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He was the first to see, and first to show Eis friends the marks of the successful blow. "Nor shall thy valour want the praises due," He said; a virtuous envy seiz'd the crew. They shout; the shouting animates their hearts, And all at once employ their thronging darts; But, out of order thrown, in air they join; And multitude makes frustrate the design. With both his hands the proud Ancæus takes, And flourishes his double-biting ax: Then, forward to his fate, he took a stride, Before the rest, and to his fellows cry'd, "Give place, and mark the difference, if you can, Between a woman-warrior and a man ; The boar is doom'd; nor, though Diana lend Her aid, Diana can her beast defend." Thus boasted he; then stretch'd, on tiptoe stood, Secure to make his empty promise good. But the more wary beast prevents the blow, And upwards rips the groin of his audacious foe. Ancæus falls; his bowels from the wound Rush out, and clotted blood distains the ground. Pirithous, no small portion of the war, Press'd on, and shook his lance: to whom from far, Thus Theseus cry'd: "O stay, my better part, My more than mistress; of my heart, the heart. The strong may fight aloof: Ancæus try'd His force too near, and by presuming dy'd:" He said, and while he spake, his javelin threw; Hissing in air th' unerring weapon flew ; But on an arm of oak, that stood betwixt The marks-man and the mark, his lance he fixt. Once more bold Jason threw, but fail'd to wound The boar, and slew an undeserving hound; And through the dog the dart was nail'd to ground. Two spears from Meleager's hand were sent, With equal force, but various in th' event: The first was fix'd in earth, the second stood On the boar's bristled back, and deeply drank his Now while the tortur'd savage turns around, [blood. And flings about his foam impatient of the wound, The wound's great author close at hand provokes His rage, and plies him with redoubled strokes ; Wheels as he wheels; and with his pointed dart Explores the nearest passage to his heart. Quick and more quick he spins in giddy gyres, Then falls, and in much foam his soul expires. This act with shouts Heaven-high the friendly band Applaud, and strain in theirs the victor's hand. Then all approach the slain with vast surprise, Admire on what a breadth of earth he lies; And, scarce secure, reach out their spears afar, [war. And blood their points, to prove their partnership of But he, the conquering chief, his foot impress'd On the strong neck of that destructive beast; And, gazing on the nymph with ardent eyes, Accept," said he, " fair Nonacrine, my prize, And, though inferior, suffer me to join My labours, and my part of praise, with thine:" At this presents her with the tusky head And chine, with rising bristles roughly spread. Glad, she receiv'd the gift; and seem'd to take With double pleasure, for the giver's sake. The rest were seiz'd with sullen discontent, And a deaf murmur through the squs dron went: All envy'd; but the Thestyan brethren show'd The least respect, and thus they vent their spleen aloud:

"Lay down those honour'd spoils, northink to share, Weak woman as thou art, the prize of war:

Ours is the title, thine a foreign claim,
Since Meleagrus from our lineage came.
Trust not thy beauty; but restore the prize,
Which he, besotted on that face and eyes,
Would rend from us." At this, inflamed with spite,
From her they snatch'd the gift, from him the
giver's right.

But soon th' impatient prince his fauchion drew,
And cry'd, "Ye robbers of another's due,
Now learn the difference, at your proper cost,
Betwixt true valour, and an empty boast."
At this advanc'd, and, sudden as the word,
In proud Plexippus' bosom plung'd the sword:
Toxeus amaz'd, and with amazement slow,
Or to revenge, or ward the coming blow,
Stood doubting; and, while doubting thus he stood,
Receiv'd the steel bath'd in his brother's blood.

Pleas'd with the first, unknown the second news, Althea to the temples pays their dues

