ch attempt, and sees the pile prepar'd;
And final flames her limbs about to burn.
Then from his deepest bosom burst his groans;
(For tears on cheeks celestial ne'er are seen,)
Such groans are utter'd when the heifer sees,
The weighty mallet, from the right ear pois'd,
Crush down the forehead of her suckling calf.
And now his useless odors in her breast
He pour'd; embrac'd her; to her last rites gave
Solemnization due. The greedy fires
His offspring were not suffer'd to consume.
Snatch'd from the curling flames, and from the womb
Of his dead mother, he the infant bore
To double-body'd Chiron's secret cave.
But bade the self-applauding crow, fill'd big
With hopes of favor for his faithful tale,
With snowy-plumag'd birds no more to join.

Meantime while Chiron, human half, half beast,
Proud of his deity-descended charge,
Joy'd in the honor with the task bestow'd:--
Behold, her shoulders with her golden locks
Shaded, the daughter of the Centaur comes;
Whom fair Chariclo, on a river's brink
Swift-rolling, bore, and thence Ocyrrhoe nam'd.
She not content her father's arts to know,
The hidden secrets of the fates disclos'd.
Now was her soul with fate-foretelling sounds
Fill'd, and within her fiercely rag'd the god:
The infant viewing;--"Grow," she said, "apace,
"Health-bearer through the world. To thee shall oft
"Expiring mortals owe returning life!
"To thee 'tis given to render souls again
"Back to their bodies! Once thou'lt dare the deed;--
"The angry god's forbidding flames, thy power
"Further preventing:--and a bloodless corps
"Heaven-born, thou ly'st;---but what thy body form'd
"A god becomes,--resuscitated twice.
"Thou too, my dearest and immortal sire!
"To ages never-ending, born to live,
"Shalt wish for death in vain; when writhing sad
"From the dire serpent's venom in thy limbs,
"By wounds instill'd. The pitying gods will change
"Thy destin'd fate, and let immortal die:
"The triple sisters shall thy thread divide.
"More yet untold remains;"--Deep from her chest
The sighs burst forth, and starting tears stream down,
Laving her cheeks, while thus the maid pursues:
"The fates prevent me, and forbid to tell
"What more I would;--all power to speak deny.
"Those arts, alas! heaven's anger which have drawn,--
"What were they? Would I ne'er the future knew!
"Now seems my human shape to leave me. Now
"The ve