fun himself, as fome have faid, By exhalations from the deep are fed ; And when the golden ruler of the day Through Cancer's fiery fign pursues his way, His beams attract too largely from the fea; The refufe of his draughts the nights return, And more than fill the Nile's capacious urn. Were I the dictates of my foul to tell, And speak the reasons of the watery swell, To Providence the task I fhould affign, And find the cause in workmanship divine.
Lefs ftreams we trace, unerring, to their birth,
And know the parent Earth which brought them forth: While this, as early as the world begun,
Ran thus, and must continue thus to run;
And ftill, unfathom'd by our fearch, fhall own
No caufe, but Jove's commanding will alone.
Nor, Cæfar, is thy fearch of knowledge ftrange;
Well may thy boundless soul desire to range,
Well may she strive Nile's fountain to explore;
Since mighty kings have fought the fame before;
Each for the firft difcoverer would be known,
And hand, to future times, the fecret down;
But ftill their powers were exercis'd in vain,
While latent nature mock'd their fruitless pain.
Philip's great fon, whom Memphis ftill records,
The chief of her illuftrious fcepter'd lords,
Sent, of his own, a chofen number forth,
To trace the wondrous ftream's mysterious birth.
Through Ethiopia's plains they journey'd on,
Till the hot fun oppos'd the burning zone:
There, by the god s refiftlefs beams repell'd,
An unbeginning ftream they ftill beheld.
Fierce came Sefoftris from the eastern dawn,
On his proud car by captive monarchs drawn;
His lawless will, impatient of a bound,
Commanded Nile's hid fountain to be found:
But fooner much the tyrant might have known
Thy fam'd Hefperian Po, or Gallic Rhone,
Cambyfes too, his daring Perfians led,
Where hoary age makes white the Ethiop's head ;
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