Nor laws they knew, nor manners, nor the care
Of lab'ring oxen, or the shining share,
Nor arts of gain, nor what they gain'd to spare.
Their exercise the chase; the
running flood
Supplied their
thirst, the trees supplied their food.
Then Saturn came, who fled the pow'r of Jove,
Robb'd of his realms, and banish'd from above.
The men, dispers'd on hills, to towns he brought,
And laws ordain'd, and civil customs taught,
And Latium call'd the land where safe he lay
From his unduteous son, and his usurping sway.
With his mild empire, peace and plenty came;
And hence the golden times deriv'd their name.
A more
degenerate and discolor'd age
Succeeded this, with
avarice and rage.
Th' Ausonians then, and bold Sicanians came;
And Saturn's empire often chang'd the name.
Then kings,
gigantic Tybris, and the rest,
With
arbitrary sway the land oppress'd:
For Tiber's flood was Albula before,
Till, from the tyrant's fate, his name it bore.
I last arriv'd, driv'n from my native home
By fortune's pow'r, and fate's resistless doom.
Long toss'd on seas, I sought this happy land,
Warn'd by my mother nymph, and call'd by Heav'n's command."
Thus, walking on, he spoke, and shew'd the gate,
Since call'd Carmental by the Roman state;
Where stood an altar,
sacred to the name
Of old Carmenta, the
prophetic dame,
Who to her son
foretold th' Aenean race,
Sublime in fame, and Rome's
imperial place:
Then shews the forest, which, in after times,
Fierce Romulus for perpetrated crimes
A
sacredrefuge made; with this, the shrine
Where Pan below the rock had rites divine:
Then tells of Argus' death, his murder'd guest,
Whose grave and tomb his
innocence attest.
Thence, to the steep Tarpeian rock he leads;
Now roof'd with gold, then thatch'd with
homely reeds.
A reverent fear (such
superstition reigns
Among the rude) ev'n then possess'd the swains.
Some god, they knew- what god, they could not tell-
Did there
amidst the
sacredhorror dwell.
Th' Arcadians thought him Jove; and said they saw
The
mighty Thund'rer with
majestic awe,
Who took his
shield, and dealt his bolts around,
And scatter'd tempests on the teeming ground.
Then saw two heaps of ruins, (once they stood
Two
stately towns, on either side the flood,)
Saturnia's and Janicula's remains;
And either place the founder's name retains.
Discoursing thus together, they resort
Where poor Evander kept his country court.
They view'd the ground of Rome's litigious hall;
(Once oxen low'd, where now the lawyers bawl;)
Then, stooping, thro' the narrow gate they press'd,
When thus the king bespoke his Trojan guest:
"Mean as it is, this palace, and this door,
Receiv'd Alcides, then a
conqueror.
Dare to be poor; accept our
homely food,
Which feasted him, and emulate a god."
Then
underneath a lowly roof he led
The weary
prince, and laid him on a bed;
The stuffing leaves, with hides of bears o'erspread.
Now Night had shed her silver dews around,
And with her sable wings embrac'd the ground,
When love's fair
goddess,
anxious for her son,
(New tumults rising, and new wars begun,)
Couch'd with her husband in his golden bed,
With these
alluring words invokes his aid;
And, that her
pleasing speech his mind may move,
Inspires each
accent with the charms of love:
"While cruel fate conspir'd with Grecian pow'rs,
To level with the ground the Trojan tow'rs,
I ask'd not aid th'
unhappy to restore,
Nor did the
succor of thy skill implore;
Nor urg'd the labors of my lord in vain,
A sinking empire longer to
sustain,
Tho'much I ow'd to Priam's house, and more
The dangers of Aeneas did deplore.
But now, by Jove's command, and fate's decree,
His race is doom'd to reign in Italy:
With
humble suit I beg thy needful art,
O still propitious pow'r, that rules my heart!
A mother kneels a suppliant for her son.
By Thetis and Aurora thou wert won
To forge impenetrable
shields, and grace
With fated arms a less
illustrious race.
Behold, what
haughty nations are combin'd
Against the relics of the Phrygian kind,
With fire and sword my people to destroy,
And
conquer Venus twice, in conqu'ring Troy."
She said; and straight her arms, of snowy hue,
About her unresolving husband threw.
Her soft embraces soon infuse desire;
His bones and
marrow sudden
warmth inspire;
And all the godhead feels the wonted fire.
Not half so swift the rattling
thunder flies,
Or forky lightnings flash along the skies.