For her son's conquest; when at length appear
Her grisly brethren stretch'd upon the bier :
Pale, at the sudden sight, she chang'd her cheer,
And with her cheer her robes; but hearing teil
The cause, the mauner, and by whom they fell,
'Twas grief no more, or grief and rage were one
Within her soul; at last 'twas rage alone;
Which, burning upwards, in succession dries
The tears that stood considering in her eyes.
There lay a log unlighted on the earth,
When she was labouring in the throes of birth:
For th' unborn chief the fatal sisters came,
And rais'd it up, and toss'd it on the flame:
Then on the rock a scanty measure place
Of vital flax, and turn'd the wheel apace;
And turning sung, "To this red brand and thee,
O new-born babe, we give an equal destiny:"
So vanish'd out of view. The frighted dame
Sprung hasty from her bed, and quench'd the flame:
The log in secret lock'd, she wept with care,
And that, while thus preserv'd, preserv'd her heir.
This brand she now produc'd; and first she strows
The hearth with heaps of chips, and after blows;
Thrice heav'd her hand, and, heav'd, she thrice
The sister and the mother long contest, [represt:
Two doubtful titles in one tender breast.
And now her eyes and cheeks with fury glow,
Now pale her cheeks, her eyes with pity flow;
Now lowering looks presage approaching storms,
And now prevailing love her face reforms:
Resolv'd, she doubts again; the tears, she dry'd
With blushing rage, are by new tears supply'd:
And as a ship, which winds and waves assail,
Now with the current drives, now with the gale,
Both opposite, and neither long prevail,
She feels a double force, by turns obeys
Th' imperious tempest, and th' impetuous seas:
So fares Althæa's mind: first she relents
With pity, of that pity then repents:
Sister and mother long the scales divide,
But the beam nodded on the sister's side.
Sometimes she softly sigh'd, then roar'd aloud;
But sighs were stifled in the cries of blood.

The pious impious wretch at length decreed,
To please her brothers' ghosts, her son should bleed;
And when the funeral flames began to rise,
"Receive," she said, "a sister's sacrifice:
A mother's bowels burn:" high in her hand,
Thus while she spoke, she held the fatal brand;
Then thrice before the kindled pile she bow'd,
And the three Furies thrice invok'd aloud:

"Come, come, revenging sisters, come and view
A sister paying a dead brother's due:
A crime I punish, and a crime commit;
But blood for blood, and death for death, is fit:
Great crimes must be with greater crimes repaid,
And second fuuera's on the former laid.
Let the whole household in one ruin fail,
And may Diana's curse o'ertake us all!
Shall Fate to happy Oenus still allow
One sou, while Thestius stands depriv'd of two?
Better three lost, than one unpunish'd go.
Take then, dear ghosts, (while yet admitted new
In Hell you wait my duty) take your due:
A costly offering on your tomb is laid,
When with my blood the price of yours is paid.
"Ah! whither am I hurry'd? Ah! forgive,
Ye Shades, and let your sister's issue live:
A mother cannot give him death; though he
Deserves it, he deserves it not from me. [slain,
"Then shail th' unpunish'd wretch insult the
Triumphant five, not only live, but reign;
While you, thin Shades, the sport of winds, are tost
O'er dreary plains, or tread the burning coast.
I cannot, cannot bear; 'tis past, 'tis done;
Perish this impious, this detested son;
Perish his sue, and perish I withal;
And let the house's heir, and the hop'd kingdom
"Where is the mother fled, her pious love,
And where the pains with which ten mouths I
strove!

[fall. |

Ah! hadst thou dy'd, my son, in infant years,
Thy little horse had been bedew'd with tears.

"Thou liv'st by me; to me thy breath resign;
Mine is the merit, the demerit thine.
Thy life by double title I require;
Once given at birth, and once preserv'd from fire:
One murder pay, or add one murder more,
Aud me to them who fell by thee restore.

"I woud, but cannot: my son's image stands Before my sight; and now their angry hands My brothers hold, and vengeance these exact, This pleads compassion, and repents the fact.

"He pleads in vain, and I pronounce his doom: My brothers, though unjustly, shall o'ercome. But, having paid their injur'd ghosts their due, My son requires my death, and mine shall his pursue."

At this for the last time she lifts her hand, Averts her eyes, and, half unwilling, drops the brand. The brand, amid the flaming fuel thrown, Or drew, or seem'd to draw, a dying groan; The fires thems Ives but faintly lick'd their prey, Then loath'd their impious food, and would have

shrunk away.

Just then the hero cast a doleful cry, And in those absent flames began to fry: The blind contagion rag'd within his veins; But he with manly patience bore his pains: He fear'd not fate, but only griev'd to die Without an honest wound, and by a death so dry. "Happy Aucæus, thrice aloud he cry'd, With what becoming fate in arms he dy'd;" Then call'd his brothers, sisters, sire, around, And her to whom his nuptial vows were bound; Perhaps his mother; a long sigh he drew, And, his voice failing, took his last adieu : For as the flames augment, and as they stay At their full height, then languish to decay, They rise, and sink by fits; at last they soar In one bright blaze, and then descend no more;

Just so his inward heats, at height, impair,
Till the last burning breath shoots out the soul in
Now lofty Calydon in ruins lies;
[air.
Ail ages, all degrees, unstuice their eyes;
And Heaven and Earth resound with murmurs,
groans, and cries.

