Or when the wind in hollow caves are clos'd,
And fubtil fpirits find that way oppos'd,
They tofs
up flints in air; the flints that hide The feeds of fire, thus tofs'd in air, collide, Kindling the fulphur, till the fuel spent
The cave is cool'd, and the fierce winds relent.
Or whether fulphur, catching fire, feeds on
Its unctuous parts, till all the matter gone
The flames no more afcend; for earth supplies
The fat that feeds them; and when earth denies
That food, by length of time confum'd, the fire
Famish'd for want of fuel must expire.
A race of men there are, as fame has told,
Who fhiv'ring fuffer Hyperborean cold,
Till nine times bathing in Minerva's lake,
Soft feathers to defend their naked fides they take,
"Tis faid, the Scythian wives (believe who will)
Transform themselves to birds by magic skill;
Smear'd over with an oil of wond'rous might,
That adds new pinions to their airy flight.
But this by fure experiment we know,
That living creatures from corruption grow:
Hide in a hollow pit a flaughter'd steer,
Bees from his putrid bowels will appear ;
Who like their parents haunt the fields, and bring
Their honey-harveft home, and hope another fpring.
The warlike steed is multiply'd, we find,
To wasps and hornets of the warrior kind.
Cut from a crab his crooked claws, and hide
The rest in earth, a scorpion thence will glide
And shoot his fting, his tail in circles tofs'd
Refers the limbs his backward father loft.
And worms, that stretch on leaves their filmy loom,
Crawl from their bags, and butterflies become.
Ev'n flime begets the frog's loquacious race:
Short of their feet at first, in little space
With arms and legs endu'd, long leaps they take,
Rais'd on their hinder part, and fwim the lake,
And waves repel: for nature gives their kind,
To that intent, a length of legs behind.
The cubs of bears a living lump appear,
When whelp'd, and no determin'd figure wear.
Their mother licks 'em into fhape, and gives
As much of form, as fhe herself receives.
The grubs from their fexangular abode
Crawl out unfinish'd, like the maggot's brood:
Trunks without limbs; till time at leifure brings
The thighs they wanted, and their tardy wings.
The bird who draws the car of Juno, vain
Of her crown'd head, and of her starry train ;
And he that bears th' artillery of Jove,
The strong-pounc'd eagle, and the billing dove,
And all the feather'd kind, who could fuppofe (But that from fight, the fureft fenfe, he knows) They from th' included yolk, not ambient white arose.
There are who think the marrow of a man, Which in the spine, while he was living, ran; When dead, the pith corrupted, will become A fnake, and hifs within the hollow tomb.
All these receive their birth from other things; But from himself the phoenix only fprings : Self-born, begotten by the parent flame In which he burn'd, another and the fame: Who not by corn or herbs his life fuftains, But the sweet effence of Amomum drains: And watches the rich gums Arabia bears, While yet in tender dew they drop their tears. He, (his five centuries of life fulfill'd) His neft on oaken boughs begins to build, Or trembling tops of palm: and first he draws The plan with his broad bill, and crooked claws,
Nature's artificers; on this the pile
Is form'd, and rifes round; then with the spoil
Of Cafia, Cynamon, and stems of Nard,
(For softness ftrew'd beneath,) his fun'ral bed is rear'd:
Fun'ral and bridal both; and all around
The borders with corruptlefs myrrh are crown'd:
On this incumbent; till ætherial flame
First catches, then confumes the coftly frame;
Confumes him too, as on the pile he lies;
He liv'd on odours, and in odours dies.
An infant-phoenix from the former fprings,
His father's heir, and from his tender wings
Shakes off his parent duft, his method he pursues,
And the fame leafe of life on the fame terms
When grown to manhood he begins his reign,
And with ftiff pinions can his flight sustain,
He lightens of its load the tree that bore
His father's royal fepulchre before,
And his own cradle: this with pious care
Plac'd on his back, he cuts the buxom air,
Seeks the fun's city, and his facred church,
And decently lays down his burden in the porch.
A wonder more amazing would we find?
Th' Hyæna fhews it, of a double kind,
Varying the fexes in alternate years,
In one begets, and in another bears.
The thin cameleon, fed with air, receives
The color of the thing to which he cleaves.
India, when conquer'd, on the conqu'ring God For planted vines the fharp-ey'd lynx bestow'd, Whofe urine, fhed before it touches earth,
Congeals in air, and gives to gems their birth.
So coral, foft and white in ocean's bed,
Comes harden'd up in air, and glows with red.
All changing fpecies fhould my fong recite;
Before I ceas'd, wou'd change the day to night.
Nations and empires flourish and decay,
By turns command, and in their turns obey;
Time foftens hardy people, time again
Hardens to war a foft, unwarlike train.
Thus Troy, for ten long years, her foes withstood,
And daily bleeding bore th' expence of blood:
Now for thick ftreets it fhews an empty space,
Or only fill'd with tombs of her own perish'd race,
Herself becomes the fepulchre of what she was.
Mycene, Sparta, Thebes of mighty fame,
Are vanish'd out of fubftance into name,
And Dardan Rome, that just begins to rife,
On Tiber's banks, in time fhall mate the skies;
Widening her bounds, and working on her
Ev'n now she meditates imperial fway:
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