le things premis'd, when now the nuptial aches for the ftately steed to climb; [time icod enable him to make his court; d his chine, and pamper him for fport. him with herbs, whatever thou canst find, erous warmth, and of falacious kind. water him, and (drinking what he can) rage him to thirit again, with bran. ted thus, produce him to the fair: oin in wedlock to the longing mare. the fire be faint, or out of cafe, Il be copied in his famish'd race: nk beneath the pleafing talk affign'd: Il's too little for the craving kind.) for the females, with induftrious care lown their mettle, keep them lean and bare; confcious of their past delight, and keen se the leap, and prove the iport again; stanty measure then supply their food; when athirst, reftrain them from the flood; bodies harrafs, fink them when they run; fry their melting marrow in the fun. elem, when barns beneath their burden groin;

now'd chaff by western winds is blown; ar the rankness of the fwelling womb fant the paffage, and confine the room. e fat furrows fhould the fenfe destroy al luft, and dull the feat of joy. them fuck the feed with greedy force, that involve the vigour of the horse.

e male has done; thy care must now proceod

ing females, and the promis'd breed. et them run at large, and never know ming yoke, or draw the crooked plough, not leap the ditch, or fwim the flood, aber o'er the meads or cross the wood: nge the foreft, by the filver fide

tool ftream, where nature thall provide gras, and fattening clover for their fare, ly caverns for their noon-tide lare: rocks above to shield the sharp nocturnal

air.

th' Alburnian groves, with holly green,
ged infects mighty fwarms are feen:
ying plague (to mark its quality)
the Grecians call: Afylus, we:

te loud buzzing breeze; their ftings draw blood,

rive the cattle gadding through the wood. with unufual pains, they loudly cry; rus haftens thence, and leaves his channel rie the jealous Juno did invent, [dry. t employ'd for lo's punishment. n this ill, the cunning leach ordains mer's fultry heats (for then it reigns) d the females, ere the fun arife,

at night, when ftars adorn the skies. the has calv'd, then fet the dam afide; r the tender progeny provide. quifh all betimes, with branding fire; me the tribe, the lineage, and the fire. to relerve for husband of the herd, o fhall be to facrifice preferi'd; om thou shalt to turn thy glebe allow; #coth the furrows, and sustain the plough :

The reft, for whom no lot is yet decreed,
May run in paftures, and at pleasure feed,
The calf, by nature and by genius made
To turn the glebe, breed to the rural trade;
Set him betimes to school, and let him be
Inftructed there in rules of hufbandry:
While yet his youth is flexible and green,
Nor bad examples of the world has feen.
Early begin the ftubborn child to break;
For his foft neck a fupple collar make
Of bending ofiers; and (with time and care
Inur'd that eafy fervitude to bear)

Thy flattering method on the youth pursue:
Join'd with, his fchool-fellows by two and two,
Perfuade them firft to lead an empty wheel,
That fearce the duft can raife, or they can feel:
In length of time produce the labouring yoke
And thining thares, that make the furrow smoke.
Ere the licentious youth be thus reftrain'd,
Or moral precepts on their minds have gain'd;
Their wanton appetites not only feed
With delicates of leaves, and marshy weed,
But with thy fickle reap the rankest land:
And minifter the blade with bounteous hand.
Nor be with harmful parfimony won
To follow what our homely fires have done;
Who fill'd the pail with beeftings of the cow:
But all her udder to the calf allow,

If to the warlike fteed thy ftudies bend,
Or for the prize in chariots to contend;
Near Pifa's flood the rapid wheels to guide,
Or in Olympian groves aloft to ride,

The generous labours of the courfer, first
Must be with fight of arms and found of trumpets
nurs'd:

Inur'd the groaning axle-tree to bear;
And let him clashing whips in ftables hear.
Sooth him with praife, and make him understand
The loud applaufes of his mafter's hand :
This from his weaning let him weil be taught;
And then betimes in a foft fnaffle wrought:
Before his tender joints with nerves are knit;
Untry'd in arms, and trembling at the bit,
But when to four full fprings his years advance,
Teach him to run the round, with pride to prance;
And (rightly manag'd) equal time to beat;
To turn, to bound in measure, and curvet.
Let him, to this, with ealy pains be brought:
And seem to labour, when he labours not.
Thus, form'd for speed, he challenges the wind;
And leaves the Scythian arrow far behind:
He fcours along the field, with loosen'd reins;
And treads fo light, he fcarcely prints the plains.
Like Boreas in his race, when rushing forth,
He fweeps the skies, and clears the cloudy north:
The waving harveft bends beneath his blast;
The foreft shakes, the groves their honours caft;
He flies aloft, and with impetuous roar
Pursues the foaming furges to the shore.
Thus o'er th' Elean plains, thy well-breath'd horse
Impels the flying car, and wins the courie.
Or, bred to Belgian waggons, leads the way;
Untir'd at night, and cheerful all the day.

