Let the whole houfhold in one ruin fall,
And may Diana's curfe o'ertake us all!
Shall fate to happy Oeneus still allow
One fon, while Thestius stands depriv'd of two ?
Better three loft, than one unpunish'd go.

Take then, dear ghosts, (while yet admitted new
In hell wait
you my duty) take due:

your

A coftly 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 fhades, and let your fifter's iffue live:
A mother cannot give him death; though he
Deferves it, he deferves it not from me.

Then fhall th' unpunish'd wretch infult the flain,
Triumphant live, not only live, but reign?
While you thin fhades, the sport of winds, are tost
O'er dreary plains, or tread the burning coast.

I cannot, cannot bear; 'tis paft, 'tis done;
Perish this impious, this detefted fon ;

Perish his fire, and perish I withal;

And let the house's heir, and the hop'd kingdom fall. Where is the mother fled, her pious love,

And where the pains which with ten months I strove!
Ah! hadst thou dy'd, my fon, in infant years,

Thy little herfe had been bedew'd with tears.
Thou liv'ft 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 preferv'd from fire:

One murder pay, or add one murder more,
And me to them who fell by thee restore.

I would, but cannot: my fon's image ftands
Before my fight; and now their angry hands
My brothers hold, and vengeance these exact,
This pleads compaffion, and repents the fact.

He pleads in vain, and I pronounce his doom: My brothers, though unjustly, fhall o'ercome. But, having pay'd their injur'd ghofts their due, My fon requires my death, and mine fhall his pursue. At this for the last time the 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 themselves 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 abfent 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 honeft wound, and by a death fo dry.
Happy Ancæus, thrice aloud he cry'd,
With what becoming fate in arms he dy’d!
Then call'd his brothers, fifters, fire, around,
And her to whom his nuptial vows were bound;

Perhaps his mother;

And, his voice failing,

long figh he drew,

took his last adieu :

For

BAUCIS AND PHILEMON.

Out of the EIGHTH BOOK of

OVID'S METAMORPHOSES.

The author, purfuing the deeds of Thefeus, relates how be, with his friend Pirithous, were invited by Achelous, the River-God, to flay 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 Thefeus, to confirm the ftory of Achelous, relates another metamorphofis of Baucis and Philemon into trees: of which he was partly an eye-witness.

The

THUS Achelous ends; his audience hear
With admiration, and admiring fear
powers of heaven; except Ixion's fon,
Who laugh'd at all the Gods, believ'd in none;
He fhook his impious head, and thus replies,
These legends are no more than pious lies :
You attribute too much to heavenly fway,
To think they give us forms, and take away.

The

The reft, of better minds, their fenfe declar'd Against this doctrine, and with horror heard. Then Lelex rofe, an old experienc'd man, And thus with fober gravity began :

Heaven's power

is infinite earth, air, and fea, The manufacture mafs, 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 rife, with wonder fhown,

One a hard oak, a fofter linden one:

I faw the place and them, by Pittheus fent
To Phrygian realms, my grandfire's government.
Not far from thence is feen a lake, the haunt
Of coots, and of the fishing cormorant :
Here Jove with Hermes came, but in difguife
Of mortal men conceal'd their Deities:
One laid afide his thunder, one his rod;
And many toilfome steps together trod;
For harbour at a thoufand doors they knock'd,
Not one of all the thousand but was lock'd.
At laft an hofpitable house they found,

A homely fhed; the roof, not far from gound,
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, profeffing to be poor.
For mafter or for fervant here to call,
Was all alike, where only two were all.

}

Command

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 exprefs'd)
A common fettle drew for either guest,
Inviting each his weary limbs to rest.

But ere they fat, officious Baucis lays

Two cushions ftuff'd with ftraw, the feat to raise;
Coarfe, but the beft fhe had; then takes the load
Of ashes from the hearth, and fpreads abroad
The living coals, and left they fhould expire,
With leaves and barks the feeds her infant-fire :

It smokes, and then with trembling breath she blows,
Till in a chearful blaze the flames arofe.

}

With brush-wood and with chips fhe ftrengthens thefe,
And adds at laft the boughs of rotten trees.
The fire thus form'd, fhe fets the kettle on,
(Like burnish'd gold the little feether shone)
Next took the coleworts which her husband got
From his own ground (a small well-water'd spot ;)
She ftripp'd the stalks of all their leaves; the best
She cull'd, and then with handy care fhe drefs'd.
High o'er the hearth a chine of bacon hung;
Good old Philemon feiz'd it with a prong,

And from the footy rafter drew it down,
Then cut a flice, but fcarce enough for one:

Yet a large portion of a little store,

Which for their fakes alone he wish'd were more.

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