By steel her stubborn foul his mother freed,
And punish'd on herself her impious deed.
Had I an hundred tongues, a wit fo large 375
As could their hundred offices discharge ;
Had Phoebus all his Helicon bestow'd,
In all the streams infpiring all the god;
Those tongues, that wit, those streams, that god
in vain

380

Would offer to describe his fifters' pain:
They beat their breasts with many a bruising

blow,

Till they turn livid, and corrupt the fnow.
The corpfe they cherish, while the corpfe re-
mains,

And exercise and rub with fruitless pains;
And when to funeral flames 'tis borne away, 385
They kifs the bed on which the body lay:
And when thofe funeral flames no longer burn,
(The duft compos'd within a pious urn)
Ev'n in that urn their brother they confefs,
And hug it in their arms, and to their bofoms
prefs.

390

His tomb is rais'd; then, ftretch'd along the

ground,

Those living monuments his tomb furround:
Ev'n to his name, infcrib'd, their tears they

But Cynthia now had all her fury spent, 395 Not with lefs ruin, than a race, content; Excepting Gorge, perifh'd all the feed,

And her whom heaven for Hercules decreed.
Satiate at last, no longer fhe purfu'd

The weeping fifters; but with wings endu'd, 400
And horny beaks, and fent to flit in air ;
Who yearly round the tomb in feather'd flocks
repair.

BAUCIS AND PHILEMON,

OUT OF THE EIGHTH BOOK OF

OVID'S METAMORPHOSES.

The author, pursuing the deeds of Thefeus, relates how he, with his friend Pirithous, were invited by Achelous, the river-god, to ftay with him, till his waters were abated. Achelous entertains them with a relation of his own love to Perimele, who was changed into an island by Neptune, at his request. Pirithous, being an atheift, derides the legend, and denies the power of the gods to work that miracle. Lelex, another companion of Thefeus, to confirm the Story of Achelous, relates another metamorphofis of Baucis and Philemon into trees; of which he was partly an eye-witness.

THUS Achelous ends: his audience hear
With admiration, and, admiring, fear
The powers of heaven; except Ixion's fon,
Who laugh'd at all the gods, believ'd in none ;
He fhook his impious head, and thus replies, 5
These legends are no more than pious lies:

You attribute too much to heavenly fway, To think they give us forms, and take away.

The reft, of better minds, their fenfe declar'd Against this doctrine, and with horror heard. 10 Then Lelex rofe, an old experienc'd man, And thus with fober gravity began :

Heaven's power is infinite: earth, air, and sea, The manufacture mass, the making power obey: By proof to clear your doubt; in Phrygian

ground

15

Two neighb'ring trees, with walls encompass'd round,

Stand on a moderate rife, with wonder shown,
One a hard oak, a fofter linden one:

I faw the place and them, by Pittheus fent
To Phrygian realms, my grandfire's govern-

ment.

Not far from thence is feen a lake, the haunt
Of coots, and of the fishing cormorant :
Here Jove with Hermes came; but in difguife
Of mortal men conceal'd their deities:
One laid afide his thunder, one his rod ;
And many toilfome steps together trod;
For harbour at a thoufand doors they knock'd,
Not one of all the thousand but was lock'd.
At laft an hofpitable house they found,
An homely fhed; the roof, not far from ground,
Was thatch'd with reeds and ftraw together
bound.

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