arth awhile enjoy'd, shall gain--
"A seat celestial; and the heavens shall be
"The bound of his career.--Well does my mind
"Retain, that Helenus in such like words
"Address'd the chief who bore his country's gods.
"Joy'd I behold my kindred walls increase;
"And Grecia's conquest happy prove for Troy.
"But lest too wide I wander, and my steeds
"Forget the goal; know, heaven, and all beneath;
"Earth, and all earth's contents their shapes must change.
"Let us then, members of the world (not form'd
"Of body only, but with winged souls
"Which to the bodies of wild beasts may pass,
"Or dwell within the breasts of grazing herds)
"Permit those forms which may the souls contain
"Of parents, brethren, or of those once join'd
"To us by other bonds, certain of men,
"To rest secure and safe from savage wounds;
"Nor load our bowels at Thyestes' board.
"Soon, by ill custom warp'd, does he prepare
"To bathe his impious hands in human gore,
"Who severs with his knife the lowing throat
"Of the young calf, and turns a deafen'd ear
"To all its cries: or who the kid can slay,
"Moaning in plaintive tone like children's cries:
"Or who the fowl he fed before, can eat.
"What more is wanting, that may now complete
"The measure of iniquity? From thence
"Where the next step? Then let thine oxen plough,
"And let their death be due alone to age.
"Let from dread Boreas' piercing cold the sheep
"Defend thee with her wool. Let the full goat
"Present her udder to thy hand to press.
"Throw far thy nets, thy nooses, and thy snares,
"And all thy treacherous skill; nor with lim'd twig
"Deceive the bird; nor with strong toils the deer;
"Nor hide the barbed hook with treacherous bait.
"If animals annoy ye, them destroy:
"But slay them only. From the taste of flesh
"Free be your mouths, while food more fit ye eat."

His breast with these, and such like doctrines fill'd,
Numa, 'tis said, back to his country came;
And held, unsought for, the supreme command
O'er Latium's realm. Blest with the nymph his spouse,
And by the muses guided, all the rites
Of sacrifice he taught: the people train'd,
Fond of fierce war, to arts of gentle peace.
When late he finish'd reign at once, and life,
The Latian females, nobles, commons, all
In streaming tears, bewail'd their Numa dead.
His consort Rome deserted, and lay hid
In the deep forests of Aricia's vale;