" & abandonnerent tous leur biens pour detonner dans "d'autres temples les vieux pfeaumes de Clement' "Marot."
Page 242.] "La crainte donna le jour à la credulité, " & l'amour propre intereffa bientot le ciel au deftin des "hommes."
THE Nymphs, who prefide over fprings and rivulets, are addreffed at day-break, in honor of their several functions, and of the relations which they bear to the natural and to the moral world. Their origin is deduced from the firft allegorical deities, or powers of nature; according to the doctrine of the old mythological poets, concerning the generation of the gods and the rife of things. They are then fucceffively confidered, as giving motion to the air and exciting fummer-breezes; as nourishing and beautifying the vegetable creation; as contributing to the fullness of navigable rivers, and confequently to the maintenance of commerce; and by that means, to the maritime part of military power. Next is reprefented their favourable influence upon health, when affifted by rural exercife: which introduces their connection with the art of phyfic, and the happy effects of mineral medicinal fprings. Laftly, they
are celebrated for the friendship which the Mufes bear them, and for the true inspiration which temperance only can receive: in opposition to the enthufiafm of the more licentious poets.
ER yonder eaftern hill the twilight pale
Walks forth from darkness; and the God of day, With bright Aftræa feated by his side,
Waits yet to leave the ocean. Tarry, Nymphs,
Ye Nymphs, ye blue-ey'd progeny of Thames,
Who now the mazes of this rugged heath
Trace with your fleeting fteps; who all night long
Repeat, amid the cool and tranquil air,
Your lonely murmurs, tarry: and receive
My offer'd lay. To pay you homage due,
I leave the gates of fleep; nor fhall my lyre:
Too far into the fplendid hours of morn
Ingage your audience: my obfervant hand
Shall close the ftrain ere any fultry beam
Approach you. To your fubterranean haunts:
Ye then may timely steal'; to pace with care
The humid fands; to loofen from the foil
The bubbling fources; to direct the rills
To meet in wider channels; or beneath
Some grotto's dripping arch, at height of noon
To flumber, fhelter'd from the burning heaven.
Where fhall my fong begin, ye Nymphs? or end 2:
Wide is your praise and copious-Firft of things,
First of the lonely powers, ere Time arofe,
Were Love and Chaos. Love, the fire of Fate;
Elder than Chaos. Born of Fate was Time,
Who many fons and many comely births
Devour'd, relentless father: till the child
Of Rhea drove him from the upper sky,
And quell'd his deadly might. Then focial reign'd
The kindred powers, Tethys, and reverend Ops,
And spotless Vefta; while fupreme of fway
Remain'd the cloud-compeller. From the couch
Of Tethys fprang the fedgy crowned race,
Who from a thousand urns, o'er every clime,
Send tribute to their parent; and from them
Are ye, O Naiads: Arethufa fair,
And tuneful Aganippe; that fweet name,
Bandufia; that soft family which dwelt
With Syrian Daphne; and the honour'd tribes
Belov'd of Pæon. Listen to my strain,
Daughters of Tethys liften to your praise.
You, Nymphs, the winged offspring, which of old Aurora to divine Aftræus bore,
Owns; and your aid befeecheth. When the might
Of Hyperion, from his noontide throne,
Unbends their languid pinions, aid from you
They afk: Favonius and the mild South-west
From you relief implore. Your fallying ftreams
Fresh vigour to their weary wings impart..
Again they fly, difporting; from the mead
Half ripen'd and the tender blades of corn,
To fweep the noxious mildew; or dispel
Contagious fteams, which oft the parched earth
Breathes on her fainting fons. From noon to eve,
Along the river and the paved brook,
Afcend the cheerful breezes: hail'd of bards
Who, faft by learned Cam, the Æolian lyre
Solicit; nor unwelcome to the youth
Who on the heights of Tibur, all inclin'd
O'er ruthing Anio, with a pious hand
The reverend scene delineates, broken fanes,
Or tombs, or pillar'd aqueducts, the pomp
Of ancient Time; and haply, while he scans
The ruins, with a filent tear revolves
The fame and fortune of imperious Rome.
You too, O Nymphs, and your unenvious aid...
The rural powers confefs; and still prepare
For you their choicest treasures. Pan commands,
Oft as the Delian king with Sirius holds
The central heavens, the father of the grove
Commands his Dryads over your abodes
To spread their deepeft umbrage. Well the god
Remembereth how indulgent ye supplied
Your general dews to nurse them in their prime.
Pales, the pasture's queen, where-e'er ye ftray,
Pursues your steps, delighted; and the path
With living verdure clothes. Around your haunts
The laughing Chloris, with profufeft hand,
Throws wide her blooms, her odors. Still with you
Pomona feeks to dwell: and o'er the lawns,
And o'er the vale of Richmond, where with Thames
Ye love to wander, Amalthea pours
Well-pleas'd the wealth of that Ammonian horn,
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