Part of the heaving lungs is no where found,
And thinner films the fever'd entrails bound;
No ufual motion ftirs the panting heart;
The chinky vessels ouze on every part; enero al
The cawl, where wrapt the clofe inteftines lie,
Betrays its dark receffes to the eye,
One prodigy fuperior threaten'd ftill,
The never-failing harbinger of ill:
Lo! by the fibrous liver's rifing head,
A fecond rival prominence is fpread;
All funk and poor the friendly part appears,
And a pale, fickly, withering visage wears;
While high and full the adverse veffels ride,
And drive, impetuous, on their purple tide.
Amaz'd, the fage forefaw th' impending fate;
Ye gods! (he cry'd) forbid me to relate
What woes on this devoted people wait,
Nor doft thou, Jove, in thefe our rites partake,
Nor fmile propitious on the prayer we make;
The dreadful Stygian gods this victim claim,
And to our facrifice the Furies came..
The ills we fear command us to be dumb;
Yet fomewhat worse than what we fear fhall come.
But may the gods be gracious from on high,
Some better profperous event fupply,
Fibres may err, and augury may lye;
Arts may be falfe, by which our fires divin'd,
And Tages taught them, to abufe mankind.
Thus darkly he the prophecy exprest,
And riddling fung the double-dealing priest.
But Figulus exclaims (to science bred,
And in the gods myfterious fecrets read;
Whom nor Ægyptian Memphis' fons excell'd,
Nor with more fkill the rolling orbs beheld:
Well could he judge the labours of the sphere,
And calculate the just revolving year).
The stars (he cries) are in confufion hurl'd,
And wandering error quite mifguides the world;
Or, if the laws of nature yet remain,
Some swift destruction now the Fates ordain.
Shall earth's wide opening jaws for ruin call,
And finking cities to the centre fall?
Shall raging drought infest the fultry sky?
Shall faithlefs earth the promis'd crop deny?
Shall poisonous vapours o'er the waters brood,
And taint the limpid spring and filver flood?
Ye gods! what ruin does your wrath prepare !
Comes it from heaven, from earth, from feas, or air?
The lives of many to a period hafte,
And thousands shall together breathe their last.
If Saturn's fullen beams were lifted high,
Then moift Aquarius deluges might rain,
And earth once more lie funk beneath the main :
Or did thy glowing beams, O Phoebus, fhine
Malignant in the Lion's fcorching fign,
Wide o'er the world confuming fires might roll, 1115
And heaven be feen to flame from pole to pole:
Through peaceful orbits these unangry glide,
But, God of Battles! what doft thou provide?
Who in the threatening Scorpion dost preside ?
With potent wrath around thy influence streams, 1120
And the whole monfter kindles at thy beams;
While Jupiter's more gentle rays decline,
And Mercury with Venus faintly shine;
The wandering lights are darken'd all and gone,
And Mars now lords it o'er the heavens alone.
Orion's ftarry falchion blazing wide,
Refulgent glitters by his dreadful fide.
War comes, and salvage slaughter must abound,
The fword of violence fhall right confound:
The blackest crimes fair virtue's name fhall wear,
And impious fury rage for many a year.
Yet ask not thou an end of arms, O Rome,
Thy peace muft with a lordly mafter come.
Protract deftruction, and defer thy chain,
The fword alone prevents the tyrant's reign,
And civil wars thy liberty maintain.
The heartlefs vulgar to the fage give heed,
New rifing fears his words foreboding breed.
When, lo! more dreadful wonders ftrike their eyes,
Forth through the streets a Roman matron flies, 1140
Mad as the Thracian dames that bound along,
And chant Lyæus in their frantic fong:
Enthusiastic heavings fwell'd her breast,
And thus her voice the Delphic god confeft:
Where doft thou fnatch me, Pæan! wherefore bear 1145
Through cloudy heights and tracts of pathlefs air?
I see Pangæan mountains white with fnow,
Emus and wide Philippi's fields below.
Say, Phoebus, wherefore does this fury rise?
What mean these fpears and fhields before my eyes? 1150
I fee the Roman battles croud the plain !
I fee the war, but feek the foe in vain.
Again I fly, I feek the rising day,
Where Nile's Ægyptian waters take their way:
I fee, I know upon the guilty fhore,
The hero's headless trunk befmear'd with gore.
The Syrts and Libyan fands beneath me lie,
Thither Emathia's scatter'd relics fly.
Now o'er the cloudy Alps I stretch my flight,
And foar above Pyrene's airy height:
To Rome, my native Rome, I turn again,
And see the senate reeking with the slain.
Again the moving chiefs their arms prepare;
Again I follow through the world the war,
Oh, give me, Phoebus! give me to explore,
Some region new, fome undiscover'd shore;
I faw Philippi's fatal fields before.
She faid; the weary rage began to cease,
And left the fainting prophetess in peace.
Amidst the general confternation that fore-ran the Civil War, the poet introduces an old man giving an account of the miferies that attended on that of Marius and Sylla; and comparing their prefent cir cumftances to thofe in which the commonwealth was when that former war broke out. Brutus confults with Cato, whether it were the duty of a private man to concern himself in the public troubles; to which Cato replies in the affirmative: Then follows his receiving Marcia again from the tomb of Hortenfius. While Pompey goes to Capua, 'Cæfar makes himfelf mafter of the greatest part of Italy, and among the reft of Corfinium, where Domitius, the governor for Pompey, is feized by his garrifon, and delivered to Cæfar, who pardons and difmiffes him.
Pompey in an oration to his army makes a trial of their difpofition to a general battle; but not finding it to answer his expectation, he fends his fon to folicit the affiftance of his friends and allies; then marches himself to Brundufium, where he is like to be fhut up by Cæfar, and escapes at length with much difficulty.
OW manifeft the wrath divine
And nature through the world the war declar'd; Teeming with monsters, facred law fhe broke,
And dire events in all her works bespoke,
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