Short of their feet at first, in little space
With arms, and legs endued, long leaps they take,
Raised on their hinder part, and swim the lake,
And waves repel; for nature gives their kind,
To that intent, a length of legs behind.
“ ‘The cubs of bears a living lump appear,
When whelp’d, and no determined figure wear.
Their mother licks them into shape, and gives
As much of form, as she herself receives.
“ ‘The grubs from their sexangular abode
Crawl out unfinish’d, like the maggot’s brood:
Trunks without limbs; till time at leisure brings,
The thighs they wanted, and their tardy wings.
“ ‘The bird, that draws the car of Juno, vain
Of her crown’d head, and of her starry train;
And he that bears the artillery of Jove,
The strong-pounced eagle, and the billing dove;
And all the feather’d kind, who could suppose
(But that for sight, the surest sense, he knows)
They from the included yolk, not ambient white, arose?
“ ‘There are, who think the marrow of a man,
Which in the spine, while he was living, ran,
When dead, the pith corrupted will become
A snake, and hiss within the hollow tomb.
“ ‘All these receive their birth from other things;
Out from himself the phoenix only springs:
Self-born, begotten by the parent flame
In which he burn’d, another and the same;
Who not by corn, or herbs his life sustains,
But the sweet essence of amomum drains;
And watches the rich gums Arabia bears,
While yet in tender dew they drop their tears.
He, (his five centuries of life fulfill’d,)
His nest on oaken boughs begins to build,
Or trembling tops of palm; and first he draws
The plan with his broad bill, and crooked claws.
Nature’s artificers; on this the pile
Is form’d, and rises round, then with the spoil
Of cassia, cinnamon, and stems of nard,
(For softness strew’d beneath,) his funeral bed is rear’d
Funeral and bridal both; and all around
The borders with corruptless myrrh are crown’d.
On this incumbent, till ethereal flame
First catches, then consumes the costly frame:
Consumes him too, as on the pile he lies;
He lived on odours, and in odours dies.
“ ‘An infant phoenix from the former springs,
His father’s heir, and from his tender wings
Shakes off his parent dust, his method he pursues,
And the same lease of life on the same terms renews.
When grown to manhood he begins his reign,
And with stiff pinions can his flight sustain;
He lightens of its load the tree that bore
His father’s royal sepulchre before,
And his own cradle: this with pious care
Placed on his back, he cuts the buxom air,
Seeks the sun’s city, and his sacred church,
And decently lays down his burden in the porch.
“ ‘A wonder more amazing would we find?
The hyena shows it, of a double kind:
The thin chameleon fed with air, receives
The colour of the thing to which he cleaves.
“ ‘India when conquer’d, on the conquering god
For planted vines the sharp-eyed lynx bestow’d,
Whose moisture shed before it touches earth
Congeals in air, and gives to gems their birth.
So coral soft, and white in ocean’s bed,
Comes harden’d up in air, and glows with red.
“ ‘All changing species should my song recite;
Before I ceased, would change the day to night.
Nations and empires flourish, and decay,
By turns command, and in their turns obey;
Time softens hardy people; time again
Hardens to war a soft, unwarlike train.
Thus Troy for ten long years her foes withstood,
And, daily bleeding, bore the expense of blood:
Now for thick streets it shows an empty space,
Or, only fill’d with tombs of her own perish’d race,
Herself becomes the sepulchre of what she was.
“ ‘Mycene, Sparta, Thebes, of mighty fame,
Are vanish’d out of substance into name;
And Dardan Rome, that just begins to rise
On Tiber’s banks, in time shall mate the skies;
Widening her bounds, and working on her way,
Ev’n now she meditates imperial sway:
Yet this is change, but she by changing thrives,
Like moons new born, and in her cradle strives
To fill her infant horns: an hour shall come,
When the round world shall be contain’d in Rome.
“ ‘For thus old saws foretell, and Helenus
Anchises’ drooping son enliven’d thus,
When Ilium now was in a sinking state,
And he was doubtful of his future fate:
“Oh goddess born! with thy hard fortune strive;
Troy never can be lost, and thou alive.
Thy passage thou shalt free through fire and sword,
And Troy in foreign lands shall be restored:
In happier fields a rising town I see
Greater than whate’er was, or is, or e’er shall be;
And Heaven yet owes the world a race derived from thee.
Sages and chiefs, of other lineage born,
The city shall extend—extended, shall adorn:
But from Iulus he must draw his breath,
By whom thy Rome shall rule the conquer’d earth
Whom heaven will lend mankind, on earth to reign,
And late require the precious pledge again.”
This Helenus to great Aeneas told,
Which I retain, e’er since in other mould
My soul was clothed; and now rejoice to view
My country walls rebuilt, and Troy revived anew,
Raised by the fall, decreed by loss to gain,
Enslaved but to be free, and conquer’d but to reign.
“ ‘ ’Tis time my hard mouth’d coursers to control,
Apt to run riot, and transgress the goal;
And therefore I conclude, whatever lies
In earth, or flits in air, or fills the skies,
All suffer change; and we that are of soul
And body mix’d, are members of the whole:
Then when our sires or grandsires shall forsake
The forms of men, and brutal figures take,
Thus housed, securely let their spirits rest,
Nor violate thy father in the beast,
Thy friend, thy brother, any of thy kin;
If none of these, yet there’s a man within:
Oh spare to make a Thyestaean meal,
To enclose his body, and his soul expel.
“ ‘Ill customs by degrees to habits rise,
Ill habits soon become exalted vice:
What more advance can mortals make in sin,
So near perfection, who with blood begin?
Deaf to the calf that lies beneath the knife,
Looks up, and from her butcher begs her life;
Deaf to the harmless kid, that, ere he dies,
All methods to procure thy mercy tries,
And imitates in vain thy children’s cries?
Where will he stop, who feeds with household bread,
Then eats the poultry which before he fed?
Let plough thy steers, that when they lose their breath,
To nature, not to thee, they may impute their death.
Let goats for food their loaded udders lend,
And sheep from winter cold thy sides defend;
But neither springes, nets, nor snares employ,
And be no more ingenious to
