The glorious lamp of heav'n, the radiant sun, Is Nature's eye; and fhe's content with one. Add, that my father sways your feas, and I, Like you, am of the watry family.

I make you his, in making you my own;
You I adore, and kneel to you alone:
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
Difdain'd, if others were difdain'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, tho 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 fcatter'd limbs, fhall on the flood be born,
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 paffion, and my pain.

Tranflated Ætna flames within my heart,
And thou, inhuman, wilt not ease

my fmart.

Lamenting thus in vain, he rofe, and ftrode With furious paces to the neighb'ring wood: Reflefs his feet, diftracted 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 miftrefs, and forfake the field.

Thus far unfeen I faw: when, fatal chance His looks directing, with a fudden glance, Acis and I were to his fight betray'd; Where, nought fufpecting, we fecurely play'd. From his wide mouth a bellowing cry he caft; I fee, I fee, but this fhall be your laft. A roar fo loud made Ætna to rebound; And all the Cyclops labour'd in the found. Affrighted with his monftrous voice, I fled, And in the neighb'ring ocean plung'd my head. Poor Acis turn'd his back, and, Help, he cry'd,, Help, Galatea, help, my parent Gods, And take me dying to your deep abodes. The Cyclops follow'd; but he fent before A rib, which from the living rock he tore : Though but an angle reach'd him of the ftone, The mighty fragment was enough alone, To crush all Acis; 'twas too late to fave, But what the fates allow'd to give, I gave:

That Acis to his lineage fhould return;
And rowl, among the river Gods, his urn.
Straight iffu'd from the stone a stream of blood;
Which loft 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 thro the yawning chink
New reeds arose, on the new river's brink.
The rock, from out its hollow womb, disclos'd
A found like water in its courfe oppos'd:
When (wond'rous to behold) full in the flood,
Up ftarts a youth, and navel-high he stood.
Horns from his temples rife; and either horn
Thick wreaths of reeds (his native growth) adorn.
Were not his ftature 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 rowls 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 occafion, Ovid, following the opinion of fome authors, makes Numa the fcholar of Pythagoras; and to have begun his acquaintance with that philofopher at Crotona, a town in Italy; from thence he makes a digreffion to the moral and natural philofophy of Pythagoras: on both which our author enlarges; and which are the most learned and beautiful parts of the Metamorphofes.

A

King is fought to guide the growing state, One able to fupport the public weight, And fill the throne where Romulus had fate. Renown, which oft befpeaks the public voice, Had recommended Numa to their choice: A peaceful, pious prince; who, not content To know the Sabine rites, his ftudy bent

To cultivate his mind: to learn the laws
Of nature, and explore their hidden cause.
Urg'd by this care, his.country he forfook,
And to Crotona thence his journey took.
Arriv'd, he first enquir'd the founder's name
Of this new colony; and whence he came.
Then thus a fenior of the place replies,
(Well read, and curious of antiquities)

'Tis faid, Alcides hither took his way

From Spain, and drove along his conquer'd prey;
Then, leaving in the fields his grazing cows,
He fought himself some hofpitable house:
Good Croton entertain'd his godlike gueft;
While he repair'd his weary limbs with rest.
The hero, thence departing, blefs'd the place;
And here, he faid, in Time's revolving race,
A rifing town fhall take its name from thee;
Revolving Time fulfill'd the prophecy :
For Myscelos, the justest man on earth,
Alemon's fon, 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 foil, and make abode
Where Æfaris rolls down his rapid flood;
He faid; and fleep forfook him, and the God.