Let Araby extol her happy coaft,

Her cinnamon and fweet Amomum boaft,

Her fragrant flowers, her trees with precious tears,
Her fecond harvefs, and her double years;

How can the land be call'd fo blefs'd that Myrrha bears?

Not all her odorous tears can cleanfe her crime,
Her plant alone deforms the happy clime:
Cupid denies to have inflam'd thy heart,
Difowns thy love, and vindicates his dart;
Some fury gave thee those infernal pains,
And fhot her venom'd vipers in thy veins.
To hate thy fire, had merited a curfe :
But fuch an impious love deferv'd a worse.
The neighbouring monarchs, by thy beauty led,
Contend in crowds, ambitious of thy bed:
The world is at thy choice, except but one,
Except but him, thou canft not choose, alone.
She knew it too, the miferable maid,
Ere impious love her better thoughts betray'd,
And thus within her fecret foul fhe faid:
Ah Myrrha! whither would thy wishes tend?
Ye Gods, ye facred laws, my foul defend
From fuch a crime as all mankind deteft,
And never lodg'd before in human breast !
But is it fin? Or makes my mind alone
Th' imagin`d fin? For nature makes it none.
What tyrant then thefe envious laws began,
Made not for any other beaft but man!

}

The

The father-bull his daughter may bestride,

The horse may make his mother-mare a bride;
What piety forbids the lufty ram,

Or more falacious goat, to rut their dam?
The hen is free to wed her chick the bore,
And make a husband, whom the hatch'd before.
All creatures elfe are of a happier kind,

Whom nor ill-natur'd laws from pleasure bind,
Nor thoughts of fin difturb their peace of mind.
But man a slave of his own making lives;
The fool denies himself what nature gives :
Too busy fenates, with an over-care

To make us better than our kind can bear,
Have dash'd a spice of envy in the laws,
And, ftraining up too high, have spoil'd the cause.
Yet fome wife nations break their cruel chains,
And own no laws, but thofe which love ordains :
Where happy daughters with their fires are join'd,
And piety is doubly paid in kind.

O that I had been born in fuch a clime,

Not here, where 'tis the country makes the crime!
But whither would my impious fancy stray?
Hence hopes, and ye forbidden thoughts away!
His worth deferves to kindle my defires,
But with the love that daughters bear to fires.
Then, had not Cinyras my father been,
What hinder'd Myrrha's hopes to be his queen?
But the perverfenefs of my fate is fuch,

That he's not mine, because he 's mine too much :

Our kindred blood debars a better tie;
Ile might be nearer, were he not fo nigh.
Eyes and their objects never muft unite,
Some diftance is requir'd to help the fight:
Fain would I travel to fome foreign shore,
Never to fee my native country more,

So might I to myself myself restore;

So might my mind thefe impious thoughts remove,
And, ceafing to behold, might ceafe to love.
But stay I must, to feed my famish'd sight,
To talk, to kifs; and more, if more I might:
More, impious maid! What more canft thou defign,
To make a monftrous mixture in thy line,
And break all ftatutes human and divine?
Canft thou be call'd (to fave thy wretched life)
Thy mother's rival, and thy father's wife?
Confound fo many facred names in one,
Thy brother's mother! filter to thy fon!

And fear't thou not to fee th' infernal bands,

}

}

Their heads with fakes, with torches arm'd their hands,

Full at thy face, th' avenging brands to bear,

And thake the ferpents from their hiffing hair?

But thou in time th' increafing ill control,
Nor first debauch the body by the foul;
Secure the facred quiet of thy mind,

And keep the fanctions nature has defign'd.
Suppofe I fhould attempt, th' attempt were vain;
No thoughts like mine his finlefs foul profane :
Obfervant of the right; and O, that he
Could cure my madness, or be mad like me !

Thus

Thus fhe; but Cinyras, who daily fees,
A crowd of noble fuitors at his knees,
Among fo many, knew not whom to choofe,
Irrefolute to grant, or to refuse.

But, having told their names, inquir'd of her,
Who pleas'd her beft, and whom the would prefer?
The blushing maid ftood filent with furprize,

And on her father fix'd her ardent eyes,

And looking figh'd: and as she figh'd, began
Round tears to fhed, that fcalded as they ran.
The tender fire, who faw her blush and cry,
Afcrib'd it all to maiden-modefty;

And dry'd the failing drops, and, yet more kind,
He ftrok'd her cheeks, and holy kisses join'd:
She felt a fecret venom fire her blood,

And found more pleasure than a daughter should;
And, afk'd again, what lover of the crew
She lik'd the beit; fhe anfwer'd, One like you.
Mistaking what fhe meant, her pious will
He prais'd, and bade her fo continue ftill:
The word of Pious heard, fhe blufh'd with fhame
Of fecret guilt, and could not bear the name.
'Twas now the mid of night, when flumbers close
Our eyes, and footh our cares with soft repose;
But no repofe could wretched Myrrha find,
Her body rolling, as the roll'd her mind :
Mad with defire, fhe ruminates her fin,
And wishes all her withes o'er again :

Now the despairs, and now refolves to try;
Would not, and would again, the knows not why;

Stops,

Stops, and returns, makes and retracts the vow:
Fain would begin, but understands not how :
As when a pine is hewn upon the plains,

And the laft mortal stroke alone remains,
Labouring in pangs of death, and threatening all,
This way and that she nods, confidering where to fail:
So Myrrha's mind, impell'd on either fide,
Takes every bent, but cannot long abide :
Irrefolute on which she should rely,

At last, unfix'd in all, is only fix'd to die :
On that fad thought she refts; refolv'd on death,
She rifes, and prepares to choak her breath :
"Then while about the beam her zone the ties,
Dear Cinyras, farewel, she foftly cries ;
For thee I die, and only wifh to be

Not hated, when thou know'ft I die for thee:
Pardon the crime, in pity to the cause;

;

This faid, about her neck the noofe fhe draws
The nurse, who lay without, her faithful guard,
Though not the words, the murmurs overheard,
And fighs and hollow founds: furpriz'd with fright,
She starts, and leaves her bed, and fprings a light:
Unlocks the door, and entering out of breath,
The dying faw, and inftruments of death;
She fhrieks, the cuts the zone with trembling haste,
And in her arms her fainting charge embrac'd :
Next (for fhe now had leifure for her tears)
She weeping afk'd, in these her blooming years,
What unforeseen misfortune caus'd her care,
To loathe her life, and languish in despair!

The