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THE

FIRST BOOK

OF

OVID'S METAMORPHOSES.

Or bodies changed to various forms I sing:
Ye gods, from whence these miracles did spring,
Inspire my numbers with celestial heat,
Till I my long laborious work complete ;
And add perpetual tenor to my rhymes,

Deduced from nature's birth to Cæsar's times.
Before the seas, and this terrestrial ball,
And heaven's high canopy, that covers all,
One was the face of nature, if a face;
Rather a rude and undigested mass;
A lifeless lump, unfashion'd, and unframed,
Of jarring seeds, and justly chaos named.
No sun was lighted up the world to view;
No moon did yet her blunted horns renew;
Nor yet was earth suspended in the sky,
Nor, poised, did on her own foundations lie;

Nor seas about the shores their arms had thrown;
But earth, and air, and water, were in one.
Thus air was void of light, and earth unstable,
And water's dark abyss unnavigable.

No certain form on any was imprest;

All were confused, and each disturb'd the rest.
For hot and cold were in one body fix'd;
And soft with hard, and light with heavy, mix'd.
But God, or Nature, while they thus contend,
To these intestine discords put an end.

}

Then earth from air, and seas from earth, were driven,
And grosser air sunk from etherial heaven.
Thus disembroil'd, they take their proper place;
The next of kin contiguously embrace;
And foes are sunder'd by a larger space.
The force of fire ascended first on high,
And took its dwelling in the vaulted sky.
Then air succeeds, in lightness next to fire,
Whose atoms from unactive earth retire.
Earth sinks beneath, and draws a numerous throng,
Of ponderous, thick, unwieldy seeds along.
About her coasts unruly waters roar,

And, rising on a ridge, insult the shore.
Thus when the God, whatever God was he,
Had form'd the whole, and made the parts agree,
That no unequal portions might be found,
He moulded earth into a spacious round;
Then, with a breath, he gave the winds to blow,
And bade the congregated waters flow.

He adds the running springs, and standing lakes,
And bounding banks for winding rivers makes.
Some part in earth are swallow'd up, the most
In ample oceans, disembogued, are lost.
He shades the woods, the vallies he restrains
With rocky mountains, and extends the plains.

And as five zones the etherial regions bind,
Five, correspondent, are to earth assign'd;

The sun, with rays directly darting down,
Fires all beneath, and fries the middle zone :
The two beneath the distant poles complain
Of endless winter, and perpetual rain.

Betwixt the extremes, two happier climates hold
The temper that partakes of hot and cold.
The fields of liquid air, inclosing all,
Surround the compass of this earthly ball:
The lighter parts lie next the fires above;
The grosser near the watery surface move:
Thick clouds are spread, and storms engender there,
And thunder's voice, which wretched mortals fear,
And winds that on their wings cold winter bear.
Nor were those blustering brethren left at large,
On seas and shores their fury to discharge:
Bound as they are, and circumscribed in place,
They rend the world, resistless, where they pass,
And mighty marks of mischief leave behind;
Such is the rage of their tempestuous kind,
First, Eurus to the rising morn is sent,
(The regions of the balmy continent,)

And eastern realms, where early Persians run,
To greet the blest appearance of the sun.
Westward the wanton Zephyr wings his flight,
Pleased with the remnants of departing light;
Fierce Boreas with his offspring issues forth,
To invade the frozen waggon of the North;
While frowning Auster seeks the southern sphere,
And rots, with endless rain, the unwholesome year.
High o'er the clouds, and empty realms of wind,
The God a clearer space for heaven design'd;
Where fields of light and liquid æther flow,
Purged from the ponderous dregs of earth below.
Scarce had the Power distinguish'd these, when
straight

The stars, no longer overlaid with weight,

[blocks in formation]

Exert their heads from underneath the mass, And upward shoot, and kindle as they pass, And with diffusive light adorn the heavenly place. Then, every void of nature to supply,

With forms of gods he fills the vacant sky:
New herds of beasts he sends, the plains to share;
New colonies of birds, to people air;

And to their oozy beds the finny fish repair.
A creature of a more exalted kind

Was wanting yet, and then was Man design'd;
Conscious of thought, of more capacious breast,
For empire form'd, and fit to rule the rest:
Whether with particles of heavenly fire
The God of nature did his soul inspire;
Or earth, but new divided from the sky,
And pliant still, retain❜d the etherial energy;
Which wise Prometheus temper'd into paste,
And, mix'd with living streams, the god-like image

cast.

Thus, while the mute creation downward bend
Their sight, and to their earthly mother tend,
Man looks aloft, and, with erected eyes,
Beholds his own hereditary skies.-

From such rude principles our form began,
And earth was metamorphosed into man.

THE GOLDEN AGE.

The Golden Age was first; when man, yet new, No rule but uncorrupted reason knew ; And, with a native bent, did good pursue. Unforced by punishment, unawed by fear, His words were simple, and his soul sincere. Needless was written law, where none opprest; The law of man was written in his breast.

No suppliant crowds before the judge appear'd;
No court erected yet, nor cause was heard;
But all was safe, for conscience was their guard.
The mountain trees in distant prospect please,
Ere yet the pine descended to the seas;
Ere sails were spread, new oceans to explore;
And happy mortals, unconcern'd for more,
Confined their wishes to their native shore.'
No walls were yet, nor fence, nor moat, nor mound;
Nor drum was heard, nor trumpet's angry sound;
No swords were forged; but, void of care and crime,
The soft creation slept away their time.

The teeming earth, yet guiltless of the plough,
And unprovoked, did fruitful stores allow:
Content with food, which nature freely bred,
On wildings and on straw-berries they fed;
Cornels and bramble-berries gave the rest,
And falling acorns furnish'd out a feast.
The flowers, unsown, in fields and meadows reign'd;
And western winds immortal spring maintain❜d.
In following years the bearded corn ensued
From earth unask'd, nor was that earth renew'd.
From veins of vallies milk and nectar broke,
And honey sweating through the pores of oak.

THE SILVER AGE.

But when good Saturn, banish'd from above,
Was driven to hell, the world was under Jove.
Succeeding times a silver age behold,
Excelling brass, but more excell'd by gold.
Then Summer, Autumn, Winter did appear,
And Spring was but a season of the year.
The sun his annual course obliquely made,
Good days contracted, and enlarged the bad.

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