Infancy, a Didactic Poem. Book V

To Thee MONRO! whose industry and skill The Muse can witness, tracing every nerve. Each tube arterial, vein, and filament, With the perspicuous steel illustrating The frame of Man; nor less with vivid force Of happy diction, to th' observant ear Teaching that Physiology on truth And reason founded, which beholds design And matchless order on the different parts Impress their functions, and pervade the whole, From final causes rising to the Prime, Th' All-wise, All-perfect: and rejecting far From Physic, from Anatomy, the doubts Of Pyrrho's followers, and th' assertions lewd Of shallow Atheists; while in thee survives Thy Father's spirit, who the school upraised, With sapient Rutherford combined, and graced The chair, his Son with equal lustre fills. These strains MONRO! I consecrate to thee, To thee, and HUNTER, Rivals tho Ye are, Yet in my heart, my verse shall Ye be join'd, Both dear to Science, to your Country dear, Deserving public fame, and private love.

SHALL HEWSON sink untimely to the grave, And I the note refuse? refuse to paint His gentle manners, amiably humane, Winning with ease their unobtrusive way Into the breast where Friendship and Esteem With warm embrace received them? Or his soul Inquisitive, and ardent to detect Nature, howe'er conceal'd beneath a cloud Obscure, and to the search of common eyes Impenetrable? Shall I not lament His talents render'd useless? And the bloom Of Genius wither'd in it's vernal morn. WHEN Gratitude inspires the strain, shall BLACK Remain unsung? Who first the path essay'd Which since by many a bold Adventurer trod, Hath open'd sources unexplored? disclosed Subtiler essences; to new pursuits Awaken'd Chemic Art? And loosed the bonds Of it's establisht empire? No; while praise He covets not, and shrinks from due applause, The Muse shall not in silence praetermit His lucid facts, and philosophic toil.

THO foremost in the ranks of Being stand The Men, who active in the cause of truth, Divine, or moral, or to human life Subservient, with unceasing labour ply Their task severe; to free th' embodied Mind, And it's ideas raise above the ken Of dull Mortality; by useful Arts Invented, or improved, to subjugate, And undeceive reluctant Error, bring To the true test of just experiment Her specious visions, and elucidate Her dark perplexities; yet is not He Among the lowest, who their precepts strives More widely to disseminate, arrange In varied order their materials, place Objects the same in different points of view, Or cloath'd in fresher garb, attention win By seeming novelty. Nor shall the Bard Howe'er condemn'd by folly, to the rank Which petulance assigns Him deign to stoop His crest indignant, while He feels within That living zeal, which by occasion fired, Would prompt his soul to dare celestial themes; Inforce the rules of action which connect Each social bond; or each ingenious mode Of Art unveil, whence profit or delight Arise; and captivate with thrillings sweet Of unluxurious pleasure the nice ear Of sensibility: With thoughts select On which no vulgar images intrude Th' affections and the passions mingling bland. ERE in our lays instructive, We proceed, And dedicate the verse to Exercise, 'Twere fit to search with deep attentive care The Human Fabric, it's component parts And Nature to determine, were it given To Poet or Philosopher to treat A subject so mysterious unreproved.

MUCH hath Anatomy distinguish'd, much Remains unknown; the rudiments of life Who ever shall explore? Where dwells the Power Inherent, or acquired, which first expands The comprehensive germ? Which moulds, propells, And inorganic fluid can convert To animated fibre? In the Brain Does it reside? Or in the central Heart? Or do they both their energy combine? Is it subtle, elastic, and derived From that ethereal Essence which perchance All space informs, and every substance fills? Or is it from the blood by wondrous means Secreted, render'd volatile, sublimed, A pure, peculiar spirit? From his state Of vegetable torpor when released, Whate'er it be, by this the Infant lives, By this He moves; by this th' absorbents bear Their nurture from the stomach to the veins, The wasted blood's supply, whose siner parts Perpetually exhale; this gives the lungs To play, which from the circumambient air It's vital principle inspire, and yield Th' effete mephitic vapour back again. This stimulates the heart, and by the heart And irritated fibres is in turn Excited, quicken'd, strengthen'd: This extends The solids, and enlarges, hasting on The circulating stream. This generates, Or is of living Heat the copious fount, Active while it exists, without it's aid Soon changed to deadly cold. By this, the nerves Of every various sense with speed convey Each impulse to the Brain, infixing there Th' indelible ideas, there arranged, Connected, modified, they haply form Or seem at least to form the Soul Itself, Immortal, immaterial: Hence the stores Of wisdom are establish'd; hence the flash Of wit bursts forth; and hence with keenest glance Imagination darts her eye throughout This mundane space, pierces beyond it's bounds, And Worlds creates, and Beings all her own.