Matrons and maidens beat their breasts, and tear
Their habits, and root up their scatter'd hair.
The wretched father, father now no more,
With sorrow sunk, lies prostrate on the floor,
Deforms his hoary locks with dust obscene,
And curses age, and loaths a life prolong'd with
pain.

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

in vain

Would offer to describe his sisters' pain:
They beat their breasts with many a bruising blow,
Till they turn livid, and corrupt the snow.

The corpse they cherish, while the corpse remains,
And exercise and rub with fruitiess pains;
And when to funeral flames 'tis borne away,
They kiss the bed on which the body lay:
And when those funeral flames no longer burn
(The dust compos'd within a pious urn),
Ev'n in that urn their brother they confess,
And hug it in their arms, and to their bosoms
press.
(ground,
His tomb is rais'd; then, stretch'd along the
Those living nonuments his tomb surround:
Ev'n to his name, inscrib'd, their tears they pay,
Till tears and kisses wear his name away.

But Cynthia now had all her fury spent,
Not with less ruin, than a race, content :
Excepting Gorgé, perish'd all the seed,
And her whom Heaven for Hercules decreed.
Satiate at last, no longer she pursu'd
The weeping sisters; but, with wings endu'd
And horny beaks, and sent to flit in air; [pair.
Who yearly round the tomb in feather'd flocks re-

BAUCIS AND PHILEMON.

OUT OF THE EIGHTH BOOK OF OVID'S METAMORPHOSES.

The author, pursuing the deeds of Theseus, relates how he, with his friend Pirithous, were invited by Achelous, the river-god, to stay 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. Pirithons, being an atheist, derides the legend, and denies the power of the gods to work that miracle. Lelex, another companion of Theseus, to confirm the story of Achelous, relates another metamorples 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 son,
Who laugh'd at all the gods, believ'd in none;
He shook his impious head, and thus replies,
"These legends are no more than pious lies:
You attribute too much to heavenly sway,
To think they give us forms, and take away."
The rest, of better minds, their sense declar'd
Against this doctrine, and with horrour heard.
Then Lelex rose, an old experienc'd man,
And thus with sober 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
Two neighbouring trees, with walls encompass d
round,

Stand on a moderate rise, with wonder shown,
One a hard oak, a softer linden one :

I saw the place and them, by Pittheus sent
To Phrygian realms, my grandsire's government.
Not far from thence is seen a lake, the haunt
Of coots, and of the fishing cormorant :
Here Jove with Hermes came; but in disguise
Of mortal men conceal'd their deities:
One laid aside his thunder, one his rod;
And many toilsome steps together trod;
For harbour at a thousand doors they knock'd,
Not one of all the thousand but was lock'd.
At last an hospitable house they found,
A homely shed; the roof, not far from ground,
Was thatch'd with reeds and straw together bound.
There Baucis and Philemon liv'd, and there
Had liv'd long married, and a happy pair:
Now old in love; though little was their store,
Inur'd to want, their poverty they bore,
Nor aim'd at wealth, professing to be poor.
For master or for servant here to call,
Was all alike, where only two were all.
Command was none, where equal love was paid,
Or rather both commanded, both obey'd

"From lofty roofs the gods repuls'd before,
Now stooping, enter'd through the little door;
The man (their hearty welcome first express'd)
A common settle drew for either guest,
Inviting each his weary limbs to rest.
But ere they sat, officious Baucis lays
Two cushions stuff'd with straw, the seat to raise;
Coarse, but the best she had; then takes the load
Of ashes from the hearth, and spreads abroad
The living coals, and lest they should expire,
With leaves and barks she feeds her infant-fire:
It smokes, and then with trembling breath she
blows,

Till in a cheerful blaze the flames arose.

With brush-wood and with chips she strengthens
these,

And adds at last the boughs of rotten trees.
The fire thus form'd, she sets the kettle on,
(Like burnish'd gold the little seether shone)
Next took the coleworts which her husband got
From his own ground (a small well-water'd spot;)
She stripp'd the stalks of all their leaves; the best
She cull'd, and then with handy care she dress'd.
High o'er the hearth a cbine of bacon hung;
Good old Philemon seiz'd it with a prong,
And from the sooty rafter drew it down,
Then cut a slice, but scarce enough for one:
Yet a large portion of a little store,

Which for their sakes alone he wish'd were more.
This in the pot he plung'd without delay,
To tame the flesh, and drain the salt away.

