Ovid

“ No Sun was lighted up the World to view;
No Moon did yet her blunted Horns renew:
Nor yet was Earth suspended in the Sky;
Nor pois'd, did on her own Foundations lye:
Nor Seas about the Shores their Arms had thrown;
But Earth, and Air, and Water, were in one.
Thus Air was void of Light, and Earth unstable,
And Water's dark abyss unnavigable. ”

“ Forbid it Heav'n, said she, that I shou'd tear
Those Holy Reliques from the Sepulcher.
They ponder'd the mysterious Words again,
For some new Sense; and long they fought in vain:
At length Deucalion clear'd his cloudy Brow,
And said, the dark Ænigma will allow
A Meaning, which if well I understand,
From Sacrilege will free the God's Command:
This Earth our mighty Mother is, the Stones
In her capacious Body, are her Bones:
These we must cast behind. With hope, and fear
The Woman did the new Solution hear:
The Man diffides in his own Augury,
And doubts the Gods ”

“ By Pray'rs are bent to pity, and to love;
If humane Miseries can move their Mind;
If yet they can forgive, and yet be kind;
Tell how we may restore, by second birth,
Mankind, and people desolated Earth. ”

“ E're yet the Pine descended to the Seas:
E're Sails were spread, new Oceans to explore:⁠
And happy Mortals, unconcern'd for more,
Confin'd their Wishes to their native Shore.
No walls were yet; nor Fence, nor Mote, nor mound,
Nor Drum was heard, nor Trumpet's angry Sound:
Nor Swords were forg'd; but void of Care and Crime,
The soft Creation slept away their time.
The teeming Earth, yet guiltless of the Plough,
And unprovok'd, did fruitful Stores allow:
Content with Food, which Nature freely bred,
On Wildings, and on Strawberries they fed ”

“ The Fowls, long beating on their Wings in vain,
Despair of Land, and drop into the Main.
Now Hills, and Vales no more distinction know;
And levell'd Nature lies oppress'd below.
The most of Mortals perish in the Flood:
The small remainder dies for want of Food.
⁠A Mountain of stupendous height there stands
Betwixt th' Athenian and Bœotian Lands,
The Bound of fruitful Fields, while Fields they were,
But then a Field of Waters did appear:
Parnassus is its name; whose forky rise
Mounts through the Clouds, and mates the lofty Skies. ”

“ With inward trembling Earth receiv'd the Wound;
And rising Streams a ready passage found.
Th' expanded Waters gather on the Plain:
They float the Fields, and over-top the Grain;
Then rushing onwards, with a sweepy sway,
Bear Flocks, and Folds, and lab'ring Hinds away.
Nor safe their Dwellings were, for, sap'd by Floods,
Their Houses fell upon their Household Gods.
The solid Piles, too strongly built to fall,
High o'er their Heads, behold a watry Wall:
Now Seas and Earth were in confusion lost;
A World of Waters, and without a Coast.
⁠One climbs a Cliff; one in his Boat is born ”

“ The Flow'rs unsown, in Fields and Meadows reign'd:
And Western Winds immortal Spring maintain'd.
In following Years, the bearded Corn ensu'd,
From Earth unask'd, nor was that Earth renew'd.
From Veins of Vallies, Milk and Nectar broke;
And Honey sweating through the Pores of Oak.
The Silver Age.
⁠But when good Saturn, banish'd from above,
Was driv'n to Hell, the World was under Jove.
Succeedings Times a Silver Age behold,
Excelling Brass, but more excell'd by Gold. ”

“ And Earth, but not at once, her Visage rears,
And peeps upon the Seas from upper Grounds;
The Streams, but just contain'd within their Bounds.
By slow degrees into their Channels crawl;
And Earth increases, as the Waters fall. ”

“ The God a clearer space for Heav'n design'd;
Where Fields of Light, and liquid Æther flow;
Purg'd from the pondrous Dregs of Earth below.
⁠Scarce had the Pow'r distinguish'd these, when streight
The Stars, no longer overlaid with Weight,
Exert their Heads, from underneath the Mass;⁠
And upward shoot, and kindle as they pass,
And with diffusive Light adorn their heav'nly Place. ”

“ Our captive Skies were ready to imbrace:
For tho' the Foe was fierce, the Seeds of all
Rebellion, sprung from one Original;
Now, wheresoever ambient Waters glide,
All are corrupt, and all must be deftroy'd.
Let me this Holy Protestation make,
By Hell, and Hells inviolable Lake,
I try'd whatever in the God-Head lay:⁠
But gangren'd Members must be lopt away,
Before the nobler Parts are tainted to decay.
There dwells below, a Race of Demi-Gods,
Of Nymphs in Waters, and of Fawns in Woods:
Who, tho' not worthy yet, in Heav'n to live,
Let 'em, at least, enjoy that Earth we give. ”

“ A Way there is, in Heav'n's expanded Plain,
Which, when the Skies are clear, is seen below,
And Mortals, by the Name of Milky, know.
The Ground-work is of Stars; through which the Road
Lyes open to the Thunderer's Abode:
The Gods of greater Nations dwell around,
And, on the Right and Left, the Palace bound;
The Commons where they can: The Nobler sort
With Winding-doors wide open, front the Court.
This Place, as far as Earth with Heav'n may vie,
I dare to call the Louvre of the Skie. ”