IS it of Heavenly origin? A ray, A portion of Divinity, this Power Miraculously working? Guided sure By other springs it acts than those of chance; For chance is nothing, a chimaera framed From non-existence by the breath of Fools. We see the deeds of highest Intellect, The finger of a God. Profound We bend In adoration, and tho all his ways We know not, tho implicit darkness hang Over this universe immense, confess That nothing short of Deity, could e'er Conceive, or raise the edifice of Man.

YET, while the mystic elements of things Are undiscover'd still, while hidden lye Th' interior Agents; while to Man himself Man is a Being which his utmost pains Have fail'd to analyse; while tho we view, Or think we view the circling chain of life Depending link on link, in many a part Chasms intervene, unfill'd but by the touch Of vague conjecture, or of fancy wild: The power of Observation is not given In vain; or handed down from Age to Age Facts by experience sanctified; nor shines Fruitless the torch of clear Analogy. Or superseding all, the purest light The steadiest, Nature yields; unerring beams, Which point the way to truth, while Reason smiles, And Judgment walks secure. O Nature! thee, Goddess benign! when first this theme I chose In early youth, with aspiration warm I call'd; thee vow'd to follow; unrepell'd By Art's fastidious brow; or System's frown, Unwarp'd by Theory's delusive voice. For thou Alone the faithful Monitor Art placed within; thy motions if observed, Forever point to good. Nor will I now Desert thee, or retract what then I swore. For not from Thee we only learn to raise The frame corporeal to it's destined pitch Of health and strength; to ward with certain shield The darts of sickness; or if rushing on, Disease o'erwhelm us with impetuous might, To catch the rapid moment, and at once Expell the Foe, or waste his violence By due protraction, till he quit the field: But, if by tyrant Habit unenslaved, If unimpair'd by affectation vile, And imitative manners swimming down The stream of head-long custom; Thine is all The mental glory: Virtue, taste, design Unborrow'd, glowing thoughts, expression strong, The full emphatic eloquence of prose, The liquid flow of melody, the burst Of torrent rapture, and each foaming wave Which swells the boundless tide of verse sublime.

To Nature then, with me, O Parent Mind! Stoop lowly; and observe her impulse rouse From his first slumbrous state awaked, thy Child. How soon, tho active vigour be denied, His arms, his feet the tendency display To loco-motion, and his roving eye Darting swift glances; pleased that nought around Should be at rest, nor pleased with rest himself.

INDULGING this propensity, to all His free unfetter'd limbs allow their quick And yet unsteady efforts; let him gain From his Attendant, what he seems to ask, Perpetual exercise; tho not at first To agitation violent exposed, Or tost in playful wantonness on high, But gradually proceeding. Treated thus, Kept in unceasing action while awake, He will not need the Cradle's most absurd Pernicious motion, which the giddy brain Confuses, and benumbs; on him shall steal A softer, sweeter, more refreshing sleep. Nor blame the Muse, whose iterated strains, Neglecting slavish art, it's use forbid: Wishing th' Invention with deserv'd contempt Exiled forever; with th' untoward Swing, The Go-cart, and the Leader, be it doom'd To blank oblivion; or preserv'd with them Only in some Museum's nitch devote, Teach future times, from past examples wise, More ardently to follow Nature's paths, Her simpleness to venerate, and own Her all-sufficient dictates. Let thy Child Enjoy his balmy slumber uncompell'd, Or by himself alone acquired, from due Instinctive exercise: And let Him learn, Untaught by others, his allotted talk, To creep, to stand, to walk; and let him know Full early no assistance will be lent In aught which by his proper strength and skill He can accomplish. So shall strength and skill Hourly increase; so He by days and months The puny Infant shall excell, deprived By doating fondness of his native powers; Or to the care of Laziness assign'd, Who suffers Him with tottering step to drag Incumbent, while the faithful eye alone Should watch, or ready hand with gentlest touch Uphold. Nor think (an argument of yore For binding every limb) his tender form Will from his own exertions e'er receive Substantial injury; a posture wrong Uneasiness will prompt Him to correct: Nor will his feebleness permit the force Inducing harm, so strictly to his weight Proportion'd: And how soon, uncheckt by art, Inherent sense, will threatened danger shun, Is wondrous. Vanquish then ideal fears. And on the matt, or carpet let him sport, And feel his growing vigour; or entice To their extremest verge his infant sight With becks, and smiles, and captivating toys.

