His fervants, ignorant of what had chanc'd,
With eager hafte and joyful shouts advanc'd,
And call'd their Lord A&tæon to the game;
He shook his head in anfwer to the name;
He heard, but wish'd he had indeed been gone,
Or only to have stood a looker-on.

But, to his grief, he finds himself too near,
And feels his ravenous dogs with fury tear
Their wretched master panting in a deer.

THE BIRTH OF BACCHUS.

ACTÆON's fufferings, and Diana's rage,
Did all the thoughts of men and gods engage;
Some call'd the evils, which Diana wrought,
Too great, and difproportion'd to the fault;
Others again efteem'd Acteon's woes
Fit for a virgin-goddess to impofe.
The hearers into different parts divide,
And reasons are produc'd on either fide.

Juno alone, of all that heard the news,
Nor would condemn the goddess, nor excufe:
She heeded not the juftice of the deed,
But joy'd to fee the race of Cadmus bleed;
For ftill fhe kept Europa in her mind,
And, for her fake, detefted all her kind.
Befides, to aggravate her hate, fhe heard
How Semele, to Jove's embrace preferr'd,
Was now grown big with an immortal load,
And carry'd in her womb a future God.
Thus terribly incens'd, the goddess broke
To fudden fury, and abruptly fpoke:

"Are my reproaches of fo fmall a force? 'Tis time I then purfue another course: "It is decreed the guilty wretch fhall die,, "If I'm indeed the miftrefs of the sky; "If rightly ftyl'd among the powers above "The wife and fifter of the thundering Jove (And none can fure a fifter's right deny); "It is decreed the guilty wretch fhall die. "She boasts an honour I can hardly claim; "Pregnant fhe rifes to a mother's name; "While proud and vain fhe triumphs in her Jove, "And shows the glorious tokens of his love: "But if I'm ftill the miftrefs of the skies, "By her own fover the fond beauty dies." This faid, defcending in a yellow cloud," Before the gates of Semele fhe ftood.

Old Beroë's decrepit shape she wears,
Her wrinkled vifage, and her hoary hairs;
Whilft in her trembling gait fhe totters on,
And learns to tattle in the nurse's tone.

The goddess, thus disguis'd in age, beguil'd
With pleasing ftories her false foster-child.
Much did fhe talk of love, and when the came
To mention to the nymph her lover's name,
Fetching a figh, and holding down her head,
"'Tis well, fays fhe, if all be true that 's faid.
"But trust me, child, I'm much inclin'd to fear'
"Some counterfeit in this your Jupiter.

"Many an honest well-designing maid
"Has been by thefe pretended gods betray'd.

"But

"But if he be indeed the thundering Jove,

"Bid him, when next he courts the rites of love;
"Defcend triumphant from th' ethereal sky,
"In all the pomp of his divinity;

"Encompass'd round by thofe celestial charms,
"With which he fills th' immortal Juno's arms.
Th' unwary nymph, enfnar'd with what she said,"
Defir'd of Jove, when next he fought her bed,
To grant a certain gift which she would choose;
"Fear not, replied the God, that I'll refuse
"Whate'er you afk: may Styx confirm my voice,
"Choose what you will, and you shall have your choice.
"Then, fays the nymph, when next you feek my arms
"May you defcend in those celestial charms
"With which your Juno's bofom you inflame,
"And fill with transport heaven's immortal dame.",
The God furpriz'd would fain have stopp'd her voice:
But he had fworn, and she had made her choice.

To keep his promife, he afcends, and shrouds
His awful brow in whirlwinds and in clouds ;
Whilft all around, in terrible array,

His thunders rattle, and his lightnings play.
And yet, the dazzling lustre to abate,
He fet not out in all his pomp and state,
Clad in the mildeft lightning of the skies;
And arm'd with thunder of the smallest size:
Not thofe huge bolts, by which the giants flain
Lay overthrown on the Phlegrean plain.
Twas of a leffer mold, and lighter weight;
They call it thunder of a fecond rate,

4

For

For the rough Cyclops, who by Jove's command
Temper'd the bolt, and turn'd it to his hand,
Work'd up lefs. flame and fury in its make,
And quench'd it sooner in the standing lake.
Thus dreadfully adorn'd, with horror bright,
Th' illuftrious God, defcending from his height,
› Came rushing on her in a storm of light.

The mortal dame, too feeble to engage
The lightning's flashes and the thunder's rage,
Confum'd amidst the glories fhe defir'd,
And in the terrible embrace expir'd.

But, to preserve his offspring from the tomb,
Jove took him fmoking from the blasted womb;
And, if on ancient tales we may rely,
Inclos'd th' abortive infant in his thigh.
Here, when the babe had all his time fulfill'd,
Ino first took him for her fofter-child;
Then the Nifeans, in their dark abode,
Nurs'd fecretly with milk the thriving God.

THE TRANSFORMATION OF
TIRESIAS.

}

'TWAS now, while these transactions paft on earth, And Bacchus thus procur'd a second birth, When Jove, difpos'd to lay aside the weight Of public empire, and the cares of state; As to his Queen in nectar bowls he quaff'd, "In troth, fays he, (and as he spoke he laugh'd,) "The fenfe of pleasure in the male is far

"More dull and dead, than what you females fhare."

Juno the truth of what was said deny'd;
Tirefias therefore must the cause decide;
For he the pleasure of each fex had try'd.
*It happen'd once, within a fhady wood,
Two twisted faakes he in conjunction view'd;
When with his ftaff their flimy folds he broke,
And loft his manhood at the fatal stroke,
But, after feven revolving years, he view'd
The felf-fame ferpents in the felf-same wood;
"And if, fays he, fuch virtue in your lie,

That he who dares your flimy folds untye
Mat change his kind, a fecond stroke I'll try.”
Again he ftruck the fnakes, and food again
New-fex'd, and ftraight recover'd into man.
Him therefore both the Deities create

**The fovereign umpire in their grand debate:
. And he declar`d for Jove: when Juno, fir'd,
: More than so trivial an affair requir'd,
Depriv'd him, in her fury, of his fight,
And left him groping round in fudden night.
But Jove (for fo it is in heaven decreed,
That no one God repeal another's deed)
Irradiates all his foul with inward light,

}

And with the prophet's art relieves the want of fight. THE TRANSFORMATION OF ECHO.

Fam'd far and near for knowing things to come, From him th' enquiring nations fought their doom; The fair Liriope his answers try'd,

And firft th' unerring prophet juftify'd;