His servants, ignorant of what had clianc’d,
With

eager haste and joyful shouts advane'd,
And call'd their Lord A&tæon to the game;
He shook his head in answer to the name;
He heard, but with'd he had indeed been gone,
Or only to have food a looker-on.
But, to his grief, he finds hîmself too near,
And feels his ravenous dogs with fury tear
Their wretched master panting in a deer.

THE BIRTH OF BACCHUS.

ACTÆON's sufferings, and Diana's rage,
Did all the thoughts of men and gods engage;
Some call'd the evils, which Diana wrought,
Too great, and disproportion'd to the fault;
Others again esteemd Actæon's woes
Fit for a virgin-goddess to impose.
The hearers into different parts dividen
And reasons are produc'd on either side.

Juno alone, of all that heard the news,
Nor would condemn the goddess, nor excuse:
She heeded not the justice of the deed,
But joy'd to see the race of Cadmus bleed;
For still the kept Europa in her mind,
And, for her fake, detested all her kind.
Besides, to aggravate her hate, she heard
How Semele, to Jove's embrace preferr'd,
Was now grown big with an immortal load,
And carry'd in her womb a future God.
Thus terribly incens’d, the goddess broke
To fuddien fury, and abruptly spoke :

“ Are

לו

“ Are my reproaches of fo small a force ? “ 'Tis time I then pursue another course : 6s It is decreed the guilty wretch fhall die, “ If I 'm indeed the mistress of the sky; “ If rightly stylid among the powers above “ The wife and lifter of the thundering Jove “ (And none can fure a sister's right deny); " It is decreed the guilty wretch fhall die. « She boasts an honour I can hardly claim;

Pregnant fhe rises to a mother's name ; “ While proud and vain she triumphs in her Jove, . “ And shows the glorious tokens of his love : 66 But if I 'm still the mistress of the skies, « By her own

lover the fond beauty dies." This said, descending in a yellow cloud, Before the gates of Semele she stood.

Old Beroë's decrepit shape she wears, Her wrinkled visage, and her hoary hairs Whilst in her trembling gait fhe totters on, And learns to tattle in the nurse's tone. The goddess, thus disguis'd in age, beguild With pleasing stories her faļse foster-child. Much did she talk of love, and when the cameTo mention to the nymph her lover's name, Fetching a figh, and holding down her head, “ 'Tis well, says she, if all be true that 's faidi “ But trust me, child, I'm much inclin'd to fear “ Some counterfeit in this your Jupiter. « Many an honest well-designing maid “ Has been by these pretended gods betray’d.

« But

“ But if he be indeed the thundering Jove,
“ Bid him, when next he courts the rites of love;
“ Descend triumphant from th'ethereal sky,
“ In all the pomp of his divinity;
“ Encompass’d round by those celestial charms,
« With which he fills th' immortal Juno's arms."

Th' unwary nymph, ensnar'd with what she said, Desir’d of Jove, when next he fought her bed, To grant a certain gift which she would choose ; « Fear not, replied the God, that I 'll-refuse “ Whate'er you-alk: may. Styx confirm my voice, “ Choose what you will, and you shall have your

choice. “ Then, says the nymph, when next you

seek

my arms “ May you descend in those celestial charms “ With which your Juno's bosom you inflame, " And fill with transport heaven's immortal dame.'', The God surpriz'd would fain have stopp'd her voice : But he had sworn, and she had made her choice.

To keep his promise, he ascends, and throuds
His awful brow in whirlwinds and in clouds ;
Whilft all around, in terrible array,
His thunders rattle, and his lightnings play.
And yet, the dazzling lustre to abate,
He fet not out in all his pomp and state,
Clad in the mildest lightning of the skiesz
And arm'd with thunder of the smallest size:-
Not those huge bolts, by which the giants llain-
Lay overthrown on the Phlegrean plain.
Twas of a lefser mold, and lighter weight;
They call it thunder of a second rate,

For

}

For the rough Cyclops, who by Jove's command
Temper'd the bolt, and turnd it to his hand,
Work'd

up

less. flame and fury in its make,
And quench'd it sooner in the standing lake.
Thus dreadfully adorn'd, with horror bright,
Thi illustrious God, descending from his height,
Came rushing on her in a storm of light.

The mortal dame, too feeble to engage
The lightning's flashes and the thunder's rage,
Consum'd amidst the glories the defir’d,
And in the terrible embrace expir'd.

But, to preserve his offspring from the tomb,
Jove took him smoking from the blasted womb;
And, if on ancient tales we may rely,
Inclos'd th' abortive infant in his thigh.
Here, when the babe had all his time fulfillid,
Ino first took him for her foster-child ;
Then the Niseans, in their dark abode,
Nurs'd secretly with milk the thriving God.

'TWAS now, while these transactions paft on earth, And Bacchus thus procur'd a second birth, When Jove, dispos'd to lay aside the weight Of public empire, and the cares of state ;

As to his Queen in nectar bowls he quaff'd, .“ In troth, says he, (and as he fpoke be laugh’d,) --- The sense of pleasure in the male is far “ More dull and dead, than what you females share."

}

Juno the truth of what was faid deny'd;
Tiresias therefore must the cause decide ;
For he the pleasure of each fex had try'd.

* It happen'd once, within a shady wood,
Two twisted snakes he in conjunction view'd;
When with his staff their slimy folds he broke,
And lost his manhood at the fatal stroke,
But, after seven revolving years, he viewd
The felf-fame ferpents in the self-fame wood;
66 And if, says he, such virtue in you lie,

66 That he who dares youp llimy folds untye w is Muit change this kind, a second stroke I'll try."

Again he struck the snakes, and stood again New-sex'd, and straight recover'd into man. • Him therefore both the Deities create The sovereign-umpire in their grand debate : · And he declar'd for Jove: when Juno, fir'd, : More than so trivial an affair requird, Depriv'd him, in her fury, of his fight, And left him groping round in sudden night. But Jove (for so it is in heaven decreed, That no one God repeal another's deed) Irradiates all his soul with inward 'light, And with the prophet's art relieves the want of sight.

THE TRANSFORMATION OF ECHO.

Fam'd far and near for knowing things to come, From him th' enquiring nations fought their doom ; The fair Liriope his answers try'd, And firft th' unerring prophet juftify'd;