FOR ends most wise, and most important, flows Redundantly profuse within thy Child This active principle. By Exercise The quicken'd pulse and stimulated heart More truly shape each fibre, give to each Their tension, and elastic spring; urge on In swift and properly successive waves The crimson fluid, and from thence secern The different humours, healthy, bland and pure, While thro their various channels are detach'd The recremental dregs, of acrid kind, Or fraught with particles to human life Destructive. Exercise supports the flame Of life itself, that steady heat, which glows, And with peculiar fixedness, resists External cold: Nor, in the torrid Zone, Where Phoebus beams direct his fiercest ray, Is by the scorching atmosphere increased To morbid violence. By Exercise The stomach unopprest, digests, concocts, Assimilates, the generous chyle prepares, And feels again the necessary goad Of keenest appetite. That balance nice With which health corresponds, of part to part, Of muscles to their due antagonists, Fluids to solids, to themselves, the just Mixture, proportion, influence, strength of all; Even th' invisible ethereal stream, As vigorous, or weak, condensed, or rare, Sensation, passion, intellect, nay more, Virtue, and vice, on Exercise depend.

KNOW it's advantage then; nor judge thy Child With this profusion of activity Endow'd in vain. For Nature rules within, Sage tutoress, and he now will soon acquire By her instinctive precepts more than years Of labouring education can impart, So She be not in froward mood opposed, Or not unseconded by thee. Behold, And aid her movements, let him see and smell, Hear, taste, and touch all objects at his will. So the deceptive senses shall be fix'd; So early repetition shall bestow That just discrimination, that acute Perceptive swiftness, which in future life Seems instantaneous and intuitive, Innate, and unpossest by second means.

NOR as with limbs more firm He treads, impede His restless ardour, his inquisitive And eager curiosity, which learns, Approaching nigh, the varied form of things, Their distance, situation, what resists, Or yields, th' innocuous, and replete with harm. Excite, impell him forward; and when Mind Now beams apparent, and the flexile tongue, By imitation, and habitual use, Can utter sounds articulate, the names Of every object teach him to repeat; Add daily to his store of images Simple, and unabstracted; let him walk Or run the verdant fields and lawns along, Nor Thou disdain t' attend him, and point out As giddy apprehension can receive, Or roving fancy lists, each herb, and tree, Mountain, and stream, and mineral, the birds Which skim the liquid air, or from the brake Pour their sweet voices, herds, and bleating flocks, Insects on wing, or on the lowly ground. With him the nimble grashopper pursue, And chace the gawdy butterfly; or strive To catch the variegated bow which plants It's base on earth, now near, but soon removed To distant hills; or bid him mark the Sun Refulgent shining; or the clouds diverse; At eve, the silver moon, crescent, or full; And every star whose radiance decks the sky.

THUS shalt Thou see with pleasure on his cheek Health's genial hue, his limbs proportion'd just, And beauteous, as of yore the little Loves In Paphos, and Idalia, or as still Warm from Albano's magic touch they breathe; Sportive as Zephyr, agile as the Son Of Maia, when his infant hand deceived Apollo's piercing sight, and stole his lyre.

THUS Reason's structure shalt Thou help to form, Laying the sure foundation, and avoid Their error, who the memory haply load With numerous words, and think their Child endow'd With parts prodigious, should He get by rote Sonorous trifles, useless, and to him Incomprehensible; debarr'd meanwhile From action, which invigorates the frame, And every curious sense directs to things, Momentous, and substantial, understood At once, or by spontaneous efforts stamp'd On the sensorium, ne'er to be erased.

