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Another, and another Night fhe came;
For frequent Sin had left no Senfe of Shame:
Till Cinyras defir'd to fee her Face,

Whose Body he had held in close Embrace,
And brought a Taper; the Revealer, Light,
Expos'd both Crime, and Criminal to Sight:
Grief, Rage, Amazement, cou'd no Speech afford,
But from the Sheath he drew th' avenging Sword
The Guilty fled: The Benefit of Night,
That favour'd firft the Sin, fecur'd the Flight.
Long wandring through the spacious Fields, the
[bent
Her Voyage to th' Arabian Continent;

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Then pafs'd the Region which Pancha a join'd, And flying left the Palmy Plains behind.

[length Nine times the Moon had mew'd her Horns; at With Travel weary, unsupply'd with Strength, And with the Burden of her Womb opprefs'd, Sabaan Fields afford her needful Reft: There, loathing Life, and yet of Death afraid, In Anguish of her Spirit, thus the pray'd. Ye Pow'rs, if any fo propitious are

T' accept my Penitence, and hear my Pray'r ;

;

Your Judgments, I confefs, are justly fent;
Great Sins deserve as great a Punishment:
Yet fince my Life the Living will profane,
And fince my Death the happy Dead will stain,
A middle state your Mercy may bestow,

.

Betwixt the Realms above, and those below;
Some other Form to wretched Myrrha give,
Nor let her wholly die, nor wholly live.
The Pray'rs of Penitents are never vain;
At least, she did her last Request obtain:
For while the spoke, the Ground began to rise,
And gather'd round her Feet,herLegs, and Thighs;
Her Toes in Roots defcend, and spreading wide,
A firm Foundation for the Trunk provide:
Her folid Bones convert to folid Wood,
To Pith her Marrow, and to Sap her Blood:
Her Arms areBoughs,herFingers change theirKind,
Her tender Skin is harden'd into Rind.
And now the rifing Tree her Womb invests,
Now, fhooting upwards ftill, invades her Breafts,
And fhades the Neck; when, weary with Delay,
She funk her Head within, and met it half the Way.

And though with outward Shape she lost her Senfe,
With bitter Tears she wept her last Offence;
And still she weeps, nor fheds her Tears in vain;
For ftill the precious Drops her Name retain.
Mean time the mif-begotten Infant grows,
And, ripe for Birth, diftends with deadly Throws
The swelling Rind, with unavailing Strife,
To leave the wooden Womb, and pushes into Life,
The Mother-Tree, as if opprefs'd with Pain,
Writhes here and there, to break the Bark, in vain;
And, like a Lab'ring Woman, wou'd have pray'd,
But wants a Voice to call Lucina's Aid:

The bending Bole fends out a hollow Sound,
And trickling Tears fall thicker on the Ground.
The mild Lucina came uncall'd, and stood [Wood:
Befide the strugling Boughs, and heard the groaning
Then reach'd her Midwife-Hand, to speed the
Throws,

[disclose. And spoke the pow'rful Spells that Babes to Birth The Bark divides, the living Load to free, And fafe delivers the Convulfive Tree. The ready Nymphs receive the crying Child, And wash him in the Tears theParent-Plant difli'l'd.

:

They fwath'd him with their Scarfs; beneath him

fpread

The Ground with Herbs; with Roses rais'd his

Head.

The lovely Babe was born with ev'ry Grace,
Ev'n Envy must have prais'd so fair a Face:
Such was his Form, as Painters when they show
Their utmost Art, on naked Loves beftow:
And that their Arms no Diff'rence might betray,
Give him a Bow, or his from Cupid take away.
Time glides along, with undiscover'd hafte,
The Future but a length behind the Past;
So fwift are Years; The Babe whom just before
His Grandfire got, and whom his Sifter bore;
The Drop, the Thing which late the Tree inclos'd,
And late the yawning Bark to Life expos'd;
A Babe, a Boy, a beauteous Youth appears,
And lovelier than himself at riper Years.
Now to the Queen of Love he gave Defires,
And, with her Pains, reveng'd his Mother's Fires.

1

THE

FIRST BOOK

O F

HOMER'S ILIAS.

The ARGUMENT.

(

Chryfes, Prief of Apollo, brings Prefents to the Grecian Princes, toranfom his Daughter Chryleis, who was Prisoner in the Fleet. Agamemnon, the General, whofe Captive and Mistress the young Lady was, refuses to deliver her, threatens the Venerable Old Man, and difmif fes him with Contumely. The Priest craves Vengeance of his God who fends a Plague among the Greeks: Which occafions Achilles, their Great Champion, to fummon a Council of the Chief Officers: He encourages Calchas, the High Prieft and Prophet, to tell the Reason,

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