“ Then, every Void of Nature to supply,
With Forms of Gods he fills the vacant Sky:
New Herds of Beasts he sends, the Plains to share: ⁠
New Colonies of Birds, to people Air:
And to their Oozy Beds, the finny Fish repair. ”

“ His Chaps in vain, and blows upon the Flix:
She scapes, and for the neighb'ring Covert strives,
And gaining Shelter doubts if yet she lives:
If little Things with great we may compare,
Such was the God, and such the flying Fair. ”

“ Their useless Torches on dry Hedges throw,
That catch the Flames, and kindle all the row;
So burns the God, consuming in Desire,
And feeding in his Breast a fruitless Fire:
Her well turn'd Neck he view'd (her Neck was bare)
And on her Shoulders her dishevel'd Hair; ”

“ The neighb'ring Fields, and scours along the Plains.
Howling he fled, and fain he wou'd have spoke;
But humane Voice his brutal Tongue forsook.
About his Lips the gather'd Foam he churns,⁠
And, breathing slaughters, still with Rage he burns,
But on the bleating Flock his Fury turns.
His Mantle, now his Hide, with rugged Pairs
Cleaves to his Back; a famish'd Face he bears;
His Arms descend, his Shoulders sink away
To multiply his Legs for chase of Prey.
He grows a Wolf, his hoariness remains,
And the same Rage in other Members reigns. ”

“ Then Earth from Air, and Seas from Earth were driv'n,
And grosser Air sunk from Ætherial Heav'n.
Thus disembroil'd, they take their proper place;⁠
The next of Kin, contiguously embrace;
And Foes are sunder'd, by a larger Space.
The Force of Fire ascended first on high,
And took its Dwelling in the vaulted Sky:
Then Air succeeds, in Lightness next to Fire;
Whose Atoms from unactive Earth retire.
Earth sinks beneath, and draws a num'rous Throng
Of pondrous, thick, unwieldy Seeds along. ”

“ She shuns, and hates the Joys, she never try'd.
On Wilds, and Woods she fixes her Desire:
Nor knows what Youth, and kindly Love inspire.
Her Father chides her oft; Thou ow'st, says he,
A Husband to thy self, a Son to me.
She, like a Crime, abhors the Nuptial Bed:
She glows with Blushes, and she hangs her Head.
Then casting round his Neck her tender Arms,
Sooths him with Blandishments, and filial Charms:
Give me, my Lord, she said, to live, and die
A spotless Maid, without the Marriage Tye. ”

“ The Fields of liquid Air, inclosing all,
Surround the Compass of this earthly Ball:
The lighter parts lye next the Fires above;
The grosser near the watry Surface move:
Thick clouds are spread, and Storms engender there,⁠
And Thunder's Voice, which wretched Mortals fear,
And Winds that on their Wings cold Winter bear.
Nor were those blustring Brethren left at large,
On Seas, and Shores, their Fury to discharge:
Bound as they are, and circumscrib'd in place,
They rend the World, resistless, where they pass ”

“ Truth, Modesty, and Shame, the World forsook:
Fraud, Avarice, and Force, their Places took.
Then Sails were spread, to every Wind that blew,
Raw were the Sailors, and the Depths were new:
Trees, rudely hollow'd, did the Waves sustain ”

“ To puff away the Clouds, and purge the Skies:
Serenely, while he blows, the Vapours driv'n,
Discover Heav'n to Earth, and Earth to Heav'n.
The billows fall, while Neptune lays his Mace
On the rough Sea, and smooths its furrow'd Face.
Already Triton, at his call appears ⁠
Above the Waves; a Tyrian Robe he wears;
And in his Hand a crooked Trumpet bears.
The Soveraign bids him peaceful sounds inspire,
And give the Waves the signal to retire.
His writhen Shell he takes; whose narrow vent
Grows by degrees into a large extent,
Then gives it Breath ”

“ And bounding Banks for winding Rivers makes.
Some part, in Earth are swallow'd up, the most
In ample Oceans, disembogu'd, are lost.
He shades the Woods, the Vallies he restrains
With rocky Mountains, and extends the Plains.
⁠And as five Zones th' Ætherial Regions bind,
Five, Correspondent, are to Earth assign'd:
The Sun with Rays, directly darting down,
Fires all beneath, and fries the middle Zone:
The two beneath the distant Poles, complain
Of endless Winter, and perpetual Rain.
Betwixt th' Extreams, two happier Climates hold
The Temper that partakes of Hot, and Cold. ”

“ Dark Night had cover'd Heav'n, and Earth, before
I enter'd his unhospitable Door.
Just at my entrance, I display'd the Sign
That something was approaching of Divine.
The prostrate People pray; the Tyrant grins;
And, adding Prophanation to his Sins,
I'll try, said he, and if a God appear,
To prove his Deity shall cost him dear.
'Twas late; the graceless Wretch my Death prepares,
When I shou'd soundly sleep, opprest with Cares:
This dire Experiment he chose, to prove
If I were Mortal, or undoubted Jove:
But first he had resolv'd to taste my Pow'r ”

“ Oh cou'd our Father his old Arts inspire,
And make me Heir of his informing Fire,
That so I might abolisht Man retrieve,
And perisht People in new Souls might live.
But Heav'n is pleas'd, nor ought we to complain,
That we, th' Examples of Mankind, remain. ”