The Thracians have a ftream, if any try
The taste, his harden'd bowels petrify;
! Whate'er it touches it converts to ftones,
And makes a marble pavement where it runs.

Grathis, and Sibaris her fifter flood,
That slide thro our Calabrian neighbour wood,
With gold and amber die the fhining hair,
And thither youth refort; (for who would not be
fair?)

But stranger rtues 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' abftemious 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 caft

Into the fober fpring, where ftill their virtues laft. 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 ftanding lake,
Now of these virtues, now of those partake:
Time was (and all things time and fate obey)
When faft Ortygia floated on the fea;
Such were Cyanean ifles, when Typhis steer'd
Betwixt their straits, 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 exhaufted of the liquid ftore;)
Time was the caft no flames; in time will caft no

more.

For whether earth's an animal, and air Imbibes, her lungs with coolness to repair, And what the fucks remits; fhe still 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:

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 ascend; 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 muft 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 slaughter'd steer, Bees from his putrid bowels will appear; Who like their parents haunt the fields, and bring Their honey-harvest home, and hope another spring

The warlike steed is multiply'd, we find,
To wafps 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 the 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 springs : 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 fweet 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: