and extreme transport. This admiration of theirs mu needs proceed from the author himself: for the tranflator has thrown him down as low as harth numbers, improper English, and a monftrous length of verfe, could carry him. What then would he appear in the harmonious version of one of the best writers, living in a much better age than was the last? I mean for versification, and the art of numbers: for in the drama we have not arrived to the pitch of Shakespeare and Ben Jonfon. But here, my Lord, I am forced to break off abruptly, without endeavouring at a compliment in the clofe. This Mifcellany is, without difpute, one of the best of the kind, which has hitherto been extant in our tongue. At least, as Sir Samuel Tuke has faid before me, a modeft man may praise what is not his own. My fellows have no need of any protection: but I humbly recommend my part of it, as much as it deferves, to your patronage and acceptance, and all the rest to your forgiveness. I am,

My LORD,

Your Lordship's most

Obedient Servant,

JOHN DRYDEN,

THE

THE

FIRST BOOK

OF

OVID'S METAMORPHOSES.

OF

F bodies chang'd to various forms I fing:
Ye Gods, from whence these miracles did spring,
Inspire my numbers with celeftial heat;

Till I my long laborious work compleat;
And add perpetual tenor to my rhymes,
Deduc'd from nature's birth, to Cæfar's times.
Before the feas, and this terrestrial ball,
And heaven's high canopy, that covers all,
One was the face of nature, if a face;
Rather a rude and indigested mass :

A lifelefs lump, unfashion'd, and unfram'd,
Of jarring feeds, and juftly Chaos nam'd.
No fun was lighted up the world to view ;
No moon did yet her blunted horns renew;
Nor yet was earth suspended in the sky;
Nor, pois'd, did on her own foundations lie:
Nor feas about the fhores their arms had thrown}
But earth, and air, and water, were in one.
Thus air was void of light, and earth unstable,
And water's dark abyfs unnavigable.

No

No certain form on any was impreft;
All were confus'd, and each difturb'd the rest.
For hot and cold were in one body fixt,

And foft with hard, and light with heavy mixt.

But God, or Nature, while they thus contend, To thefe inteftine difcords put an end.

Then earth from air, and feas from earth were driven, And groffer air funk from ætherial heaven.

Thus difembroil'd, they take their proper place ;
The next of kin contiguously embrace;
And foes are funder'd by a larger fpace.
The force of fire afcended firft on high,
And took its dwelling in the vaulted sky.
Then air fucceeds, in lightnefs next to fire
Whofe atoms from unactive earth retire.

Earth finks beneath, and draws a numerous throng
Of ponderous, thick, unwieldy feeds along.
About her coafts unruly waters roar,

And, rifing on a ridge, infult the fhore.

Thus when the God, whatever God was he,
Had form'd the whole, and made the parts agree,
That no unequal portions might be found,
He moulded earth into a fpacious round :
Then, with a breath, he gave the winds to blow;
And bade the congregated waters flow.
He adds the running fprings, and standing lakes;
And bounding banks for winding rivers makes.
Some part in earth are swallow'd up, the mcft
In ample oceans, difembogued, are loft.

}

He

He fhades the woods, the vallies he reftrains
With rocky mountains, and extends the plains.
And as five zones th' ætherial regions bind,
Five, correfpondent, are to earth affign'd :
The fun with rays, directly darting down,
Fires all beneath, and fries the middle zone :
The two beneath the diftant poles complain
Of endless winter, and perpetual rain.

Betwixt th' extremes, two happier climates hold
The temper that partakes of hot and cold.
The fields of liquid air, inclofing all,
Surround the compafs of this earthly ball:
The lighter parts lie next the fires above;
The groffer near the watery furface move:
Thick clouds are spread, and ftorms engender there,
And thunder's voice, which wretched mortals fear,
And winds that on their wings cold winter bear.
Nor were thofe bluftering brethren left at large,
On feas and fhores their fury to discharge:
Bound as they are, and circumscrib'd in place,
They rend the world, resistless, where they pass;
And mighty marks of mifchief leave behind;
Such is the rage of their tempeftuous kind.
First Eurus to the rifing morn is sent,
(The regions of the balmy continent)
And Eastern realms, where early Perfians run,
Το greet the bleft appearance of the fun.
Weftward the wanton Zephyr wings his flight,
Pleas'd with the remnants of departing light:

}

Fierce Boreas with his offspring iffues forth,
T'invade the frozen waggon of the North.
While frowning Aufter feeks the fouthern sphere,
And rots, with endless rain, th' unwholfome year.
High o'er the clouds, and empty realms of wind,
The God a clearer space for heaven defign'd;
Where fields of light and liquid æther flow,
Purg'd from the ponderous dregs of earth below.
Scarce had the power diftinguish'd these, when straight
The ftars, no longer overlaid with weight,
Exert their heads from underneath the mafs,

And upward fhoot, and kindle as they pafs,

And with diffufive light adorn the heavenly place.
Then, every void of nature to supply,

With forms of Gods he fills the vacant sky:

New herds of beasts he fends, the plains to fhare;
New colonies of birds, to people air;

And to their oozy beds the finny fish repair.
A creature of a more exalted kind

Was wanting yet, and then was man design'd:
Conscious of thought, of more capacious breaft,
For empire form'd, and fit to rule the rest:
Whether with particles of heavenly fire
The God of nature did his foul inspire;
Or earth, but new divided from the sky,
And pliant ftill, retain'd th' ætherial energy:
Which wife Prometheus temper'd into paste,

}

}

And, mixt with living streams, the godlike image caft. Thus, while the mute creation downward bend

Their fight, and to their earthly mother tend,

Man