A roar fo loud made Ætna to rebound;
And all the Cyclops labour'd in the found.
Affrighted with his monftrous voice, I fled,
And in the neighbouring ocean plung'd my
Poor Acis turn'd his back, and, Help, he cry'd,
Help, Galatea! help, my parent gods,
And take me dying to your deep abodes!
The Cyclops follow'd; but he sent before
A rib, which from the living rock he tore :
Though but an angle reach'd him of the stone,
The mighty fragment was enough alone
To crush all Acis; 'twas too late to fave,
But what the fates allow'd to give, I gave:
That Acis to his lineage fhould return;
And roll, among the river gods, his urn.
Straight iffued from the ftone a ftream of blood;
Which loft the purple, mingling with the flood.
Then like a troubled torrent it appear'd:
The torrent too, in little space, was clear'd.
The stone was cleft, and through the yawning
New reeds arofe, on the new river's brink.
The rock, from out its hollow womb, difclos'd
A found like water in its courfe oppos'd:
When (wondrous to behold) full in the flood
Up ftarts a youth, and navel-high he stood. 225
Horns from his temples rife; and either horn Thick wreaths of reeds (his native growth)
Were not his ftature taller than before,
His bulk augmented, and his beauty more,
His colour blue, for Acis he might pafs:
And Acis chang'd into a stream he was.
But mine no more, he rolls along the plains
With rapid motion, and his name retains.
FROM THE FIFTEENTH BOOK OF
The fourteenth Book concludes with the death and deification of Romulus; the fifteenth begins with the election of Numa to the crown of Rome. On this occafion, Ovid, following the opinion of fome authors, makes Numa the fcholar of Pythagoras; and to have begun his acquaintance with that philofopher at Crotona, a town in Italy; from thence he makes a digreffion to the moral and natural philofophy of Pythagoras: on both which our author enlarges; and which are the most learned and beautiful parts of the Metamorphofes,
A KING is fought to guide the growing ftate,
One able to fupport the public weight,
And fill the throne where Romulus had fate.
It is a fingular circumftance, that neither Lucretius nor Pope finished their philofophical poems. Ovid has not fet forth the Pythagorean philofophy fo well as Lucretius the Epicurean, Dr. J. WARTON.
Renown, which oft befpeaks the public voice,
Had recommended Numa to their choice:
A peaceful, pious prince; who, not content
To know the Sabine rites, his ftudy bent
To cultivate his mind: to learn the laws
Of nature, and explore their hidden caufe,
Urg'd by this care, his country he forfook, 10
And to Crotona thence his journey took.
Arriv'd, he first enquir'd the founder's name
Of this new colony; and whence he came.
Then thus a fenior of the place replies,
(Well read, and curious of antiquities)
"Tis faid, Alcides hither took his
From Spain, and drove along his conquer'd prey;
Then, leaving in the fields his grazing cows,
He fought himself fome hofpitable house.
Good Croton entertain'd his godlike gueft; 20
While he repair'd his weary limbs with reft.
The hero, thence departing, blefs'd the place;
And here, he faid, in Time's revolving race,
A rifing town fhall take its name from thee.
Revolving Time fulfill'd the prophecy:
For Myfcelos, the jufteft man on earth,
Alemon's fon, at Argos had his birth:
Him Hercules, arm'd with his club of oak,
O'erfhadow'd in a dream, and thus befpoke;
Go, leave thy native foil, and make abode 30
Where Efaris rolls down his rapid flood,
He faid; and fleep forfook him, and the god.
Trembling he wak'd, and rofe with anxious
His country laws forbad him to depart:
What should he do? "T'was death to go away; 35
And the god menac'd if he dar'd to stay :
All day he doubted, and, when night came on,
Sleep, and the fame forewarning dream, begun:
Once more the god flood threatning o'er his
head;
With added curfes if he disobey'd.
Twice warn'd, he study'd flight; but would con
At once, his perfon and his wealth away.
Thus while he linger'd, his defign was heard;
A fpeedy process form'd, and death declar'd.
Witness there needed none of his offence,
Against himself the wretch was evidence ;
Condemn'd, and deftitute of human aid,
To him, for whom he fuffer'd, thus he pray'd.
O Power, who haft deferv'd in heaven a
Not given, but by thy labours made thy own, 50 Pity thy fuppliant, and protect his cause, Whom thou haft made obnoxious to the laws. A cuftom was of old, and ftill remains, Which life or death by fuffrages ordains; White ftones and black within an urn are caft, 55 The firft abfolve, but fate is in the last.
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