abor still in hope.
"The warlike courser, prostrate on the ground,
"Becomes the source whence angry hornets rise.
"Cut from the sea-shore crab his crooked claws,
"And place the rest in earth, a scorpion thence,
"Will come, and threaten with his hooked tail.
"The meadow worms too, which with silky threads
"(Well noted is the fact,) are wont to weave
"The foliage, change the figures which they wear,
"Like the gay butterfly of funeral fame.
"The life-producing seeds of grass-green frogs
"Mud holds; and forms them first devoid of feet,
"Then gives them legs for swimming well contriv'd;
"And, apt that they for lengthen'd leaps may suit,
"Behind these far surpass the first in length.
"The cub the bear brings forth, at its first birth
"Is but a lump of barely living flesh:
"Licking, the mother forms the limbs, and gives
"As much of shape as she herself enjoys.
"See we the young not of the honey'd bee,
"Clos'd in the wax hexagonally shap'd,
"First form'd a body limbless, gaining late
"Their feet and wings? And who could e'er suppose,
"Except the fact he knew, that Juno's bird
"Which bears the starry tail; that Venus' doves;
"The thunder-bearer of almighty Jove;
"And all the race of birds, their being owe
"To a small egg's still smaller central part?
"There are, who think the human marrow chang'd,
"A snake becomes, when putrid turns the spine
"In a close sepulchre. These, each and all,
"Their origin from other things derive.
"One bird there is, which from herself alone
"Springs, and regenerates without foreign aid:
"Assyrians call her Phoenix. Not on grain,
"Nor herbs she lives, but on strong frankincense,
"And rich amomums' juice: when she has pass'd
"Five ages of her life, with her broad bill
"And talons, she upon the ilex' boughs,
"Or on the summit of the trembling palm,
"A nest constructs: on this she cassia strews,
"Spikes of sweet-smelling nard, the dark brown myrrh,
"And cinnamon well bruis'd: then lays herself
"Above, and on the odorous pile expires.
"Then, they report, an infant Phoenix springs
"From the parental corse, to which is given
"Five ages too, to live. When years afford
"Due strength to lift, and bear the ponderous load,
"She lightens of the weighty nest the boughs;
"With pious duty her own cradle takes,
"And parent's sepulchre; then, having gain'd
"Hyperion's city through the yielding air,
"B