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 reft to your forgivenefs. I am,

My Lord,

Your Lordship's moft

Obedient Servant,

JOHN DRYDEN.

THE

FIRST BOOK.

OF

OVID'S METAMORPHOSES.

OF bodies chang'd to various forms I fing:
Ye gods, from whence thefe miracles did fpring,
Inspire my numbers with celestial 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, untathion'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 fufpended in the fky;
Nor, pois'd, did on her own foundations lie:

5

10

15

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 certain form on any was imprest ;

20

All were confus'd, and each disturb'd the reft,
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 con-

tend,

To these inteftine difcords put an end.

25

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 contiguoufly embrace;
And foes are funder'd by a larger space.
The force of fire afcended firft on high,
And took its dwelling in the vaulted sky.
Then air fucceeds, in lightness next to fire:
Whofe atoms from unactive earth retire.

30

35

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 washe, 40 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 bad the congregated waters flow.

45

He adds the running fprings, and standing

lakes;

And bounding banks for winding rivers makes. Some part in earth are swallow'd up, the most In ample oceans, difembogu'd, are lost.

He fhades the woods, the vallies he reftrains 50 With rocky mountains, and extends the plains.

And as five zones the 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: 55 The two beneath the diftant poles complain Of endless winter, and perpetual rain. Betwixt the extremes, two happier climates

hold

The temper that partakes of hot and cold.
The fields of liquid air, inclosing all,
Surround the compass of this earthly ball:
The lighter parts lie next the fires above;
The groffer near the watry surface move:

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