igy. My aged sire,
"To toil unable on the lengthen'd road,
"Me thither sent; an herd of choicest beeves
"Thence to conduct; to my unpractis'd steps
"A guiding native of the land he gave.
"While we the pastures travers'd, lo! we found
"An ancient altar, 'midst a spacious lake
"Erected; black with sacrificing dust;
"With waving reeds surrounded. Here my guide
"Halted, and softly whisper'd,--bless me, power!
"And I, like softly whispering,--bless me!--cry'd.
"Then ask'd, if nymph, or fawn, or native god
"The altar own'd?--when thus my guide reply'd.
"No mountain god, O, youth! this altar claims,
"But her whom once imperial Juno's rage,
"Stern interdicted from firm earth's extent:
"Whom scarce the wandering Delos would receive,
"Ardent beseeching, when the buoyant isle
"Light floated. There at length, Latona, laid
"Betwixt a palm, and bright Minerva's tree,
"Spite of their fierce opposing step-dame's power,
"Her twins produc'd. Even hence, in child-bed driven,
"She fled from Juno; in her bosom bore,
"'Tis said, the twin-celestials. Now the sun
"With fervid rays, had scorch'd the arid meads,
"When faint with lengthen'd toil, the goddess gain'd
"The edge of Lycia's monster-breeding clime;
"Parch'd and exhausted, from the solar heat,
"And infants milking her exhausted breast.
"By chance a lake, far distant she espy'd,
"Deep in a vale's recess, of waters pure.
"There clowns the bulrush gather'd; there they pluck'd
"The shrubby osier, and the marsh-fond grass.
"Approach'd the goddess; on her knees low bent,
"The earth she press'd, and forward lean'd to drink
"The cooling liquid. This the rustic mob
"Forbade. When she to those who thus oppos'd,--
"Water withhold? Water whose use is free?
"Nature to all unsparing gives to take,
"Of light, of air, and of the flowing stream.
"I claim but public gifts: yet suppliant beg
"Those public gifts to share. Not here I come,
"My weary'd arms and limbs within the waves
"To lave: my thirst alone I wish to slake.
"Even now my speaking lips their moisture want;
"Scarce my parch'd throat, a passage to my words
"Can yield. As nectar were the limpid draught.
"Life with the water give me; for to me,
"Water is life; with water life I seek.
"Let these too move you, who their tender hands
"Stretch to your bosoms,--for by chance the babes
"Their little hands held forth. The goddess' words,