Add, that
sways your seas and I,
Like you, am of the wat'ry family.
I make you his, in making you my own;
You I adore, and kneel to you
Jove, with his fabled thunder, I despise,
And only fear the lightning of your eyes.
Frown not, fair nymph; yet I could bear to be
Disdain'd, if others were disdain'd with me.
But to repulse the Cyclops, and prefer
The love of Acis, heav'ns! I cannot bear.
But let the stripling please himself; nay more,
Please you, though that's the thing I most abhor;
The boy shall find, if e'er we cope in fight,
These giant limbs endu'd with giant might.
His living bowels from his belly torn,
And scatter'd limbs, shall on the flood be borne,
Thy flood, ungrateful nymph; and fate shall find
That way for thee and Acis to be join’d.
For oh! I burn with love, and thy disdain
Augments at once my passion and my pain.
Translated Ætna flames within my heart,
And thou, inhuman, wilt not ease my smart.
Lamenting thus in vain, he rose, and strode With furious paces to the neighbouring wood: Restless his feet, distracted was his walk; Mad were his motions, and confus'd his talk. Mad as the vanquish'd bull, when forc'd to yield His lovely mistress, and forsake the field.
Thus far unseen I saw when, fatal chance 195 His looks directing, with a sudden glance,
Acis and I were to his sight betray'd;
Where, nought suspecting, we securely play'd.
From his wide mouth a bellowing cry he cast;
I see, I see, but this shall be your last.
A roar so loud made Ætna to rebound;
And all the Cyclops labour'd in the sound.
Affrighted with his monstrous voice, I fled,
And in the neighbouring ocean plung'd my head.
Poor Acis turn'd his back, and, Help, he cried,
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 save,
But what the fates allow'd to give, I gave:
That Acis to his lineage should return;
And roll, among the river gods, his urn.
Straight issu'd from the stone a stream of blood;
Which lost 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 chink
New reeds arose, on the new river's brink.
The rock, from out its hollow womb, disclos'd
A sound like water in its course oppos'd:
When (wondrous to behold) full in the flood
Up starts a youth, and navel high he stood.
Horns from his temples rise; and either horn
Thick wreaths of reeds (his native growth) adorn.
Were not his stature taller than before,
His bulk augmented, and his beauty more,
His colour blue, for Acis he might pass:
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.
OF THE PYTHAGOREAN PHILOSOPHY; FROM THE FIFTEENTH BOOK OF OVID'S METAMORPHoses.'
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 occasion, Ovid, following the opinion of some authors, makes Numa the scholar of Pythagoras; and to have begun his acquaintance with that philosopher at Crotona, a town in Italy; from thence he makes a digression to the moral and natural philosophy of Pythagoras: on both which our author enlarges; and which are the most learned and beautiful parts of the Metamorphoses.
A KING is sought to guide the growing state,
One able to support the public weight,
And fill the throne where Romulus had sate.
Renown, which oft bespeaks the public voice,
*It is a singular circumstance, that neither Lucretius nor Pope finished their philosophical poems. Ovid has not set forth the Pythagorean philosophy so well as Lucretius the Epicurean. Dr. J. W...
Had recommended Numa to their choice:
A peaceful, pious prince; who, not content
To know the Sabine rites, his study bent
To cultivate his mind: to learn the laws
Of nature, and explore their hidden cause.
Urg'd by this care, his country he forsook,
And to Crotona thence his journey took.
Arriv'd, he first inquir'd the founder's name
Of this new colony; and whence he came.
Then thus a senior of the place replies,
(Well read, and curious of antiquities)
'Tis said, Alcides hither took his way
From Spain, and drove along his conquer'd prey;
Then, leaving in the fields his grazing cows,
He sought himself some hospitable house.
Good Croton entertain'd his godlike guest;
While he repair'd his weary limbs with rest.
The hero, thence departing, bless'd the place;
And here, he said, in Time's revolving race,
A rising town shall take its name from thee.
Revolving Time fulfill'd the prophecy :
For Myscelos, the justest man on earth,
Alemon's son, at Argos had his birth :
Him Hercules, arm'd with his club of oak,
O'ershadow'd in a dream, and thus bespoke;
Go, leave thy native soil, and make abode
Where Æsaris rolls down his rapid flood.
He said; and sleep forsook him, and the god.
Trembling he wak'd, and rose with anxious heart;
His country laws forbad him to depart:
What should he do? "Twas 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 same forewarning dream, begun : Once more the god stood threat'ning o'er his head; With added curses if he disobey'd.
Twice warn'd, he studied flight; but would convey, At and his wealth away. his once, person Thus while he linger'd, his design was heard; A speedy process form'd, and death declar'd. Witness there needed none of his offence, Against himself the wretch was evidence : Condemn'd, and destitute of human aid, To him, for whom he suffer'd, thus he pray'd.
O Power, who hast deserv'd in heaven a throne, Not given, but by thy labours made thy own, 50 Pity thy suppliant, and protect his cause, Whom thou hast made obnoxious to the laws. A custom was of old, and still remains, Which life or death by suffrages ordains; White stones and black within an urn are cast, 55 The first absolve, but fate is in the last. The judges to the common urn bequeath
Their votes, and drop the sable signs of death;
The box receives all black; but pour'd from thence
The stones came candid forth, the hue of innocence.
Thus Alimonides his safety won,
Preserv'd from death by Alcumena's son:
Then to his kinsman god his vows he pays,
And cuts with prosp'rous gales th' Ionian seas:
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