REJECT their error. Nor should strength of Nerve To thy ill-fortuned Offspring be denied, Should e'en his limbs more tardily perform Their office, and distortedly relaxt, Trembling sustain their burthen; heed the voice Of prejudice, or foolish tenderness, Which, nature's power unknown, would recommend Forbearance, and each slight exertion dread. Rather endeavour by repeated use To brace the fibres; Exercise can string The slacken'd muscles, which their native tone Shall reassume, and conquer by degrees Hated deformity. Nor, should a cause Obscure, and singular, as such may be Withhold Him from th' assiduous playfulness Which Health and Nature love; indulge th' inert And heavy disposition; chide, invite, Force Him to move; lest sullen apathy, And stupor, the phlegmatic Habit's curse, To their devoted victim cling thro life.

WITHOUT design, the lawns, and verdant fields, We introduced not; mid the rural haunts Was placed the tender nurseling; and from thence If possible, for many a rolling year Let nothing tempt thee with thy charge to seek The baneful town. The country boasts alone Untainted gales; the Joys, and frolic Sports Here revel; Temperance here awhile defies Encroaching Luxury, and beneath it's shades Primeval, lingers Innocence of soul, And cherub-wing'd Simplicity. Here dwells Th' unvitiated Muse, and thro the glade, By Alphin's willow'd margin, or beneath His lofty elms, or mid his apple groves Thick blossoming, tunes th' elegiac strain, Or meditates, as now, th' instructive lay: Escaped from slavery, from the din of fools, From envy, and deceit, the treacherous crew, Who worse than fever or the pestilence Infect the city's mansions; here intent To meet Hygeia, and with her invert The garden mould, copartner of her toil, Or raise the drooping flower, or from the tree Prune it's luxuriant branches; or ascend With her the swelling hill, or urge the steed Across the neighbouring down, or bait the hook, And tempt th' unwary native of the stream. Oh! Thou Propitious Power! tho long exiled, The Muse hath met thee here! Whence easier spring Th' ideas from their secret source, around Fancy once more her fairy visions spreads. Light is the destined task, melodious airs Inspire the bowers, and softer numbers breathe.

IF Sickness enter not the rural dells, Or vanquisht by the purer atmosphere Give place to radiant health; consider well What desperate ills thy Children may elude Here educated, in whose veins yet flows Unsullied ichor, by the steams which rise, Mortal, and gross, in the throng'd city's bounds Unchanged. Nor regulate with anxious zeal Their pastimes and excursions, let them bend, As tutor'd from within, each pliant limb, Each mode of varied exercise essay, Enjoy their animation, and the sting Of innate sprightliness. Nor let them shun Accustomed thus, the summer's noonday heat, Or winter's freezing sky. Th' Inhabitants Of every region are by nature apt It's warmth, or cold to bear, it's shifting winds, And quick vicissitudes: in frigid climes Still more alert, and stimulated more To necessary action. Oh! forewarn'd, Thy Children in the stifling dome, howe'er Grateful to thee, include not; and misled By phantoms of imaginary harm, Superfluous vestments, tho defensive deem'd, Wrap not around them. So their vital powers To danger unobnoxious, shall repell All immature assaults; their nerves robust Escape the morbid tenderness of thine, Source of unnumber'd ailments; whence the mind Itself at length unhing'd, is timid, weak, Irresolute, and to sensations doom'd, Which tho they must exist, can scarce be borne.

OF polisht idleness which shrinks from toil, And cautious trembles at th' external blast, This is the sad result. While all the Tribes Uncultivated, whether in the wilds Canadian, or Brazilian, on the steep Of Caucasus, in Africa, or Ind, In the Malayan Isles, or those late seen By Him, illustrious Chief whose timeless fate Britannia mourns, and shall forever mourn, Whate'er erroneous customs they possess, Howe'er productive of peculiar ills, From this at least are free, this languor wan, These nervous horrors which o'erwhelm the soul. But from activity, from open skies, And the lustration of pellucid streams, Unmoved support each accident of life, Cold, hunger, thirst, and pain; nay dauntless meet, And cheerfully resign'd, the stroke of death. THUS too of old upon Eurota's banks, Or in the martial field near Tiber's waves, From hardy childhood, Lacedaemon saw, And Rome majestic, those intrepid bands, Which taught the sons of haughty Greece to stoop, Or subjected the world. To labour train'd From early years, thus, undebauch'd by courts, And softening indolence, in glory's page Enroll'd, and with her laurels deckt, have shone Princes, and Heirs of Empire. Thus, advanced From Persia's borders, unrelaxt, and brave, Cyrus, whom Babylonia's walls in vain Resisted, and the Myriads which obey'd Lydia's enervate Monarch, while his crown He slavishly survived, and baser still Survived his liberty. Thus, mid the rocks Of Bearn, as lived the youthful Peasant Race, From them unknown, but by his royal mien, With feet unfandall'd, and uncover'd head, Henry, the future Pride of France, was raised By true maternal virtue. Hence He quell'd Iberia's new Geryon; hence, the League That factious Hydra gored with many a wound, And finally subdued: hence, graced his throne; And peace and plenty thro his realms diffused.

