The youth was in a maze, nor did he know
Which

way to turn the reins, or where to go; Nor wou'd the horses, had he known obey.

Then the Seven Stars first felt Apollo's ray,
And wish'd to dip in the forbidden sea.
The folded Serpent next the frozen pole,
Stiff and benumb'd before, began to roll,

And rag'd with inward heat, and threaten'd war,
And fhot a redder light from every star;

Nay, and 'tis faid, Boötes too, that fain

}

Thou wouldst have fled, tho' cumber'd with thy wain.
Th' unhappy youth then, bending down his head,
Saw earth and ocean far beneath him spread:
His colour chang'd, he startled at the fight,
And his eyes darken'd by too great a light.
Now could he wish the fiery steeds untry'd,
His birth obfcure, and his request deny'd:
Now would he Merops for his father own,
And quit his boasted kindred to the Sun.

So fares the pilot, when his fhip is toft, In troubled feas, and all its fteerage loft, He gives her to the winds, and in despair Seeks his laft refuge in the Gods and pray'r.

What cou'd he do? his eyes, if backward caft, Find a long path he had already paft;

If forward, ftill a longer path they find:
Both he compares, and measures in his mind;
And fometimes cafts an eye upon the east,
And fometimes looks on the forbidden west.

The horses' names he knew not in the fright:

Nor wou'd he loofe the reins, nor cou'd he hold'em tight.
Now all the horrors of the heavens he spies,
And monstrous fhadows of prodigious size}

That deck'd with ftars, lie fcatter'd on the skies.
There is a place above, where Scorpio bent
In tail and arms furrounds a vast extent;
In a wide circuit of the heavens he fhines,
And fills the space of two celeftial signs.
Soon as the youth beheld him, vex'd with heat,
Brandifh his fting, and in his poifon sweat,

Half dead with fudden fear he dropt the reins;
The horfes felt 'em loofe upon their manes,
And, flying out through all the plains above,
Ran uncontroll'd where-e'er their fury drove;
Rufh'd on the stars, and through a pathless way,
Of unknown regions hurry'd on the day.
And now above, and now below they flew,

And near the earth the burning chariot drew.

The clouds difperfe in fumes, the wond'ring moon Beholds her brother's fteeds beneath her own;

}

The

The highlands smoke, cleft by the piercing rays,
Or, clad with woods, in their own fuel blaze.
Next o'er the plains, where ripen'd harvests grow,
The running conflagation fpreads below,

But these are trivial ills: whole cities burn,

And peopled kingdoms into afhes turn.

The mountains kindle as the car draws near,
Athos and Tmolus red with fires appear;
Oeagrian Hamus (then a fingle name)

And virgin Helicon increase the flame ;
Taurus and Oete glare amid the sky,
And Ida, spite of all her fountains, dry.
Eryx, and Othrys, and Citharon, glow;
And Rhodope, no longer cloath'd in fnow;
High Pindus, Mimas, and Parnafsus, sweat,
And Etna rages with redoubled heat.

Ev'a Scythia, through her hoary regions warm'd,
In vain with all her native froft was arm'd.
Cover'd with flames, the tow'ring Apennine,
And Caucafus, and proud Olympus, thine;
And, where the long extended Alps afpire,

Now stands a huge continued range of fire.

Th' aftonish'd youth, where-e'er his eyes cou'd turn,

Beheld the universe around him burn:

The world was in a blaze; nor could he bear

The fultry vapours of the fcorching air,

Which from below, as from a furnace, flow'd;
And now the axle-tree beneath him glow'd:
Loft in the whirling clouds, that round him broke,
Aud white with ashes, hov'ring in the smoke,
He flew where e'er the horfes drove, nor knew
Whither the horses drove, or where he flew.
'Twas then, they fay, the fwarthy Moor begun
To change his hue, and blacken in the fun.
Then Libya firft, of all her moisture drain'd,
Became a barren wafte, a wild of fand.

The water-nymphs lament their empty urns,
Baotia, robb'd of filver Dirce, mourns,
Corinth, Pyrene's wafted fpring bewails,

And Argos grieves whilft Amymonè fails.

The floods are drain'd from every distant coaft,

Even Tanaïs, tho' fix'd in ice, was lost,

Enrag'd Caïcus and Lycormas roar,

And Xanthus, fated to be burnt once more.
The fam'd Meander, that unweary'd ftrays

Through mazy windings, fmokes in every maze.
From his lov'd Babylon Euphrates flies;

The big-fwoln Ganges and the Danube rife
In thick'ning fumes, and darken half the ikies.
In flames Imenos and the Phafis roll'd,
And Tagus floating in his melted gold.

}

The

The fwans, that on Cayster often try'd

Their tuneful fongs, now fung their last, and dy'd.
The frighted Nile ran off, and under ground
Conceal'd his head, nor can it yet be found:
His feven divided currents are all dry,

And where they roll'd, seven gaping trenches lie.
No more the Rhine or Rhone their course maintain,
Nor Tiber, of his promis'd empire vain.

The ground, deep cleft, admits the dazzling ray,
And startles Pluto with the flash of day.
The seas fhrink in, and to the fight disclose

Wide naked plains, where once their billows rofe;
Their rocks are all discover'd, and increase
The number of the fcatter'd Cyclades.
The fish in fhoals about the bottom creep,
Nor longer dares the crooked dolphin leap:
Gasping for breath, th' unshapen Phoca die,
And on the boiling waves extended lie.
Nereus, and Doris with her virgin train,
Seek out the laft receffes of the main;
Beneath unfathomable depths they faint,
And fecret in their gloomy caverns pant.
Stern Neptune thrice above the waves upheld
His face, and thrice was by the flames repell'd.

The Earth at length on every fide embrac'd
With fcalding feas, that floated round her waste,