"Minerva nurs'd him, and the infant laid

"Within a cheft, of twining ofiers made.
*The daughters of King Cecrops undertook
"To guard the cheft, commanded not to look
"On what was hid within. I ftood to fee

695

"The charge obey'd, perch'd on a neighb'ring tree. "The fifters Pandrofos and Hersè keep 700 "The strict command; Aglauros needs would peep, "And faw the monstrous infant in a fright, "And call'd her fifters to the hideous fight: "A boy's foft fhape did to the waist prevail, "But the boy ended in a dragon's tail.

705

"I told the ftern Minerva all that pafs'd, "But for my pains, discarded and disgrac'd, "The frowning goddess drove me from her fight, "And for her fav'rite chose the bird of night. "Be then no telltale; for I think my wrong.

Enough to teach a bird to hold her tongue. "But you, perhaps, may think I was remov'd, "As never by the heav'nly maid belov'd: "But I was lov'd; ask Pallas if I lie; "Tho' Pallas hate me now, she won't deny; "For I. whom in a feather'd shape you view, "Was once a maid (by Heav'n the story's true) "A blooming maid, and a king's daughter too. "A crowd of lovers own'd my beauty's charms;

'My beauty was the cause of all my harms; "Neptune, as on his fhores I went to rove, "Obferv'd me in my walks, and fell in love.

710

715

720

“He made his courtship, he confess'd his pain,
"And offer'd force when all his arts were vain :
"Swift he purfu'd; I ran along the strand,
"Till, fpent and weary'd on the finking fand,
"I fhriek'd aloud; with cries I fill'd the air
"To gods and men; nor god nor man was there :
"A virgin goddess heard a virgin's prayer;
"For as my arms I lifted to the skies,

725

730

735

"I saw black feathers from my fingers rife ; "I ftrove to fling my garment on the ground; "My garment turn'd to plumes, and girt me round: "My hands to beat my naked bofom try; "Nor naked bofom now hor hands had I. 86 'Lightly I tript, nor weary, as before, "Sunk in the fand, but skimm'd along the shore, "Till, rifing on my wings, I was preferr'd "To be the chafte Minerva's virgin bird: "Preferr'd in vain! I now am in difgrace; "Nyctimene the owl enjoys my place.

740

745

"On her incestuous life I need not dwell, "(In Lesbos still the horrid tale they tell) "And of her dire amours you must have heard, "For which he now does penance in a bird, "That, confcious of her shame, avoids the light, "And loves the gloomy cov'ring of the night; "The birds, where'er the flutters, scare away "The hooting wretch, and drive her from the day."

The raven, urg'd by fuch impertinence,

Grew paffionate, it seems, and took offence,

750

And curs'd the harmless daw; the daw withdrew;
The raven to her injur'd patron flew,

And found him out, and told the fatal truth
Of falfe Coronis and the favour'd youth.

The god was wroth; the colour left his look,
The wreath his head, the harp his hand forfook;
His filver bow and feather'd shafts he took,
And lodg'd an arrow in the tender breast
That had so often to his own been prest.

759

760

Down fell the wounded nymph, and sadly groan'd,
And pull'd his arrow recking from the wound,
And, welt'ring in her blood, thus faintly cry'd,
"Ah, cruel God! tho' I have justly dy'd,

765

"What has, alas! my unborn infant done,
"That he should fall, and two expire in one?"
This faid, in agonies she fetch'd her breath.

The god diffolves in pity at her death;

He hates the bird that made her falfehood known,
And hates himself for what himself had done; 770
The feather'd shaft that sent her to the Fates,
And his own hand that fent the shaft, he hates:
Fain would he heal the wound, and ease her pain,
And tries the compass of his art in vain.

Soon as he faw the lovely nymph expire,
The pile made ready, and the kindling fire,
With fighs and groans her obfequies he kept,
And, if a god could weep, the god had wept.

775

Her corpfe he kiss'd, and heav'nly incense brought,
And folemniz'd the death himself had wrought. 780
But, left his offspring should her fate partake,
Spite of th' immortal mixture in his make,
He ript her womb, and set the child at large,
And gave him to the Centaur Chiron's charge,
785
Then in his fury black'd the raven o'er,
And bid him prate in his white plumes no more.

Ocyrrhöe transformed to a Mare.

OLD Chiron took the babe with fecret joy,
Proud of the charge of the celestial boy;
His daughter, too, whom on the fandy shore
The nymph Chariclo to the Centaur bore,
With hair dishevell'd on her shoulders, came
To fee the child, Ocyrrhöe was her name;
She knew her father's arts, and could rehearse
The depths of prophefy in founding verfe.
Once, as the facred infant fhe survey'd,
The god was kindled in the raving maid,
And thus fhe utter'd her prophetic tale;

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795

"Hail, great Physician of the world! all bail! "Hail, mighty Infant! who in years to come "Shalt heal the nations, and defraud the tomb; 8co "Swift be thy growth! thy triumphs unconfin'd! "Make kingdoms thicker, and increase mankind; "Thy daring art shall animate the dead, "And draw the thunder on thy guilty head:

"Then fhalt thou die, but from the dark abode 805 "Rise up victorious, and be twice a god.

"And thou, my fire, not destin'd by thy birth "To turn to dust, and mix with common earth, "How wilt thou tofs and rave, and long to die, "And quit thy claim to immortality, 810 "When thou shalt feel, enrag'd with inward pains, "The Hydra's venom rankling in thy veins ? "The gods, in pity, shall contract thy date, "And give thee over to the pow'r of Fate." Thus, ent'ring into destiny, the maid The fecrets of offended Joye betray'd: More had she still to say, but now appears

815

Oppress'd with fobs and fighs, and drown'd in tears. “My voice,” says she, “" is gone, my language fails; "Thro' every limb my kindred shape prevails: 820 "Why did the god this fatal gift impart,

"And with prophetic raptures swell my heart?
"What new defires are these? I long to pace
"O'er flow'ry meadows, and to feed on grafs;
"I haften to a brute, a maid no more;
"But why, alas! am I transform'd all o'er?
"My fire does half a human shape retain,
"And in his upper parts preferves the man.'

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830

Her tongue no more distinct complaints affords,
But in fhrill accents and misshapen words
Pours forth fuch hideous wailings as declare

The human form confounded in the Mare,