When once he's broken, feed him full and high:
Indulge his growth, and his gaunt fides fupply.
Before his training, keep him poor and low;
For his ftout ftomach with his food will grow;

A a j

The pamper'd colt will difcipline disdain,
Impatient of the lafh, and reftiff to the rein.
Wouldst thou their courage and their strength
improve,

Too foon they must not feel the ftings of love.
Whether the bull or courfer be thy care,
Let him not leap the cow, or mount the mare.
The youthful bull muft wander in the wood;
Behind the mountain, or beyond the flood:
Or, in the stall at home his fodder find;
Far from the charms of that alluring kind.
With two fair eyes his miftref's burns his breast;
He looks, and languifhes, and leaves his reft;
Forfakes his food and pining for the lafs,

Is joyless of the grove, and spurns the growing grafs.

The foft feducer, with enticing looks,
The bellowing rivals to the fight provokes.

A beauteous heifer in the wood is bred,
The stooping warriors, aiming head to head,
Engage their clafhing horns; with dreadful found
The foreft rattles, and the rocks rebound.
They fence, they push, and pushing loudly roar;
Their dewlaps and their fides are bath'd in gore.
Nor when the war is over, is it peace;
Nor will the vanquish'd bull his claim release:
But, feeding in his breaft his ancient fires,
And curfing fate, from his proud foe retires.
Driven from his native land, to foreign grounds,
He with a generous rage refents his wounds;
His ignominious flight, the victor's boaft,
And more than both, the loves, which unreveng'd
he loit.

1 Often he turns his eyes, and with a groan,
Surveys the pleafing kingdoms once his own.
And therefore to repair his Itrength he tries:
Hardening his limbs with painful exercife,
And rough upon the flinty rock he lies.
On prickly leaves and on fharp herbs he feeds,
Then to the prelude of a war proceeds.
His horns, yet fore, he tries against a tree:
And meditates his abfent enemy.

He fnuffs the wind, his heels the fand excite,
Bar, when he ftands collected in his might,
Ife roars, and promifes a more fuccefsful fight.
Then, to redeem his honour at a blow,
He moves his camp, to meet his careless foe.
Not with more madnels, rolling from afar,
The fpumy waves proclaim the watery war,
And, mounting upwards with a mighty roar,
March onwards, and infult the rocky thore.
They mate the middle region with their height;
And fall no less than with a mountain's weight:
The waters boil, and belching from below
Black fands, as from a forceful engine throw.
Thus every creature, and of every kind,
The tecret joys of fweet coition find:
Not only man's imperial race, but they
That wing the liquid air, or fwim the fea,
Or haunt the defert,'rufh into the flame;
For love is lord of all, and is in all the fame.
"Tis with this rage, the mother lion stung,
Scours o'er the plain, regardlefs of her young
Demanding rites of love; the fternly stalks;
And hunts her lover in his lonely walks.

Tis then the fhapelef's bear his den forfakes,
In woods and fields a wild deâruction makes.

Boars whet their tusks, to battle tigers mosai
Enrag'd with hunger, more enrag'd with lov
Then woe to him, that in the defert land
Of Libya travels, o'er the burning fand.
The stallion fnuffs the well-known fcent far
And foorts and trembles for the diftant materi
Nor bits nor bridles can his rage restrain;
And rugged rocks are internos'd in vain:
He makes his way o'er mountains, and cont
Unruly torrents and unforded streams.
The bristled boar, who feels the pleafing w
New grinds his arming tusks, and digs the g
The fleepy leacher shuts his little eyes;
About his churning chaps the frothy bubbl
He rubs his fides against a tree; prepares
And hardens both his thoulders for the wan
What did the youth, when love's unerring
Transfix'd his liver, and inflam'd his heart?
Alone, by night, his watery way he took;
About him, and above, the billows broke;
The fluices of the sky were open spread,
And rolling thunder rattled o'er his head.
The raging tempeft call'd him back in vai
And every boding omen of the main.
Nor could his kindred, nor the kindly fas
Of weeping parents, change his fatal co
No, not the dying maid, who must depar
His floating carcafe on the Seftian shore.

