Not diftant far a wat'ry lotos grows;
The fpring was new, and all the verdant boughs
Adorn'd with bloffoms, promis'd fruits that vie
In glowing colours with the Tyrian dye:
Of thefe the cropp'd to please her in ant fon,
And I myself the fame rafh act had done;
But, lo! I faw (as near her fide I ftood)
The violated bloffoms drop with blood.
Upon the tree I caít a frightful look;
The trembling tree with fudden horror thook.
Lotis the nymph (if rural tales be true)
As from Priapus' lawlefs luft fhe flew,
Forfook her form, and, fixing here, became
A flow'ry plant, which ftill preferves her name.
This change unknown, astonish'd at the fight,
My trembling fifter ftrove to urge her flight;
And first the pardon of the nymphs implor'd,
And thofe offended fylvan pow'rs ador'd :
But when the backward would have fled, the found-
Her ftiff'ning feet were rooted in the ground:
In vain to free her faften'd feet she ftrove,
And as the ftruggles only moves above;
She feeels th' encroaching bark around her grow
By quick degrees, and cover all below.
Haud procul à ftagno, Tyrios imitata colores,
In fpem baccharum florebat aquatica lotos.
Carpferat hinc Dryope, quos oblectamina nato
Porrigeret flores: et idem factura videbar
(Namque aderam.) Vidi guttas è flore cruentas
Decidere, et tremulo ramos horrore moveri.
Scilicet, ut referunt tardi nunc denique agreftes,
Lotis in hanc nymphe, fugiens obscœna Priapi,
Contulerat verfos fervato nomine vultus.
Nefcierat foror hoc; quæ cùm perte:rita retrò
Ire et adoratis vellet defcedere nymphis,
Hæferunt radice pedes. Convellere pugnat:
Nec quicquam, nifi fumma, movet. Succrefcit ab imo,
Totaque paulatim lentus premit inguina cortex.
Surpris'd at this, her trembling hand the heaves
To rend her hair; her hand is fill'd with leaves:
Where late was hair the shooting leaves are seen
To rife, and fhade her with a fudden green.
The child Amphiffus, to her bofom preft,
Perceiv'd a colder and a harder breast,
And found the fprings, that ne'er till then deny'd
Their milky moisture, on a fudden dry'd.
I faw, unhappy! what I now relate,
And stood the helpless witnefs of thy fate,
Embrac'd thy boughs, thy rifing bark delay'd,
There with'd to grow, and mingle fhade with fhade.
Behold Andræmon and the unhappy fire
Appear, and for their Dryope inquire:
A pringing tree for Dryope they find,
And print warm kiffes on the panting rind.
Proftrate, with tears their kindred plant bedew,
And clofe embrace as to the roots they grew.
The face was all that now remain'd of thee,
No more a woman, nor yet quite a tree;
Thy branches hung with humid pearls appear,
From ev'ry leaf distils a trickling tear;
Ut vidit, conata manu laniare capillos,
Fronde manum implevit: frondes caput omne tene
At puer Amphiffos (namque hoc avus Eurytus illi
Addiderat nomen) materna rigefcere fentit
Ubera: nec fequitur ducentem lacteus humor.
Spectatrix aderam fati crudelis, opemque
Non poteram tibi ferre, foror: quantumque valebam,
Crefcentem truncum ramofque amplexa, morabaṛ:
Et (fateor) volui fub eodem cortice condi.
Ecce vir Andræmon, genitorque miferrimus, adfunt;
Et quærunt Dryopen; Dryopen quærentibus illis
Oftendi Loton. tepido dant ofcula ligno :
Affufique fuæ radicibus arboris hærent.
Nil nifi jam faciem, quod non foret arbor, habebas,
Chara foror, lacrymæ verfo de corpore factis
Irrorant foliis: ac dum licet, oraque præftant
And ftraight a voice, while yet a voice remains,
Thus thro' the trembling boughs in fighs complains.