LET then the sturdy Boy unlimited Follow the bent of nature; nor too soon Enslave thy Daughter; let her limbs possess Their utmost freedom to th' extremest verge Which custom will permit. The lengthen'd walk, The more delightful ride, the mazy dance Whose rapid evolutions ever please, These, fashion, rigid decency allow, Whate'er her age: and if each day pursued In regular succession, will create That mode of happy texture, which attracts The Lover's eye desiring; where the blood Speaks in the mantling cheek, but unsuffused With coarse and vulgar crimson; where the frame Is healthy, not robust, and elegant, Not delicately fragile. Purer minds, And gentler manners Fancy here beholds, By peevishness untinctured, undisturb'd By malice and suspicion; nor perchance Views with illuded eye. For much the Soul Depends on her Companion. Exercise Too far impell'd, abnormous, and for years Continued, renders dense the nervous tide, Or to the seat of thought at length imparts Ideot rigidity. Th' effects of Age Intemperate toil can prematurely bring On the worn frame, and sad untimely death. While Idleness relaxing every nerve The mobile fluid is deranged by strokes Of slightest force, nor life is worth the name.

WHAT then do We advise? At first intent On the corporeal organs, Nature strives T' unfold, to strengthen them; and calls in aid Their own endeavours, restless, and untamed. In her more simple state, by keen desire Of food the loco-motive powers are roused; The Savage else inactively reclines In his low shed, or underneath the palm, Or spreading cedar, if not urged to war, And it's impetuous deeds, by hot revenge: Superiour swiftness and superiour strength His highest excellence, and only boast, The soul neglected, and to him unknown It's finer feelings, and extatic joys.

BUT in those climes where polity hath smooth'd Our innate roughness, where humanely taught, By wholesome laws conjoin'd, by th' intercourse Of liberal manners, and th' incircling chain Of Arts and Commerce, there the faculties Of nobler birth are prized; the general-weal Defends each individual, who less heeds, Or values strength, except as far as health Asks his attention; nor the body sole, But mind, while gather the successive years, Parental notice claims. When this expands, Controul too fervid action, regulate It's wilder efforts. Social life requires The head considerate, and the labouring hand, Business and speculation, study deep, And enterprise which laughs at danger's frown, Tost on the stormy billows, or engaged In fighting fields. Whate'er his lot, adapt Thy Child to vigorous deeds, or strenuous thought. Let Exercise and Books with mutual sway Divide his time well-govern'd. Who alone Pursues the hare, the fox, and bounding stag, Or pores unceasing on the mouldy page, Equal contempt and blame deserves. Nor fail If totally their charms engross the soul, Acute Philosophy, or e'en the Muse With all her softer beauties, to contract The span of life, to fill that span minute With languor, discontent, disease, and pain.

ERE We conclude, this added verse receive, From Greece derived; for as of late immerst In rapturous thought, Memory it's Chiefs pourtray'd It's Sages, Patriots, Bards, Apollo's Self Appear'd, or in my day-dream seem'd t' appear. With Him the car I press'd, which swiftly flew O'er continents, and seas; not swifter rush'd The trident-bearing God to Simois' plains, When under his immortal feet the woods Umbrageous, and extensive mountains shook. We gain'd Boeotia, where arose the cliffs Of Helicon, th' impurpled lawn I trod, And to it's top beyond my feeble ken, Ascended my Conductor, where He join'd Th' expectant choir, whose harmony methought Far distant struck my ear. But on a bank With lotus and with hyacinth o'erspread Reclined th' Ascraean Poet, Him I knew, For by his side was placed the verdant branch Of scepter'd laurel, which the Muses erst With their own hands bestow'd, and bad him sing Their high descent, and all th' ethereal Race. His sheep were scatter'd round, and many Swains, And many Virgins with attentive ear Imbibed his flowing numbers, with the throng I mingled, and regretting that so late My footsteps had arrived, for now his strains Were well-nigh finisht, and the sun declined T'ward ocean's bed, with deep respectful awe Heard his last notes, while thus the Master sung.

