I'll here the great experiment declare

That spread th' Arcadian shepherd's name fo far,
How bees from blood of flaughter'd bulls have fled,
And fwarms amidst the red corruption bred. 365
For where th' Egyptians yearly fee their bounds
Refresh'd with floods, and fail about their grounds,
Where Perfia borders, and the rolling Nile
Drives fwiftly down the fwarthy Indians' foil,
Till into feven it multiplies its stream,
And fattens Egypt with a fruitful flime,
In this last practice all their hope remains,
And long experience justifies their pains.

370

First, then, a close contracted space of ground, With ftraiten'd walls and low-built roof they found; A narrow shelving light is next affign'd

376

To all the quarters, one to every wind;

Thro' these the glancing rays obliquely pierce;

Hither they lead a bull that's young and fierce,

When two-years growth of horn he proudly shows,

And shakes the comely terrors of his brows:

His nose and mouth, the avenues of breath,

381

They muzzle up, and beat his limbs to death.

With violence to life and ftifling pain

He flings and fpurns, and tries to fnort in vain; 385
Loud heavy blows fall thick on every side,
Till his bruis'd bowels burft within the hide.
When dead, they leave him rotting on the ground,

With branches, thyme, and caffia, ftrow'd around.

All this is done when first the western breeze
Becalms the year, and smooths the troubled feas,
Before the chattering fwallow builds her neft,
Or fields in Spring's embroidery are drest.
Mean-while the tainted juice ferments within,
And quickens as it works: and now are feen
A wondrous fwarm, that o'er the carcass crawls
Of shapeless, rude, unfinish'd animals.

No legs at firft the infect's weight sustain, -

390

395

At length it moves its new-made limbs with pain;
Now strikes the air with quiv'ring wings, and tries
To lift its body up, and learns to rife;

Now bending thighs and gilded wings it wears
Full grown, and all the bee at length appears:
From every fide the fruitful carcass pours

401

Its swarming brood as thick as fummer-show'rs, 409
Or flights of arrows from the Parthian bows,
When twanging strings first shoot'em on the foes.
Thus have I fung the nature of the bee,

While Cæfar, tow'ring to divinity,

The frighted Indians with his thunder aw'd,

410

And claim'd their homage, and commenc'd a god:
I flourish'd all the while in arts of peace,
Retir'd and shelter'd in inglorious ease:

I who before the fongs of fhepherds made,
When gay and young my rural lays I play'd,
And set my Tityrus beneath his fhade.

416

MILTON'S STYLE IMITATED,

ي

IN A TRANSLATION OF A STORY OUT OF THE THIRD

ENEID.

Lost in the gloomy horrors of the night
We struck upon the coast where Ætna lies,
Horrid and waste, its entrails fraught with fire,
That now casts out dark fumes and pitchy clouds,
Vast showers of ashes hov'ring in the smoke;
Now belches molten stones and ruddy flame
Incens'd, or tears up mountains by the roots,
Or flings a broken rock aloft in air:

The bottom works with smother'd fire, involv'd
In peftilential vapours, stench, and smoke.

'Tis faid that thunder-struck Enceladus, Grovelling beneath th' incumbent mountain's weight, Lies stretch'd fupine, eternal prey of flames, And when he heaves against the burning load, Reluctant, to invert his broiling limbs,

15

20

A fudden earthquake fhoots thro' all the ifle,
And Ætna thunders dreadful under ground,
Then pours out smoke in wreathing curls convolv'd,
And shades the fun's bright orb, and blots out day.
Here in the shelter of the woods we lodg'd,
And frighted heard strange sounds and difmal yells,
Nor faw from whence they came; for all the night
A murky ftorm deep louring o'er our heads
Hung imminent, that with impervious gloom

Oppos'd itself to Cynthia's filver ray,

And shaded all beneath. But now the fun

25

With orient beams had chas'd the dewy night
From earth and heav'n; all Nature stood disclos'd;
When looking on the neighb'ring woods we faw
The ghaftly visage of a man unknown,

An uncouth feature, meagre, pale, and wild;
Affliction's foul and terrible difmay

Sat in his looks, his face impair'd and worn
With marks of famine, speaking fore distress
His locks were tangled, and his shaggy beard
Matted with filth; in all things else a Greek.

He first advanc'd in hafte; but when he saw Trojans and Trojan arms, in mid career Stopt short, he back recoil'd as one furpris'd; But foon recov❜ring speed, he ran, he flew Precipitant, and thus with piteous cries Our ears affail'd: "By Heav'n's eternal fires, "By ev'ry god that fits enthron'd on high, "By this good light, relieve a wretch forlorn, "And bear me hence to any distant shore, "So I may shun this favage race accurst. "'Tis true I fought among the Grecks that late "With fword and fire o'erturn'd Neptunian Troy, "And laid the labour of the gods in duft; "For which, if fo the fad offence deferves,

"Plung'd in the deep, for ever let me lie

30.

35

45

"Whelm'd under feas; if death must be my doom, "Let man inflict it, and I die well pleas'd." He ended here, and now, profufe of tears, In fuppliant mood fell proftrate at our feet :

55

We bade him fpeak from whence, and what he was,
And how by stress of fortune funk this low.
Anchises, too, with friendly aspect mild
Gave him his hand, fure pledge of amity;
When, thus encourag'd, he began his tale.

60

"I'm one," fays he, " of poor descent, my name "Is Achæmenides, my country Greece,

65

70

"Ulyffes' fad compeer, who, whilst he fled "The raging Cyclops, left me here behind "Difconfolate, forlorn; within the cave "He left me, Giant Polypheme's dark cave; "A dungeon wide and horrible, the walls "On all fides furr'd with mouldy damps, and hung "With clots of ropy gore, and human limbs, "His dire repaft: himself of mighty size, "Hoarfe in his voice, and in his visage grim, "Intractable, that riots on the flesh "Of mortal men, and swills the vital blood. "Him did I fee snatch up with horrid grasp "Two sprawling Greeks, in either hand a man; 75 " I saw him when with huge tempestuous sway "He dash'd and broke 'em on the grundfil edge; "The pavement swam in blood, the walls around