And rage'd with inward heat, and threaten'd war,

And fhot a redder light from every star

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

Thou would't have fled, tho' cumber'd with thy Wain

Th' unhappy Youth then, bending down his head,
Saw earth and ocean far beneath him fpread:
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 fteeds untry'd,
His birth obfcure, and his requeft 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 tost
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 Prayer.

What cou'd he do? his eyes, if backward cast,
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 sometimes cafts an eye upon the East,

And fometimes looks on the forbidden Weft.
The horfes' Names he knew not in the fright:

Nor wou'd he loofe the reins, nor cou'd he hold 'em tight.

Now

Now all the horrors of the heavens he fpies,
And monstrous fhadows of prodigious size,
That, deck'd with stars, lie scatter'd o'er 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 figns.
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 horses felt 'em loose upon their mains,
And, flying out through all the plains above,
Ran uncontroul'd where-e'er their fury drove;
Rush'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 highlands fmoak, cleft by the piercing rays,
Or, clad with woods, in their own fewel blaze.
Next o'er the plains, where ripen'd harvests grow.
The running conflagration spreads below.
But these are trivial ills; whole cities burn,
And peopled kingdoms into ashes 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 increafe the flame;
Taurus and Oete glare amid the sky,
And Ida, fpight of all her fountains, dry.
Eryx, and Othrys, and Citharon, glow;
And Rhodope, no longer cloath'd in fnow;
High Pindus, Mimas, and Parnassus, sweat,
And Etna rages with redoubled heat.

Even Scythia, through her hoary regions warm'd,
In vain with all her native froft was arm'd.
Cover'd with flames, the tow'ring Appennine,
And Caucafus, and proud Olympus, shine;
And, where the long-extended Alpes afpire,
Now stands a huge continu'd range of fire.

Th' aftonisht Youth, where-e'er his eyes cou'd turn Beheld the Univerfe around him burn:

The World was in a blaze; nor could he bear

The fultry vapours and the scorching 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,
And white with afhes, hov'ring in the smoke,
He flew where-e'er the Horfes drove, nor knew
Whither the Horfes drove, or where he flew.

'Twas then, they fay, the fwarthy Moor begun To change his hue, and Blacken in the fun.

Then

Then Libya first, of all her moisture drain'd,
Became a barren wafte, a wild of Sand.
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 diftant coast, Even Tanais, tho' fix'd in ice, was loft.

Enrage'd Caicus and Lycormas roar,

And Xanthus, fated to be burnt once more.
The fam'd Maander, 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 rise
In thick'ning fumes, and darken half the skies.
In flames Ifmenos and the Phafis roul'd,
And Tagus floating in his melted gold.

The Swans, that on Cayfter 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 all are dry,

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

The ground, deep-cleft, admits the dazling ray, And ftartles Pluto with the flash of day.

T:

The feas fhrink in, and to the fight difclofe

Wide naked plains, where once their billows rose;

Their rocks are all difcover'd, and increase
The number of the fcatter'd Cyclades.

The fish in sholes about the bottom creep,
Nor longer dares the crooked Dolphin leap:
Gafping for breath, th' unfhapen Phoca die,
And on the boiling wave extended lye.
Nereus, and Doris with her virgin train,
Seek out the last 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 repella.

The Earth at length, on every fide embrace'd
With fcalding feas, that floated round her wait,
When now she felt the springs and rivers come,
And crowd within the hollow of her womb,
Up-lifted to the heavens her blafted head,
And clapt her hand upon her brows, and faid
(But firft, impatient of the fultry heat,

Sunk deeper down, and fought a cooler feat:)
"If you, great King of Gods, my death approve,
"And I deferve it, let me die by fove;

"If I must perifh by the force of fire,
"Let me transfix'd with thunderbolts expire.

See, whilft I fpeak, my breath the vapours choke, (For now her face lay wrapt in clouds of smoke)

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# See