"His anger ceased; for on the rocks which bound The solid earth, with adamantine chains Braced firm, Prometheus groan'd, while on his prey The screaming eagle darted from above. And Epimetheus too of vacant soul Had as a Bride received the treacherous Maid Vulcan's alluring work, with graces fraught Celestial, but diffusing evils dire. When now the sovereign Father bade convene The subject Powers; soft pity fill'd his breast For new-created Man; on golden thrones, They sate in order due; He thus address'd Th' assembled Deities. Ye Sons of Heaven! Who on Olympus dwell, or ocean's waves Inform, or o'er the streams prefide, or haunt The woods, and forests! with avengement just The Traitor is exiled, who first prefumed Our living fire to steal, who expiates now His guilt, and stretch'd upon the Scythian crags Horrific, lies exposed to pieroing winds, Fierce-driving rain, and snow, or beating hail, Which with unmitigable violence Assault his desolate abode. Nor fails Our ravenous Bird at early morn to seek His nightly-growing feast. Such punishment From us He merited; nor have we spared His favour'd mortals, with Pandora's gifts Enchanted, by her blandishments subdued. But them We now with kinder eye behold, Ill-form'd to last, and verging to decay Hourly; no doubt with skill and care composed, Worthy their Author, and with Heaven's own flame Instinct, from our ethereal dome procured By fraudful stratagem; yet weak to bear The changeful elements, diseases fell, And accidental ills, a numerous train; Too exquisitely wrought, and destined soon Again to mingle with their kindred clay, Unless their fate some means yet unreveal'd Awhile protract; t'ward them my wrath relents, Not of themselves, from their own previous wills Originated, and to transient life From dust upraised. To you the means I leave Immortal Powers. Who wishes to preserve The race terrestrial, hapless, and forlorn, From speedy dissolution, may explain Free, and unblamed the dictates of his heart.

"HE spoke. Then Pallas with attentive eye, Smiling, beheld the Deities around, Or pondering silent, or consulting deep. Smiling She sate; but graceful from her throne At length arose, and thro th' effulgent hall, Proceeding o'er the jasper pavement, sought The door high-arch'd, whose valves of solid gold Spontaneous open'd; ere again they closed, The blue-eyed Maid return'd, and by the hand Led in the prime of youth, and blooming charms, A Nymph of heavenly mien, and as it seem'd A sister Goddess. On her cheeks was spread The glowing hue of Hebe; waving hung And loose her raven locks, but just confined; Her robe succinct a golden clasp upheld Baring the knee: Not languishingly soft Like Venus in her gait, nor rivalling Majestic Juno; but in all her limbs Dwelt symmetry divine, activity, And sparkling ardour; while her hand sustain'd A spear, too light for battles dire, in which Mars wields his massy javelin, but to feats Of mimic war adapted, or to wage The Sylvan conflict. To the feet of Jove Led on, th' assembled Powers at once survey'd Her virgin Form with wonder and desire, As from her breath perfumes, and from her hair Dropp'd fragrant roses. Then Minerva paused, And thus began. O Father! see with thine How all my thoughts accord. The means I bring Thy destined aim to perfect; from their fate Suddenly threatening hapless Man to save, And bless with length of days: by this my work, This beauteous Nymph, whom I with plastic hand In emulation of Vulcanian skill, Or Promethean, fashion'd; not of earth, Or fire, like their productions, but of pure And elemental aether; nor by Thee Forbidden, or with anger now survey'd. Her name Gymnasia, and in future times, And regions yet by mortal feet untrod, Health-giving Exercise. For she the race Of Men shall urge t' exertion and to toil, Snatch from Pandora's arms the tender Babe, String his young nerves, and thro th' eventful scenes Of chequer'd life support him, scattering wide The mists of torpid indolence, the worst Of all the plagues, which in the fatal box Were stored, whose sweetness poisons, and the frame Weak of itself, to double weakness dooms.

"SHE said. The Power superiour, with a smile Approved her wisdom, with a smile that cheer'd Heaven, earth, and seas; viewing the lovely Nymph Moulded by her, and by her skill adorn'd, The stedfast Friend, and Guardian of Mankind.

"THEY thro the yielding air with speedy flight Descended, hasting to the Nether World; With acclamations loud, Olympus rang."