Thy life by double title I require; Once given at birth, and once preserved from fire: I would, but cannot: my son's image stands He pleads in vain, and I pronounce his doom: My brothers, though unjustly, shall o'ercome; But having paid their injured 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 seemed to draw, a dying groan; The fires themselves but faintly licked their prey, Then loathed 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 raged within his veins; But he, with manly patience, bore his pains; He feared not fate, but only grieved to die Without an honest wound, and by a death so dry. Happy Ancæus, thrice aloud he cried, With what becoming fate in arms he died! Then called 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 air. Now lofty Calydon in ruins lies; All ages, all degrees, unsluice their eyes; And heaven and earth resound with murmurs, groans, and cries. Matrons and maidens beat their breasts, and tear 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, Even in that urn their brother they confess, Those living monuments his tomb surround; Excepting Gorge, perished all the seed, The weeping sisters; but with wings endued, Who yearly round the tomb in feathered flocks repair. 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. Pirithous, 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 metamorphosis, of Baucis and Philemon into trees; of which he was partly an eye witness. THUS Achelous ends; his audience hear The rest, of better minds, their sense declared Heaven's power is infinite; earth, air, and sea, round, Stand on a moderate rise, with wonder shown, I saw the place and them, by Pittheus sent From lofty roofs the gods repulsed before, |