F bodies chang'd to various forms I fing:
Ye Gods, from whence these miracles did spring,
Inspire my numbers with celestial heat;
"Till I my long laborious work compleat;
And add perpetual tenor to my rhymes,
Deduc'd from nature's birth, to Cæfar's times.
Before the seas, and this terrestrial ball,
And heaven's high canopy, that covers all,
One was the face of nature, if a face;
Rather a rude and indigested mass:
A lifeless lump, unfashion'd, and unfram'd,
Of jarring feeds, and justly Chaos nam'd.
No fun 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 lie:
Nor feas 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.
No certain form on any was imprest;
All were confus'd, and each disturb'd the rest.
For hot and cold were in one body fixt,
And foft with hard, and light with heavy mixt.
But God, or Nature, while they thus contend,
To these inteftine difcords put an end.
Then earth from air, and feas from earth were driv'n,
And groffer air funk from ætherial heav'n.
Thus disembroil'd, they take their proper place;
The next of kin contiguously embrace;
And foes are funder'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 finks beneath, and draws a num'rous throng
Of pond'rous, thick, unwieldy seeds along.
About her coafts unruly waters roar,
And, rifing on a ridge, infult the shore.
Thus when the God, whatever God was he,
Had form'd the whole, and made the parts agree,
That no unequal portions might be found,
He moulded earth into a spacious round:
Then, with a breath, he gave the winds to blow;
And bade the congregated waters flow.
He adds the running springs, and standing lakes;
And bounding banks for winding rivers makes.
Some part in earth are swallow'd up, the most
In ample oceans, disembogu'd, are loft.
He shades the woods, the vallies he restrains
With rocky mountains, and extends the plains.
And as five zones th' ætherial regions bind, Five, correfpondent, are to earth affign'd: The fun 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' extremes, two happier climates hold The temper that partakes of hot and cold. The fields of liquid air, inclosing all, Surround the compass of this earthly ball: The lighter parts lie next the fires above; The groffer near the watry furface move: Thick clouds are spread, and storms engender there, 7 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 feas and shores their fury to discharge: Bound as they are, and circumfcrib'd in place, They rend the world, resistless, where they pass; And mighty marks of mischief leave behind; Such is the rage of their tempestuous kind. First Eurus to the rifing morn is sent, (The regions of the balmy continent) And Eastern realms, where early Perfians run, To greet the blest appearance of the fun. Westward the wanton Zephyr wings his flight, Pleas'd with the remnants of departing light: Fierce Boreas with his offspring issues forth, To invade the frozen waggon of the North.
While frowning Auster seeks the southern sphere,
And rots, with endless rain, th' unwholsome year.
High o'er the clouds, and empty realms of wind,
The God a clearer space for heav'n design'd;
Where fields of light, and liquid æther flow,
Purg'd from the pond'rous dregs of earth below.
Scarce had the pow'r diftinguish'd these, when straight
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 the heav'nly place.
Then, ev'ry 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.
A creature of a more exalted kind
Was wanting yet, and then was man design'd:
Confcious of thought, of more capacious breast,
For empire form'd, and fit to rule the rest:
Whether with particles of heav'nly fire
The God of nature did his foul inspire;
Or earth, but new divided from the sky,
And pliant still, retain'd th' ætherial energy:
Which wife Prometheus temper'd into paste,
And, mixt with living streams, the godlike image caft.
Thus, while the mute creation downward bend
Their fight, and to their earthly mother tend,
Man looks aloft, and with erected eyes
Beholds his own hereditary skies.
From such rude principles our form began,
And earth was metamorphos'd into man.
The golden age was first; when man, yet new,
No rule but uncorrupted reason knew;
And, with a native bent, did good pursue.
Unforc'd by punishment, unaw'd by fear,
His words were fimple, and his foul fincere:
Needless was written-law, where none opprest;
The law of man was written in his breast:
No fuppliant crowds before the judge appear'd;
No court erected yet, nor cause was heard;
But all was fafe, for confcience was their guard.
The mountain-trees in distant prospect please,
Ere yet the pine descended to the seas;
Ere fails 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 found:
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;
Cornels and bramble-berries gave the rest,
And falling acorns furnish'd out a feaft.
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 thro' the pores of oak.
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