176 With the fix'd stars, fix'd in their orb that flies

The planets, and all the innumerable hosts of heavenly bodies, perform their courses and revolutions, with so much certainty and exactness, as never once to fail; but, for almost six thousand years, come constantly to the same period, in the hundredth part of a minute.

180 Air and ye elements,

Praise Jehovah from the earth, ye dragons and all deeps: fire, hail, snow and vapour, stormy wind fulfilling his word; mountains and all hills, fruitful trees and all cedars, beasts and all cattle, creeping things and flying fowl.

221 Raphael, the sociable spirit, that deign'd

To travel with Tobias,

See line 168 in Book IV.

262 Of Galileo.

By whose aid are seen

The planetary phases, the bright cohort
Of secondary worlds and countless suns,
Which, hid in the immensity of space,
Ne'er visited the sight: from whom we learn
The eclipse, in time and quantity, exact;
And trace the parallax, that wondrous clue,
By which the distance and the magnitude
Of the celestial spheres are known on earth.
EUDOSIA

264 Or pilot, from amidst the Cyclades,

Delos or Samos

The Cyclades Islands, lie like a circle round Delos, which is the largest of them: they are in the Archipelago. Though not above six miles in circumference, it is one of the most celebrated of

the Grecian islands, being the birth-place of Apollo and Diana; the magnificent ruins of whose temples are still visible. It is now almost destitude of inhabitants.

272 A Phoenix,

The naturalists speak of this bird as single, or the only one of its kind; the size of an eagle; its head finely crested, with a beautiful plumage; its neck covered with feathers, of a gold colour; the rest of its body purple, only the tail white, intermixed with carnation; and it eyes sparkling like stars. They say it lives five or six hundred years, in the wilderness; that, when thus advanced in age, it builds itself a funeral pile of sweet wood and aromatic gums: this it fires with the wafting of its wings, and thus burns itself; and, from its ashes, arises a worm, which, in time, grows up to another Phoenix. Other accounts of this extraordinary bird mention, that it makes a brilliant appearance, and undertakes frequent excursions with a load on its back; that when, by having made the experiment through a long track of air, it gains sufficient confidence in its own vigour, its takes up the body of its father, and flies with it to the altar of the sun, to be there consumed. From this statement it appears probable, that the learned, especially of Egypt, enveloped under this allegory, the philosophy of comets; and that the Phoenix was an Egyptian hieroglyphical representation of the comet.

274 Bright temple, to Egyptian Thebes he flies.

An ancient celebrated city in Egypt, called also Hecatompylos, on account of its hundred gates;

and Diospolis, as being sacred to Jupiter. In the time of its splendour, it extended above twentythree miles; and, upon any emergency, could send into the field, by each of its hundred gates, twenty thousand fighting men, and two hundred chariots. Thebes was ruined by Cambyses, king of Persia.

277 A Seraph wing'd

285.

The Seraphim: each one had six wings. Isaiah, vi. 2.

Like Maia's sons he stood, Mercury, the son of Jupiter and Maia: he is represented as being the messenger of the gods ; and was the god of eloquence: is represented as a young man, with a cheerful countenance; with winged shoes and hat; holding in his hand a winged rod, bound about with two serpents.

339 In India, east or west,

The East Indies, in Asia. The West Indies are in America, from whence come our spices, &c. 340 In Pontus

340

A kingdom of Asia Minor, bounded on the east by Colchis, west by the Halys, north by the Euxine Sea, and south by part of Armenia.

or the Punic coast.

The ancient Carthage, at present Tunis ; a part of Africa, on the Mediterranean Sea. 341 Alcinous reign'd

Alcinous was king of Phocia, an Island of the Ionian Sea, anciently called Scheria, afterwards Corcyra. He kindly entertained Ulysses, who had been shipwrecked on his coast. The gardens

of Alcinous, and his love of Agriculture, have been greatly celebrated.

Close to the gates a spacious garden lies,
From stones defended and inclement skies.
Four acres was th' allotted space of ground,
Fenc'd with a green enclosure all around;
Tall thriving trees confess'd the fruitful mould;
The redd'ning apple ripens here to gold;
Here the blue fig with luscious juice o'erflows,
With deeper red the full pomegranate glows,
The branch here bends beneath the weighty pear,
And verdant olives flourish round the year.
The balmy spirit of the western gale
Eternal breathes on fruits, untaught to fail ;
Each dropping pear a foll'wing year supplies;
On apples, apples; figs on figs arise :
The same mild season gives the bloom to blow,
The buds to harden, and the fruits to grow.
Here order'd vines in equal ranks appear,
With all the united labours of a year;
Some to unload the fertile branches run,
Some dry the black'ning clusters in the sun,
Others to tread the liquid harvest join,
The groaning presses foam with floods of wine.
Here are the vines in early flow'r descry'd,
Here grapes discolour'd on the sunny side,
And there in autumn's richest purple dy'd.
Beds of all various herbs, for ever green,

In beauteous order terminate the scene.
Two plenteous fountains the whole prospect
crown'd;

This thro' the gardens leads its streams around, Visits each plant, and waters all the ground;

369

378

While that in pipes beneath the palace flows,
And thence its current on the town bestows;
To various use their various streams they bring,
The people one, and one supplied the king.
Such were the glories which the gods ordain❜d,
To grace Alcinous and his happy land. HOMER.
till this meridian heat
Meridian, from the Latin word meridies, i. e.
mid-day.

that like Pomona's arbour smil'd Pomona, a nymph at Rome, who was supposed to preside over gardens, and to be the goddess over all sorts of fruit trees. She had a temple at Rome, and a regular priestess called Flamen Pomonolis, who offered sacrifices to her divinity, for the preservation of fruit. She was generally represented as sitting on a basket full of flowers and fruit; and holding a bough in one hand, and apples in the other.

381 Than wood-nymph.

381

Certain female deities among the ancients; some presided over woods, and were called Dryades and Hamadryades; others presided over mountains, and were called Oreades: some presided over hills and dales, and were called Napone.

or the fairest goddess feign'd

Of three that in Mount Ida

Ida, a mountain in the Island of Crete. At the marriage of Peleus and Thetis, the goddess of discord, who had not been invited to partake of the entertainment, shewed her displeasure, by throwing, into the assembly of the gods, a golden