I pass the wars that spotted linxes make With their fierce rivals, for the females' fe The howling wolves, the maftiffs amoroust When ev'n the fearful ftag dares for his But, far above the reft, the furious mare, Barr'd from the male, is frantic with depi For when her pouting vent declares her pa She tears the harnefs, and the rends the rea For this (when Venus gave them rage power),

Their masters' mangled members they de Of love defrauded in their longing hour For love they force through thickets of the They climb the fteepy hills, and ftem the f When at the spring's approach their

burns

(For with the fpring their genial warmtham The mares to cliffs of rugged rocks repai And with wide noftrils fnuff the western When (wondrous to relate) the parent w Without the stallion, propagates the kind. Then, fir'd with amorous rage, they takeflight

Thro' plains, and mount the hills unequal br
Nor to the north, nor to the rifing fun,
Nor fouthward to the rainy regions run;
But boring to the weft, and hovering there,
With gaping months, they draw prolific air
With which impregnate, from their greit
A flimy juice, by faife conception bred.
The thepherd knows it well; and calls by
Hippomanes, to note the mother's flame.
This, gathered in the planetary hour,
With noxious weeds, and spell'd with wor
Dire ftepdames in the magic bowl intule,!
And mix, for deadly draughts, the poitorous,
But time is loft, which never will renew,
While we too far the pleafing path puriue;
Surveying nature with too nice a view.

Afice for herds: our following care y flocks and shaggy goats declare. I doubt what oil I must bestow, av fubject from a ground fo low: .ean matter which my theme affords, h with magnificence of words. emmanding Mufe my chariot guides: the dubious cliff fecurely rides: i'd I am, no beaten road to take: he way to new discoveries make. Kred Pales, in a lofty strain fural honours of thy reign. aiduons care, from winter keep a'd in the stalls, thy tender fheep: ad with ftraw, the bedding of thy fold; beneath, to fend the bitter cold.

from gouts thou may'ft preferve thy

the more thy diligence beftow of winter to defend the fnow: much lefs the tender helpless kind, rown ills, can fit provifion find. ander the browfe, with bounteous hand; en let thy ftacks all winter stand.

en the western winds with vital power th the tender grafs, and budding flower; at the laft, produce in open air

cks, and fend them to their fummer fare. the fun, while Hesperus appears; them fip from herbs the pearly tears ing dews; and after break their fa.t en-ward ground (a cool and grateful tafte); en the day's fourth hour has drawn the

dews,

he fun's fultry heat their thirst renews; creaking grafhoppers on shrubs complain, ad them to their watering-troughs again. mer's heat fome bending valley find, from the fun, but open to the wind:

Or feek fome ancient oak, whofe arms extend
In ample breadth thy cattle to defend:
Or folitary grove, or gloomy glade,
To fhield them with its venerable shade.
Once more to watering lead; and feed again
When the low fun is finking to the main.
When rifing Cynthia sheds her filver dews,
And the cool evening-breeze the meads renews:
When linnets fill the woods with tuneful found,
And hollow fhores the halcyon's voice rebound.
Why fhould my Mufe enlarge on Libyan swains;
Their fcatter'd cottages, and ample plains?
Where oft the flocks without a leader ftray;
Or through continued defarts take their way;
And, feeding, add the length of night to day.
Whole months they wander, grazing as they go;
Nor folds, nor hofpitable harbour know;
Such an extent of plains, fo vaft a space
Of wilds unknown, and of untafted grafs,
Allures their eyes: the fhepherd laft appears,
And with him all his patrimony bears:

His house and household gods! his trade of war,
His bow and quiver; and his trusty cur.
Thus, under heavy arms, the youth of Rome
i heir long, laborious marches overcome :
Cheerly their tedious travels undergo;
And pitch their fudden camp before the foe.

Not fo the Scythian shepherd tends his fold;
Nor he who bears in Thrace the bitter cold:
Nor he who treads the bleak Meotian strand;
Or where proud Ifter rolls his yellow fand.
Early they ftall their flocks and herds; for there
No grafs the fields, no leaves the forefts wear:
The frozen earth lies buried there below
A hilly heap, feven cubits deep in fnow:
And all the West allies of ftormy Boreas blow.

The fun from far peeps with a fickly face;
Too weak the clouds and mighty fogs to chafe;
When up the skies he fhoots his rofy head,
Or in the rudy ocean feeks his bed.
Swift rivers are with fudden ice constrain'd;
And ftudded wheels are on its back fuftain'd.
An hottry now for waggons, which before
Tall fhips of burden on its bofom bore.
The brazen cauldrons with the froft are flaw'd;
The garment, ftiff with ice, at hearths is thaw'd;
With axes first they cleave the wine, and thence
By weight, the folid portions they difpenfe.
From locks uncomb'd, and from the frozen beard,
Long ificles depend, and crackling founds are
heard,

Mean time perpetual fleet, and driving fnow,
Obfcure the fkies, and hang on herds below.
The ftarving cattle perish in their stalls,
Huge oxen ftand enclos'd in wintery walls
Of fnow congeal'd; whole herds are bury'd there
Of mighty tags, and fcarce their horns appear.
The dextrous huntíman wounds not these afar,
With fhafts or darts, or makes a diftant war
With dogs, or pitches toils to stop their flight:
But clofe engages in unequal fight.