The time between, before the fire they sat,
And shorten'd the delay by pleasing chat.
"A beam there was, on which a beechen pail
Hung by the handle, on a driven nail:
This fill'd with water, gently warm'd, they set
Before their guests; in this they bath'd their feet,
And after with clean towels dry'd their sweat :
This done, the host produc'd the genial bed,
Sallow the foot, the borders, and the sted,
Which with no costly coverlet they spread,
But coarse old garments; yet such robes as these
They laid alone, at feast, on holydays.
The good old housewife, tucking up her gown,
The tables set; th' invited gods lie down.
The trivet-table of a foot was lame,
A blot which prudent Baucis overcame,
Who thrust, beneath the limping leg, a sherd,
So was the mended board exactly rear'd:
Then rubb'd it o'er with newly-gather'd mint,
A wholesome herb that breath'd a grateful scent.
Pallas began the feast, where first was seen
The party-colour'd olive, black and green:
Autumnal cornels next in order serv'd,
In lees of wine well pickled and preserv'd:
A garden-salad was the third supply,
Of endive, radishes, and succory:

Then curds and cream, the flower of country fare,
And new-laid eggs, which Baucis' busy care
Turn'd by a gentle fire, and roasted rare.
All these in earthen-ware were serv'd to board;
And next in place an earthen pitcher stor'd
With liquor of the best the cottage could afford.
This was the table's ornament and pride,
With figures wrought: like pages at his side
Stood beechen bowls; and these were shining clean,
Varnish'd with wax without, and lin'd within.
By this the boiling kettle had prepar'd,
And to the table sent the smoking lard;
On which with eager appetite they dine,
A savory bit, that serv'd to relish wine:
The wine itself was suiting to the rest,
Still working in the must, and lately press'd.
The second course succeeds like that before,
Plums, apples, nuts, and, of their wintry store,
Dry fits and grapes, and wrinkled dates, were set
In canisters, t' enlarge the little treat:
All these a milk-white honey-comb surround,
Which in the midst the country-banquet crown'd.
But the kind hosts their entertainment grace
With hearty welcome, and an open face:
In all they did, you might discern with ease
A willing mind, and a desire to please.

"Mean time the beechen bowls went round, and
still,

Though often emptied, were observ'd to fill,
Fill'd without hands, and of their own accord
Ran without feet, and danc'd about the board.
Devotion seiz'd the pair, to see the feast
With wine, and of no common grape, increas'd;
And up they held their hands, and fell to pray'r,
Excusing, as they could, their country fare.
One goose they had ('twas all they could allow)
A wakeful centry, and on duty now,
Whom to the gods for sacrifice they vow:
Her, with malicious zeal, the couple view'd;
She ran for life, and limping they pursa'd:
Full well the fowl perceiv'd their bad intent,
And would not make her master's compliment;
Eut persecuted, to the powers she flies,
And close between the legs of Jove she lies.

He with a gracious ear the suppliant heard,
And sav'd her life; then what he was declar'd,
And own'd the god. The neighbourhood,' said he,
· Shall justly perish for impiety:
You stand alone exempted; but obey
"With speed, and follow where we lead the way:
Leave these accurs'd; and to the mountains height
Ascend; nor once look backward in your flight.'
"They haste; and what their tardy feet de-
ny'd,

The trusty staff (their better leg) supply'd.
An arrow's flight they wanted to the top,
And there secure, but spent with travel, stop;
Then turn their now no more forbidden eyes;
Lost in a lake the floated level Les:

THE FABLE OF IPHIS AND IANTHE.
FROM THE NINTH BOOK OF
OVID'S METAMORPHOSES.

THE fame of this, perhaps, through Crete had
flown ;

But Crete had newer wonders of her own,
In Iphis chang'd; for near the Gnossian bounds,
(As loud report the miracle resounds)
At Phæstus dwelt a man of honest blood,
But meanly born, and not so rich as good;
Esteem'd and lov'd by all the neighbourhood;
Who to his wife, before the time assign'd
For child-birth came, thus bluntly spoke his mind.
"If Heaven," said Lygdus, "will vouchsafe to
I have but two petitions to prefer;
[hear,
Short pains for thee, for me a son and heir.

