efore the sacred portal lays it down.
"If of stupendous wonder aught ye find
"In this, hyaenas must your wonder move;
"Alternate changing, females now they bear;
"And annual alter unto males again:
"That reptile too, which feeds on wind and air;
"And what it touches, straight its hue assumes.
"India by cluster-bearing Bacchus gain'd,
"Lynxes upon the conquering god bestow'd:
"And, (so they tell) whate'er their bladders void,
"Concretes to gems, and hardens in the air.
"Thus too, the coral hardens to a stone;
"A plant so flexible beneath the waves.
"Day would desert us; Phoebus' panting steeds
"Would in the mighty deep be plung'd, ere I
"Could finish, should I every substance tell
"Chang'd to new form. This we perceive, that time
"All turns. These nations mighty strength attain:
"Those sink in power. Thus Troy in wealth and strength
"Was mighty; and for ten long years could shed
"Her blood in torrents. Low she lies, and shews
"Her ancient ruins, and her numerous tombs
"For all her riches. Sparta once was great;
"And fam'd Mycene once in power was strong;
"With Athens; and the town Amphion rais'd.
"Now a mean spot is Sparta; low now lies
"Lofty Mycene; what of Thebes remains,
"The town of OEdipus, except his tale?
"What of Pandion's Athens, but the name?
"And now begins the fame of Dardan Rome
"To rise; the waves of Tiber from the hills
"Of Appenine descending, bathe her walls:
"Plac'd on a huge foundation shall she fix
"Her empire's base. By increase shall she change;
"And shall hereafter of the mighty world
"Be head. This prophets, they assert, have said,
"And fate-predicting oracles. Myself
"Remember Helenus, old Priam's son,
"Address'd AEneas, when the Trojan towers
"Were tottering, weeping,--and of future fate
"Doubtful, in words like these--O goddess born!
"If the prognostics of my soul I read
"Rightly, Troy ne'er, while thou art safe, will fall.
"Flames and the sword shall ope to thee a path
"Thou shalt depart, and with thyself convey
"An Iliuem, till a foreign land thou find'st;
"A land more friendly both to thee and Troy.
"Now, to the Phrygians' offspring due, I see
"A city rais'd; such former ages ne'er
"Beheld; such is not; such will never be.
"Thousands of worthies in a length of years,
"Its power shall spread; but lord of all the globe
"Shall he, descended of Iuelus, reign;
"Who, when by e