Pales, the pafture's queen, where'er ye stray,
Pursues your steps, delighted; and the path
With living verdure clothes. Around your haunts
The laughing Chloris, with profuseft hand,
Throws wide her blooms, her odours. Still with you.
Pomona feeks to dwell: and o'er the lawns,

And o'er the vale of Richmond, where with Thames
Ye love to wander, Amalthea pours

Chloris.] The ancient Greek name for Flora.

Well

Amalthea.] The mother of the firft Bacchus, whofe birth and education was written, as Diodorus Siculus informs us, in the old Pelafgic character, by Thymates, grandfon to Laomedon, and contemporary with Orpheus. Thymates had traveled over Libya to the country which borders on the western ocean; there he saw the island of Nyfa, and learned from the inhabitants, that "Ammon, king of "Lybia, was married in former ages to Rhea, fifter of Saturn and the "Titans; that he afterwards fell in love with a beautiful virgin, "whofe name was Amalthea; had by her a fon, and gave her pof"feffion of a neighbouring tract of land, wonderfully fertile; which "in fhape nearly refembling the horn of an ox, was thence called "the Hefperian horn, and afterwards the horn of Amalthea; that, "fearing the jealousy of Rhea, he concealed the young Bacchus, "with his mother, in the ifland of Nyfa;" the beauty of which, Diodorus defcribes with great dignity and pomp of ftyle. This fable is one of the nobleft in all the ancient mythology, and seems to have made a particular impreffion on the imagination of Milton; the only modern poer (unless perhaps it be neceffary to except Spenser) who, in these myfterious traditions of the poetic ftory, had a heart to

feel,

Well-pleas'd the wealth of that Ammonian horn,
Her dower; unmindful of the fragrant ifles
Nyfæan or Atlantic. Nor canft thou,
(Albeit off, ungrateful, thou dost mock
The beverage of the fober Naiad's urn,
O Bromius, O Lenæan) nor canst thou
Difown the powers whofe bounty, ill repaid,
With nectar feeds thy tendrils. Yet from me,
Yet, blameless Nymphs, from my delighted lyre,
Accept the rites your bounty well may claim;
Nor heed the fcoffings of the Edonian band.
Far better praise awaits you. Thames, your fire,
As down the verdant flope your duteous rills
Defcend, the tribute stately Thames receives,
Delighted; and your piety applauds ;

And bids his copious tide roll on fecure,

For faithful are his daughters; and with words
Aufpicious gratulates the bark which, now

feel, and words to exprefs, the fimple and folitary genius of antiquity, To raife the idea of his Paradife, he prefers it even to

"that Nyfean ifle

"Girt by the river Triton, where old Cham

"(Whom Gentiles Ammon call, and Libyan Jove) "Hid Amalthea, and her florid fon,

"Young Bacchus, from his stepdame Rhea's eye."

Edonian band.] The priefteffes and other minifters of Bacchus ; fo called from Edonus, a mountain of Thrace, where his rites were

celebrated.

His banks forfaking, her adventurous wings
Yields to the breeze, with Albion's happy gifts
Extremest ifles to blefs. And oft at morn,
When Hermes, from Olympus bent o'er earth
To bear the words of Jove, on yonder hill
Stoops lightly-failing; oft intent your fprings
He views and waving o'er fome new-born stream
His bleft pacific wand, "And yet," he cries,
"Yet," cries the son of Maia, "though reclufe
"And filent be your stores, from you, fair Nymphs,
Flows wealth and kind society to men.

:

"By you my function and my honour'd name "Do I poffefs; while o'er the Boetic vale,

"Or through the towers of Memphis, or the palms "By facred Ganges water'd, I conduct

"The English merchant: with the buxom fleece "Of fertile Ariconium while I clothe

"Sarmatian kings; or to the household Gods "Of Syria, from the bleak Cornubian fhore, "Difpenfe the mineral treasure x which of old

u When Hermes.] Hermes, or Mercury, was the patron of commerce; in which benevolent character. he is addreffed by the author of Ind?gitamenta, in these beautiful lines:

Ἑρμήνευ πάντων, κερδέμπορε, λυσιμέριμνες

Ὃς χειρέσθιν ἔχεις Εἰρήνης ὅπλον αμέμες.

x Dispense the mineral treafure] The merchants of Sidon and Tyre made frequent voyages to the coast of Cornwall, from whence they carried home great quantities of tin.

"Sidonian

"Sidonian pilots fought, when this fair land
Was yet unconscious of those generous arts
Which wife Phoenicia from their native clime
Transplanted to a more indulgent heaven."
Such are the words of Hermes: fuch the praise,
O Naiads, which from tongues cœleftial waits
Your bounteous deeds. From bounty iffueth power:
And those who, fedulous in prudent works,
Relieve the wants of nature, Jove repays

With generous wealth and his own feat on earth,
Fit judgments to pronounce, and curb the might
Of wicked men. Your kind unfailing urns
Not vainly to the hospitable arts

Of Hermes yield their ftore. For, O ye Nymphs,
y Hath he not won the unconquerable queen
Of arms to court your friendship? You she owns
The fair affociates who extend her sway
Wide o'er the mighty deep; and grateful things
Of you fhe uttereth, oft as from the shore
Of Thames, or Medway's vale, or the green banks
Of Vecta, fhe her thundering navy leads

y Hab be not won.] Mercury the patron of commerce, being fo greatly dependent on the good offices of the Naiads, in return obtains for them the friendship of Minerva, the goddess of war: for military power, at least the naval part of it, hath conftantly followed the establishment of trade; which exemplifies the preceding obfervation, that "from bounty iffueth power."

To

His banks forfaking, her adventurous wings
Yields to the breeze, with Albion's happy gifts
Extremeft ifles to blefs. And oft at morn,
When Hermes, from Olympus bent o'er eartli
To bear the words of Jove, on yonder hill
Stoops lightly-failing; oft intent your springs
He views and waving o'er fome new-born stream
His bleft pacific wand, "And yet,” he cries,
"Yet," cries the fon of Maia, "though reclufe
"And filent be your stores, from you, fair Nymphs,
Flows wealth and kind fociety to men.

:

66 By you my function and my honour'd name "Do I poffefs; while o'er the Boetic vale,

"Or through the towers of Memphis, or the palms "By facred Ganges water'd, I conduct

"The English merchant: with the buxom fleece "Of fertile Ariconium while I clothe

"Sarmatian kings; or to the household Gods "Of Syria, from the bleak Cornubian fhore, "Dispense the mineral treasure which of old

When Hermes.] Hermes, or Mercury, was the patron of commerce; in which benevolent character. he is addreffed by the author of Indigitamenta, in these beautiful lines:

Ἑρμήνευ πάντων, κερδέμπορε, λυσιμέριμνε,

Ὃς χειρέσθιν ἔχεις Εἰρήνης ὅπλον αμέμες.

× Dispense the mineral treasure] The merchants of Sidon and Tyre made frequent voyages to the coaft of Cornwall, from whence they carried home great quantities of tin.

"Sidonian