A watery desert covers all the plains,
Their cot alone, as in an isle, remains:
Wondering with peeping eyes, while they de- Girls cost as many throes in bringing forth;

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'Speak thy desire, thou only just of men;
And thou, O woman, only worthy found
To be with such a man in marriage bound.'
"A while they whisper; then, to Jove ad-
dress'd,

Philemon thus prefers their joint request.
We crave to serve before your sacred shrine,
And offer at your altars rites divine:
And since not any action of our life
Has been pol.uted with domestic strife,
We beg one hour of death; that neither she
With widow's tears may live to bury me,
Nor weeping I, with wither'd arms, may bear
My breathless Baucis to the sepulchre.'
"The godheads sign their suit. They run their

race

In the same tenour all th' appointed space;
Then, when their hour was come, while they relate
These past adventures at the temple-gate,
Old Baucis is by old Philemon seen
Sprouting with sudden leaves of sprightly green:
Old Baucis look'd where old Philemon stood,
And saw his len then'd arms a sprouting wood:
New roots their fasten'd feet begin to bind,
Their bodics stiffen in a rising rind:
Then, ere the bark above their shoulders grew,
They give and take at once their last adieu;
At once, Farewel, O faithful spouse,' they said;
At once th' encroaching rinds their closing lips in-

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Beside, when born, the tits are little worth;
Weak puling things, unable to sustain
Their share of labour, and their bread to gain.
If, therefore, thou a creature shalt produce,
Of so great charges, and so little use,
(Bear witness, Heaven, with what reluctancy)
Her hapless innocence I doom to die."
He said, and tears the common grief display,
Of him who bad, and her who must obey.
Yet Telethusa still persists, to find
Fit arguments to move a father's mind;
T'extend his wishes to a larger scope,
And in one vessel not confine his hope.
Lygdus continues hard: her time drew near,
And she her heavy load could scarcely bear;
When slumbering, in the latter shades of night,
Before th' approaches of returning light,
She saw, or thought she saw, before her bed,
A glorious train, and Isis at their head:
Her moony horns were on her forehead plac'd,
And yellow sheaves her shining temples grac'd:
A mitre, for a crown, she wore on high;
The dog and dappled bull were waiting by ;
Osiris, sought along the banks of Nile;
The silent god; the sacred crocodile ;
And, last, a long procession moving on,
With timbrels, that assist the labouring Moon.
Her slumbers seem'd dispell'd, and, broad awake,
She heard a voice, that thus distinctly spake.
My votary, thy babe from death defend,
Nor fear to save whate'er the gods will send.
Delude with art thy husband's dire decree :
When danger calls, repose thy trust on me;
And know thou hast not serv'd a thankless deity."
This promise made, with night the goddess fled:
With joy the woman wakes, and leaves her bed;
Devoutly lifts her spotless hands on high,
And prays the powers their gift to ratify.

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Now grinding pains proceed to bearing throes,
Till its own weight the burthen did disclose.
'Twas of the beauteous kind, and brought to light
With secrecy, to shun the father's sight.
Th' indulgent mother did her care employ,
And pass'd it on her husband for a boy.
The nurse was.conscious of the fact alone;
The father paid his vows as for a sou;

And call'd him Iphis, by a common name,
Which either sex with equal right may claim.
Iphis his grandsire was; the wife was pleas'd,
Of half the fraud by Fortune's favour eas'd:
The doubtful name was us'd without deceit,
And truth was cover'd with a pious cheat.

The habit show'd a boy, the beauteous face With manly fierceness mingled female grace.

[he.

Now thirteen years of age were swiftly run,
When the fond father thought the time drew on
Of settling in the world his only son.
lanthe was his choice; so wondrous fair,
Her form alone with Iphis could compare;
A neighbour's daughter of his own degree,
And not more bless'd with Fortune's goods than
They soon espous'd: for they with ease were join'd,
Who were before contracted in the mind.
Their age the same, their inclinations too:
And bred together in one school they grew.
Thus, fatally dispos'd to mutual fires,
They felt, before they knew, the same desires.
Equal their flame, unequal was their care;
One lov'd with hope, one languish'd in despair.
The maid accus'd the lingering days alone:
For whom she thought a man, she thought her own.
But Iphis bends beneath a greater grief;
As fiercely burns, but hopes for no relief.
Ev'n her despair adds fuel to her sire;
A maid with madness does a maid desire.
And, scarce refraining tears, "Alas," said she,
What issue of my love remains for me!
How wild a passion works within my breast!
With what prodigious flames am I possest!
Could I the care of Providence deserve,
Heaven must destroy me, if it would preserve.
And that's my fate, or sure it would have sent
Some usual evil for my punishment,
Not this unkindly curse; to rage and burn,
Where Nature shows no prospect of return.
Nor cows for cows consume with fruitless fire;
Nor mares, when hot, their fellow-mares desire:
The father of the fold supplies his ewes ;
The stag through secret woods his hind pursues;
And birds for mates the males of their own species
choose.

