So fleek her skin, so faultless was her make,
E'en Juno did unwilling pleasure take

To fee fo fair a rival of her love;

And what she was, and whence, enquir'd of Jove;
Of what fair herd, and from what pedigree ?
The God half-caught was forc'd upon a lie;
And faid the sprung from earth. She took the word,
And begg'd the beauteous heifer of her lord.
What shou'd he do? 'twas equal shame to Jove
Or to relinquish, or betray his love:
Yet to refuse fo flight a gift, wou'd be
But more t' increase his confort's jealousy :
Thus fear, and love, by turns his heart affail'd;
And stronger love, had sure at length prevail'd:
But fome faint hope remain'd, his jealous queen
Had not the mistrefs thro" the heifer feen.
The cautious Goddess of her gift poffeft,
Yet harbour'd anxious thoughts within her breaft;
As she who knew the falfhood of her Jove,
And justly fear'd fome new relapse of love.
Which to prevent, and to secure her care,
To trusty Argus she commits the fair.

The head of Argus (as with stars the skies)
Was compass'd round, and wore an hundred eyes.
But two by turns their lids in slumber steep;
The rest on duty still their station keep;
Nor could the total conftellation fleep.
Thus, ever present, to his eyes, and mind,
His charge was still before him, tho' behind,
In fields he suffer'd her to feed by day;
But, when the fetting fun to night gave way,
The captive cow he summon'd with a call,
And drove her back, and ty'd her to the stall.
On leaves of trees, and bitter herbs she fed,
Heav'n was her canopy, bare earth her bed;

So

So hardly lodg'd: and to digest her food,
She drank from troubled streams, defil'd with mud.
Her woful story fain she wou'd have told,
With hands upheld, but had no hands to hold.
Her head to her ungentle keeper bow'd,
She strove to speak; she spoke not, but she low'd.
Affrighted with the noise, she look'd around,
And feem'd t' inquire the author of the found.

Once on the banks where often she had play'd,
(Her father's banks) she came, and there survey'd
Her alter'd visage, and her branching head;
And starting from herself she wou'd have fled.
Her fellow-nymphs, familiar to her eyes,
Beheld, but knew her not in this disguise.
Ev'n Inachus himself was ignorant;
And in his daughter did his daughter want.
She follow'd where her fellows went, as she
Were still a partner of the company:
They stroke her neck; the gentle heifer stands,
And her neck offers to their stroking hands.
Her father gave her grass; the grass she took;
And lick'd his palms, and caft a piteous look;
And in the language of her eyes she spoke.
She wou'd have told her name, and afk'd relief,
But, wanting words, in tears the tells her grief.
Which with her foot she makes him understand;
And prints the name of Io in the sand.
Ah wretched me! her mournful father cry'd;
She, with a figh, to wretched me reply'd:
About her milk-white neck his arms he threw;
And wept, and then these tender words ensue.
And art thou she, whom I have fought around
The world, and have at length so fadly found ?
So found, is worse than loft: with mutual words
Thou answer'st not, no voice thy tongue affords :

X 3

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But

But fighs are deeply drawn from out thy breast;
And speech deny'd by lowing is express'd.
Unknowing, I prepar'd thy bridal bed;
With empty hopes of happy issue fed.
But now the husband of a herd must be
Thy mate, and bell'wing fons thy progeny.
Oh, were I mortal, death might bring relief!
But now my God-head but extends my grief;
Prolongs my woes, of which no end I fee,
And makes me curse my immortality.
More had he said, but fearful of her stay,
The starry guardian drove his charge away,
To some fresh pasture on a hilly height
He fat himself, and kept her still in fight.

The EYES of ARGUS transformed into a PEACOCK'S TRAIN.

Now Jove no longer cou'd her fuff'rings bear: But call'd in haste his airy messenger, The son of Maïa, with severe decree To kill the keeper, and to set her free. With all his harness foon the God was sped; His flying hat was fasten'd on his head; Wings on his heels were hung, and in his hand He holds the virtue of the snaky wand. The liquid air his moving pinions wound, And, in the moment, shoot him on the ground. Before he came in fight, the crafty God His wings dismiss'd, but still retain'd his rod : That fleep-procuring wand wife Hermes took, But made it feem to fight a shepherd's hook. With this he did a herd of goats controul; Which by the way he met, and slily stole. Clad like a country swain, he pip'd, and sung; And playing drove his jolly troop along.

With pleasure Argus the musician heeds;
But wonders much at those new vocal reeds.
And whofoe'er thou art, my friend, faid he,
Up hither drive thy goats, and play by me:
This hill has brouze for them, and shade for thee.
The God, who was with ease induc'd to climb,

Began discourse to pass away the time;
And still betwixt his tuneful pipe he plies;
And watch'd his hour, to close the keeper's eyes.
With much ado, he partly kept awake;
Not suff'ring all his eyes repose to take :
And ask'd the stranger, who did reeds invent,
And whence began so rare an instrument.

The TRANSFORMATION OF SYRINX into REEDS.

Then Hermes thus; a nymph of late there was, Whose heav'nly form her fellows did furpass. The pride and joy of fair Arcadia's plains; Belov'd by Deities, ador'd by swains: Syrinx her name, by Sylvans oft purfu'd, As oft she did the lustful Gods delude: The rural and the wood-land pow'rs disdain'd; With Cynthia hunted, and her rites maintain'd; Like Phœbe clad, e'en Phœbe's self she seems, So tall, so straight, such well-proportion'd limbs : The niceft eye did no distinction know, But that the Goddess bore a golden bow : Diftinguish'd thus, the fight she cheated too. Descending from Lycæus, Pan admires The matchless nymph, and burns with new defires. A crown of pine upon his head he wore; And thus began her pity to implore. But ere he thus began, she took her flight So swift, she was already out of fight.

X 4

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}

Nor

Nor stay'd to hear the courtship of the God;
But bent her course to Ladon's gentle flood:
There by the river stopt, and tir'd before,
Relief from water-nymphs her pray'rs implore.
Now while the lustful God, with speedy pace,
Just thought to strain her in a strict embrace,
He fills his arms with reeds, new rising on the place.
And while he sighs his ill success to find,
The tender canes were shaken by the wind;
And breath'd a mournful air, unheard before;
That much surprising Pan, yet pleas'd him more,
Admiring this new music, thou, he said,
Who canft not be the partner of my bed,
At least shalt be the confort of my mind;
And often, often, to my lips be join'd.
He form'd the reeds, proportion'd as they are:
Unequal in their length, and wax'd with care,
They still retain the name of his ungrateful fair.
While Hermes pip'd, and sung, and told his tale,
The keeper's winking eyes began to fail,
And drowsy slumber on the lids to creep;
Till all the watchman was at length asleep.
Then soon the God his voice and fong fuppreft;
And with his pow'rful rod confirm'd his rest:
Without delay his crocked falchion drew,
And at one fatal stroke the keeper flew.
Down from the rock fell the dissever'd head,
Opening its eyes in death, and falling bled;
And mark'd the passage with a crimfon trail:
Thus Argus lies in pieces, cold and pale;
And all his hundred eyes, with all their light,
Are clos'd at once, in one perpetual night.
These Juno takes, that they no more may fail,
And fpreads them in her peacock's gaudy tail,
Impatient to revenge her injur'd bed,
She wreaks her anger on her rival's head;

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