And while they ftrive in vain to make their way
Through hills of fnow, and pitifully bray;
Affaults with dint of fword, or pointed fpears:
And homeward, on his back, the joyful burden
The men to fubterranean caves retire;
Secure from cold, and crowd the cheerful fire;

[bears

With trunks of elms and oaks the hearth they load,

Nor tempt th' inclemency of heaven abroad,
Their jovial nights in frolics and in play
They pafs, to drive the tedious hours away.
And their cold ftomachs with crown'd goblets
Of windy cyder, and of barmy beer. [cheer
Such are the cold Riphean race; and fuch
The favage Scythian, and unwarlike Dutch.
Where skins of beafts the rude barbarians wear,
The fpoils of foxes, and the furry bear.

Is wool thy care? Let not thy cattle go
Where bushes are, where burs and thiftles grow;
Nor in too rank a pasture let them feed:
Then of the pureft white select thy breed.
Ev'n though a fnowy ram thou fhalt behold,
Prefer him not in hafte for husband to thy fold.
But fearch his mouth; and if a fwarthy tongue
1s underneath his humid palate hung,
Reject him, left he darken all the flock;
And substitute another from thy ftock.
Twas thus with fleeces milky white (if we
May truft report), Pan god of Arcady

Did bribe thee, Cynthia; nor didft thou disdain, When call'd in woody fhades, to cure a lover's pain.

If milk be thy defign; with plenteous hand
Bring clover-grais; and from the marshy land
Salt herbage for the foddering-rack provide
To fill their bags, and fwell the milky tide:
Thefe raile their thirst, and to the taste restore
The favour of the falt, on which they fed before.
Some, when the kids their dams too deeply
drain,

With gags and muzzles their foft mouths reftrain.
Their morning milk, the peasants prefs at night:
Their evening meal before the rifing light
To market bear; or iparingly they steep
With feafoning falt, and flor'd, for winter keep.

Nor laft, forget thy faithful dogs; but feed
With fattening whey the maftiff's generous breed;
And Spartan race; who, for the fold's relief,
Will profecute with cries the nightly thief:
Repulie the prouling wolf, and hold at bay
The mountain robbers, rufhing to the prey,
With cries of hounds, thou may'ft purfue the fear
Of flying hares, and chafe the fallow deer;
Route from their defert dens the briftled rage
Of boars, and beamy ftags in toils engage.

With fmoke of burning cedar fcent thy walls, And fume with ftinking galbanum thy ftalls: With that rank odour from thy dwelling-place To drive the viper's brood, and all the venom'd For often under stalls unmov'd they lie, [race. Obfcure in fhades, and fhurning heaven's broad And frakes, familiar to the hearth fucceed, [eye. Difclofe their eggs, and near the chimney breed. Whether to reoly houfes they repair, Or fun themfelves abroad in open air, In all abodes of peftilential kind To sheep and oxen, and the painful hind. Take, fhepherd, take, a plant of ftubborn oak; And labour him with many a sturdy ftroke: Or with hard ftones, demolish from afar Ilis laughty creft, the feat of all the war; Invade his hiffing throat, and winding fpires; Fill, ftretch'd in length, th' unfolded toe retires.

| He drags his tail, and for his head provides: And in fome fecret crany flowly glides; But leaves expos'd to blows, his back and ter'd fides.

In fair Calabria's woods a fnake is bred, With curling creft, and with advancing hea Waving he rolls, and makes a winding tra His belly fpotted, burnifh'd is his back: While fprings are broken, while the father And dropping heavens the moiften'd earth He lives on ftanding lakes and trembling He fills his maw with fish, or with

frogs.

But when, in muddy pools, the water fak And the chapp'd earth is furrow'd ce chinks;

He leaves the fens, and leaps upon the gra
And hiffing, rolls his glaring eyes around.
With thirst inflam'd, impatient of the beat
He rages in the fields, and wide de
threats.

O let not fleep my clofing eyes invade
In open plains, or in the fecret thade,
When he, renew'd in all the fpeckled pak
Of pompous youth, has caft his flough
And in his fummer livery rolls along,
Erect, and brandifhing his forky tongue,
Leaving his neft, and his imperfect young
And thoughtless of his eggs, forgets to ret
The hopes of poifon, for the following yeat

The caufes and the figns fhall next be
Of every fickness that infects the fold.
A fcabby tetter on their pelts will ftick,
When the raw rain has pierc'd them to the
Or fearching frofts have eaten through the
Or burning icicles are lodg'd within:
Or when the fleece is fhorn, if fweat rem.
Unwash'd, and foaks into their empty vri
When their defenceless limbs the brambir
Short of their wool, and naked from the
Good fhepherds, after sheering, drench

fheep,