Her females Nature guards from female flame,
And joins two sexes to preserve the game:
Would I were nothing, or not what I am!
Crete, fam'd for monsters, wanted of her store,
Till my new love produc'd one monster more.
The daughter of the Sun a bull desir'd,
And yet ev'n then a male a female sir'd:
Her passion was extravagantly new:
But mine is much the madder of the two.
To things impossible she was not bent,
But found the means to compass her intent.
To cheat his eyes, she took a different shape;
Yet still she gain'd a lover, and a leap.
Should all the wit of all the world conspire,
Should Dædalus assist my wild desire,
What art can make me able to enjoy,
Or what can change Ianthe to a boy?
Extinguish then thy passion, hopeless maid,
And recollect thy reason for thy aid.

Know what thou art, and love as maidens ought,
And drive these golden wishes from thy thought.
Thou canst not hope thy fond desires to gain;
Where hope is wanting, wishes are in vain.
And yet no guards against our joys conspire;
No jealous husband hinders our desire;
My parents are propitious to my wish,
And she herself consenting to the bliss.
All things concur to prosper our design;
All things to prosper any love but mine.
And yet I never can enjoy the fair;

'Tis past the power of Heaven to grant my prayer.

Heaven has been kiud, as far as Heaven can be ;
Our parents with our own desires agree;
But Nature, stronger than the gods above,
Refuses her assistance to my love;
She sets the bar that causes all my pain:
One gift refus'd makes all their bounty vain.
And now the happy day is just at hand,
To bind our hearts in Hymen's holy band:
Our hearts, but not our bodies. Thus accurs'd,
In midst of water I complain of thirst.
Why com'st thou, Juno, to these barren rites,
To bless a bed defrauded of delights?
And why should Hymen lift his torch on high,
To see two brides in cold embraces lie?"

Thus lovesick Iphis her vain passion mourns;
With equal ardour fair lanthe burns,
Invoking Hymen's name, and Juno's power,
To speed the work, and haste the happy hour.
She hopes, while Telethusa fears the day,
And strives to interpose some new delay:
Now feigns a sickness, now is in a fright
For this bad omen, or that boding sight.
But, having done whate'er she could devise,
And empty'd all her magazine of lies,
The time approach'd; the next ensuing day
The fatal secret must to light betray.
Then Telethusa had recourse to prayer,
She and her daughter with dishevell❜d hair;
Trembling with fear, great Isis they ador'd,
Embrac'd her altar, and her aid implor'd.

"Fair queen, who dost on fruitful Egypt smile, Who sway'st the sceptre of the Pharian isle, And seven-fold falls of disemboguing Nile; Relieve, in this our last distress," she said, "A suppliant mother, and a mournful maid. Thou, goddess, thou wert present to my sight; Reveal'd I saw thee by thy own fair light: I saw thee in my dream, as now I see, With all thy marks of awful majesty : The glorious train that compass'd thee around; And heard the hollow timbrel's holy sound. Thy words I noted; which I still retain ; Let not thy sacred oracles be vain. That Iphis lives, that I myself am free From shame, and punishment, I owe to thee. On thy protection all our hopes depend: Thy counsel sav'd us, let thy power defend."

Her tears pursu'd her words; and while she
spoke

The goddess nodded, and her altar shook :
The temple doors, as with a blast of wind,
Were heard to clap; the lunar horns that bind
The brows of Isis cast a blaze around;
The trembling timbrel made a murmuring sound.
Some hopes these happy omens did impart;
Forth went the mother with a beating heart,
Not much in fear, nor fully satisfy'd;
But Iphis follow'd with a larger stride:
The whiteness of her skin forsook her face;
Her looks embolden'd with an awful grace;
Her features and her strength together grew,
And her long hair to curling locks withdrew.
Her sparkling eyes with manly vigour shone;
Big was her voice, audacious was her tone,
The latent parts, at length reveal'd, began
To shoot, and spread, and burnish into man.
The maid becomes a youth; no more delay
Your vows, but look, and confidently pay.
Their gifts the parents to the temple bear:
The votive tables this inscription wear:

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