Beholds his own hereditary skies.
From such rude principles our form began,
And earth was metamorphos'd into man.

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THE GOLDEN AGE.

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The golden age was first; when man, yet new, No rule but uncorrupted reason knew; And, with a native bent, did good pursue. Unforc'd by punishment, unaw'd 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; 125 And happy mortals, unconcern'd for more, Confin'd 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:
Nor swords were forg'd; but, void of care and
crime,

The soft creation slept away their time.
The teeming earth, yet guiltless of the plough,
And unprovok'd, did fruitful stores allow :
Content with food, which nature freely bred,

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On wildings and on strawberries 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 ensu'd
From earth unask'd, nor was that earth renew'd.
From veins of valleys milk and nectar broke;
And honey sweating through the pores of oak.

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THE SILVER AGE.

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But when good Saturn, banish'd from above, Was driven to hell, the world was under Jove. 145 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 enlarg'd the bad. Then air with sultry heats began to glow, The wings of winds were clogg'd with ice and snow; And shivering mortals, into houses driven, Sought shelter from the inclemency of heaven. 155 Those houses, then, were caves, or homely sheds, With twining oziers fenc'd, and moss their beds. Then ploughs, for seed, the fruitful furrows broke, And oxen labour'd first beneath the yoke.

THE BRAZEN AGE.

To this next came in course the brazen age: 160 A warlike offspring prompt to bloody rage, Not impious yet

THE IRON AGE.

Hard steel succeeded then ;

And stubborn as the metal were the men.
Truth, Modesty, and Shame, the world forsook:
Fraud, Avarice, and Force, their places took.
Then sails were spread to every wind that blew;
Raw were the sailors, and the depths were new:
Trees, rudely hollow'd, did the waves sustain;
Ere ships in triumph plough'd the wat❜ry plain.
Then landmarks limited to each his right:
For all before was common as the light.
Nor was the ground alone requir'd to bear
Her annual income to the crooked share;
But greedy mortals rummaging her store,
Digg'd from her entrails first the precious ore;
Which next to hell the prudent gods had laid;
And that alluring ill to sight display'd;
Thus cursed steel, and more accursed gold,

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Gave mischief birth, and made that mischief bold:
And double death did wretched man invade,
By steel assaulted, and by gold betray'd.

Now (brandish'd weapons glittering in their hands)
Mankind is broken loose from moral bands;
No rights of hospitality remain:

The guest, by him who harbour'd him, is slain:
The son-in-law pursues the father's life;
The wife her husband murders, he the wife.
The step-dame poison for the son prepares;
The son inquires into his father's years.
Faith flies, and piety in exile mourns ;
And Justice, here opprest, to heaven returns.

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THE GIANTS' WAR.

Nor were the gods themselves more safe above; Against beleaguer'd heaven the giants move. Hills piled on hills, on mountains mountains lie, To make their mad approaches to the sky. Till Jove, no longer patient, took his time To avenge with thunder their audacious crime : Red lightning play'd along the firmament, And their demolish'd works to pieces rent. Sing'd with the flames, and with the bolts transfix'd, With native earth their blood the monsters mix'd; The blood, indu'd with animating heat,

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Did in the impregnate earth new sons beget:
They, like the seed from which they sprung, accurst,
Against the gods immortal hatred nurst:
An impious, arrogant, and cruel brood;
Expressing their original from blood.

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Which when the king of gods beheld from high
(Withal revolving in his memory,
What he himself had found on earth of late,
Lycaon's guilt, and his inhuman treat)
He sigh'd, nor longer with his pity strove;
But kindled to a wrath becoming Jove;
Then call'd a general council of the gods;
Who, summon'd, issue from their blest abodes,
And fill the assembly with a shining train.
A way there is in heaven's expanded plain,
Which, when the skies are clear, is seen below,
And mortals by the name of milky know.
The ground-work is of stars; thro' which the road
Lies open to the thunderer's abode.

The gods of greater nations dwell around,

And on the right and left the palace bound;

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The commons where they can; the nobler sort, 228
With winding doors wide open, front the court.
This place, as far as earth with heaven may vie,
I dare to call the Louvre of the sky.

When all were plac'd, in seats distinctly known,
And he, their father, had assum❜d the throne, 230
Upon his ivory sceptre first he leant,

Then shook his head, that shook the firmament:
Air, earth, and seas, obey'd the almighty nod;
And with a general fear confess'd the god.
At length, with indignation, thus he broke
His awful silence, and the powers bespoke.
I was not more concern'd in that debate
Of empire, when our universal state

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