If to the wretch'd any faith be giv'n,
I fwear by all th' unpitying pow'rs of heav'n,
No wilful crime this heavy vengeance bred;
In mutual innocence our lives we led:
If this be falfe, let these new greens decay,
Let founding axes lop my limbs away,
And crackling flames on all my honours prey. 75
But from my branching arms this infant bear,
Let fome kind nurfe fupply a mother's care;
And to his mother let him oft be led,
Sport in her fhades, and in her fhades be fed :
Teach him, when first his infant voice fhall frame
Imperfect words, and lifp his mother's name,
To hail this tree; and fay, with weeping eyes,
Within this plant my hapless parent lies :
And when in youth he seeks the fhady woods,
Oh! let him fly the crystal lakes and floods,
Nor touch the fatal flow'rs; but, warn'd by me,
Believe a goddess fhrin'd in ev'ry tree.
My fire, my fifter, and my fpoufe farewell!
If in your breafts or love or pity dwell
Protect your plant, nor let my branches feel
The browfing cattle or the piercing steel.
Vocis iter, tales effundit in aëra queftus :
Si qua fides miferis, hoc me per numina juror
Non meruiffe nefas, patior finè crimine pœnam.
Viximus innocuæ si mentior, arida perdam,
Quas habeo, frondes, et cæfa fecuribus urar.
Hunc tamen infantem maternis demite ramis,
Et date nutrici; noftraque fub arbore fæpe
Lac facitote bibat, noftrâque fub arbore ludat.
Cumque loqui poterit, matrem facitote salutet,
Et triftis dicat, Latet hôc fub ftipite mater.
Stagna tamen timeat; nec carpat ab arbore flores:
Et frutices omnes corpus putet effe Dearum.
Chare, vale, conjux, et tu germana paterque!
Queis si qua eft pietas, ab acutæ vulnere falcis,
A pecoris morfu, frondes defendite nostras.
Farewell! and fince I cannot bend to join
My lips to yours, advance at least to mine.
My fon, thy mother's parting kiss receive,
While yet thy mother has a kifs to give.
I can no more; the creeping rind invades
My clofing lips, and hides my head in fhades:
Remove your hands, the bark shall foon fuffice
Without their aid to feal thefe dying eyes."
She ceas'd at once to speak and ceas'd to be,
And all the nymph was loft within the tree;
Yet latent life thro' her new branches reign'd,
And long the plant a human heat retain'd.
Et quoniam mihi fas ad vos incumbere non est,
Erigite huc artus, et ad ofcula noftra venite,
Dum tangi poffunt, parvumque attollite natum.
Plura loqui nequeo. nam jam per candida mollis
Colla liber ferpit, fummoque cacumine condor.
Ex oculis removete manus: finè munere veftro
Contegat inductus morientia lumina cortex.
Defierant fimul ora loqui fimul effe: diuque
Corpore mutato rami caluere recentes.
DEO. OPT. MAX.
FATHER of All! in ev'ry age,
In ev'ry clime, ador'd,
By faint, by favage, and by fage,
Jehovah, Jove, or Lord!
Thou Great Firft Caufe, leaft understood,
Who all my fense confin'd
To know but this, that thou art Good,
And that myself am blind:
Yet gave me in this dark eftate,
To fee the good from ill;
And binding Nature fast in Fate,
Left free the human will.
What confcience dictates to be done,
Or warns me not to do,
This teach me more then hell to fhun,
That more than heav'n purfue.
What bleffings thy free bounty gives
Let me not caft away;
For God is paid when Man receives:
T'enjoy is to obey.
Yet not to Earth's contracted fpan
Thy goodness let me bound,
Or think thee Lord alone of Man,
When thousand worlds are round.
Let not this weak unknowing hand
Prefume thy bolts to throw,
And deal damnation round the land
On each I judge thy foe.
If I am right, thy grace impart,
Still in the right to stay;
If I am wrong, oh! teach my heart
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