The
goddess, proud of her successful wiles,
And
conscious of her form, in secret smiles.
Then thus the pow'r, obnoxious to her charms,
Panting, and half dissolving in her arms:
"Why seek you reasons for a cause so just,
Or your own beauties or my love distrust?
Long since, had you requir'd my helpful hand,
Th' artificer and art you might command,
To labor arms for Troy: nor Jove, nor fate,
Confin'd their empire to so short a date.
And, if you now desire new wars to wage,
My skill I promise, and my pains engage.
Whatever melting metals can conspire,
Or breathing bellows, or the forming fire,
Is
freely yours: your
anxious fears remove,
And think no task is difficult to love."
Trembling he spoke; and, eager of her charms,
He snatch'd the
willinggoddess to his arms;
Till in her lap infus'd, he lay possess'd
Of full desire, and sunk to
pleasing rest.
Now when the Night her middle race had rode,
And his first
slumber had
refresh'd the god-
The time when early housewives leave the bed;
When living embers on the
hearth they spread,
Supply the lamp, and call the maids to rise-
With yawning mouths, and with half-open'd eyes,
They ply the distaff by the winking light,
And to their daily labor add the night:
Thus frugally they earn their children's bread,
And uncorrupted keep the
nuptial bed-
Not less concern'd, nor at a later hour,
Rose from his downy couch the
forging pow'r.
Sacred to Vulcan's name, an isle there lay,
Betwixt Sicilia's coasts and Lipare,
Rais'd high on smoking rocks; and, deep below,
In hollow caves the fires of Aetna glow.
The Cyclops here their heavy hammers deal;
Loud strokes, and hissings of tormented steel,
Are heard around; the boiling waters roar,
And smoky flames thro' fuming tunnels soar.
Hether the Father of the Fire, by night,
Thro' the brown air precipitates his flight.
On their
eternal anvils here he found
The brethren
beating, and the blows go round.
A load of pointless
thunder now there lies
Before their hands, to ripen for the skies:
These darts, for angry Jove, they daily cast;
Consum'd on mortals with
prodigious waste.
Three rays of writhen rain, of fire three more,
Of
winged southern winds and cloudy store
As many parts, the
dreadfulmixture frame;
And fears are added, and avenging flame.
Inferior ministers, for Mars, repair
His broken axletrees and blunted war,
And send him forth again with furbish'd arms,
To wake the lazy war with trumpets' loud alarms.
The rest
refresh the scaly snakes that fold
The
shield of Pallas, and renew their gold.
Full on the crest the Gorgon's head they place,
With eyes that roll in death, and with distorted face.
"My sons," said Vulcan, "set your tasks aside;
Your strength and master-skill must now be tried.
Arms for a hero forge; arms that require
Your force, your speed, and all your forming fire."
He said. They set their former work aside,
And their new toils with eager haste divide.
A flood of
molten silver, brass, and gold,
And
deadly steel, in the large
furnace roll'd;
Of this, their artful hands a
shield prepare,
Alone sufficient to
sustain the war.
Sev'n orbs within a
spacious round they close:
One stirs the fire, and one the bellows blows.
The hissing steel is in the smithy drown'd;
The grot with
beaten anvils groans around.
By turns their arms advance, in equal time;
By turns their hands
descend, and hammers chime.
They turn the glowing mass with
crooked tongs;
The fiery work proceeds, with
rustic songs.
While, at the Lemnian god's command, they urge
Their labors thus, and ply th' Aeolian forge,
The
cheerful morn salutes Evander's eyes,
And songs of chirping birds invite to rise.
He leaves his lowly bed: his buskins meet
Above his ankles; sandals sheathe his feet:
He sets his
trusty sword upon his side,
And o'er his shoulder throws a panther's hide.
Two menial dogs before their master press'd.
Thus clad, and guarded thus, he seeks his
kingly guest.
Mindful of promis'd aid, he mends his pace,
But meets Aeneas in the middle space.
Young Pallas did his father's steps attend,
And true Achates waited on his friend.
They join their hands; a secret seat they choose;
Th' Arcadian first their former talk renews:
"Undaunted
prince, I never can believe
The Trojan empire lost, while you survive.
Command th'
assistance of a
faithful friend;
But
feeble are the
succors I can send.
Our narrow kingdom here the Tiber bounds;
That other side the Latian state surrounds,
Insults our walls, and wastes our
fruitful grounds.
But
mighty nations I prepare, to join