That forms are chang'd I grant, that nothing can Continue in the figure it began:
The golden age to filver was debas'd:
To copper that; our metal came at last.
The face of places, and their forms, decay;
And that is folid earth, that once was fea:
Seas in their turn retreating from the thore,
Make folid land, what ocean was before;
And far from strands are fhells of fishes found,
And rusty anchors fix'd on mountain ground:
And what were fields before, now wafh'd and
By falling floods from high, to valleys turn,
And crumbling ftill descend to level lands;
And lakes, and trembling bogs, are barren fands:
And the parch'd defart floats in streams unknown;
Wond'ring to drink of waters not her own.
Here nature living fountains opes; and there Seals up the wombs where living fountains were; Or earthquakes stop their ancient course, and bring Diverted streams to feed a diftant fpring.
So Lycus, fwallow'd up, is feen no more,
But far from thence knocks out another door.
Thus Erafinus dives; and blind in earth
Starts up in Argos meads, and thakes his locks
Around the fields, and fattens all the flocks.
So Myfus by another way is led,
And, grown a river, now disdains his head :
Forgets his humble birth, his name forfakes,
And the proud title of Caicus takes.
Large Amenane, impure with yellow fands,
Runs rapid often; and as often stands;
And here he threats the drunken fields to drown,
And there his dugs deny to give their liquor
Anigros once did wholsom draughts afford, But now his deadly waters are abhorr'd: Since, hurt by Hercules, as fame refounds, The Centaur in his current wash'd their wounds. The streams of Hypanis are sweet no more, But brackish lose their taste they had before. Antiffa, Pharos, Tyre, in feas were pent, Once ifles, but now increase the continent; While the Leucadian coaft, main-land before, By rushing seas is fever'd from the shore. So Zancle to th' Italian earth was ty'd,
And men once walk'd where fhips at anchor ride;
Till Neptune overlook'd the narrow way,
And in disdain pour'd in the conqu'ring fea.
Two cities that adorn'd th' Achaian ground, Buris and Helice, no more are found,
But, whelm'd beneath a lake, are funk and drown'd;
And boatsmen through the cryal water show,
To wond'ring paffengers, the walls below.
Near Trazen ftands a hill, expos'd in air
To winter winds, of leafy fhadows bare:
This once was level ground: but (ftrange to tell)
Th' included vapors, that in caverns dwell,
Lab'ring with colic pangs, and clofe confin'd,
In vain fought issue from the rumbling wind:
Yet still they heav'd for vent, and heaving still
Inlarg'd the concave, and shot
the hill;
As breath extends a bladder, or the skins
Of goats are blown t' inclose the hoarded wines:
The mountain yet retains a mountain's face,
And gather'd rubbish heals the hollow space.
Of many wonders, which I heard or knew,
Retrenching most, I will relate but few:
What, are not springs with qualities oppos'd
Endu'd at seasons, and at feasons loft?
Thrice in a day thine, Ammon, change their form,
Cold at high noon, at morn and evening warm:
Thine, Athaman, will kindle wood, if thrown
On the pil'd earth, and in the waning moon.
The Thracians have a ftream, if any try
The taste, his harden'd bowels petrify;
Whate'er it touches it converts to stones,
And makes a marble pavement where it runs.
Grathis, and Sibaris her fifter flood,
That flide thro our Calabrian neighbour wood,
With gold and amber die the fhining hair,
And thither youth refort; (for who would not be
But ftranger virtues yet in ftreams we find, Some change not only bodies, but the mind: Who has not heard of Salmacis obscene, Whofe waters into women foften men? Of Æthiopian lakes, which turn the brain To madness, or in heavy fleep constrain? Clytorean ftreams the love of wine expel, (Such is the virtue of th' abstemious well,) Whether the colder nymph that rules the flood Extinguishes, and balks the drunken God; Or that Melampus (fo have fome affur'd) When the mad Pratides with charms he cur'd, And pow'rful herbs, both charms and fimples
Into the fober spring, where still their virtues last. Unlike effects Lynceftis will produce;
Who drinks his waters, tho with moderate use,
Reels as with wine, and fees with double fight:
His heels too heavy, and his head too light.
Ladon, once Pheneos, an Arcadian stream,
(Ambiguous in th' effects, as in the name)
By day is wholfom bev'rage; but is thought
By night infected, and a deadly draught.
Thus running rivers, and the standing lake,
Now of these virtues, now of those partake:
Time was (and all things time and fate obey)
When fast Ortygia floated on the fea;
Such were Cyanean ifles, when Typhis steer'd
Betwixt their ftraits, and their collifion fear'd;
They swam where now they fit; and firmly join'd
Secure of rooting up, refift the wind.
Nor Ætna vomiting fulphureous fire
Will ever belch; for fulphur will expire,
(The veins exhausted of the liquid store;)
Time was the caft no flames; in time will caft no
For whether earth's an animal, and air
Imbibes, her lungs with coolness to repair,
And what the fucks remits; fhe ftill requires
Inlets for air, and outlets for her fires;
When tortur'd with convulfive fits the fakes,
That motion chokes the vent, till other vent fhe makes:
|