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The face was all that now remain'd of thee,
No more a woman, nor yet quite a tree;

Thy branches hung with humid pearls appear,
From ev'ry leaf distils a trickling tear;

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And straight a voice, while yet a voice remains, Thus thro' the trembling boughs in sighs complains. "If to the wretched any faith be giv'n,

I swear by all th' unpitying pow'rs of heav'n,
No wilful crime this heavy vengeance bred:
In mutual innocence our lives we led.
If this be false, let these new greens decay,
Let sounding axes lop my limbs away,
And crackling flames on all my honours prey.
But from my branching arms this infant bear,
Let some kind nurse supply a mother's care;
And to his mother let him oft be led,
Sport in her shades, and in her shades be fed.

Nil nisi jam faciem, quod non foret arbor, habebas,
Chara soror! lacrymæ verso de corpore factis

0 Irrorant foliis: ac dum licet, oraque præstant
Vocis iter, tales effundit in aera questus:
"Si qua fides miseris, hoc me per numina juror
Non meruisse nefas. patior sine crimine pœnam.
Viximus innocuæ ; si mentior, arida perdam,
Quas habeo, frondes, et cæsa securibus urar.
Hunc tamen infantem maternis demite ramis,
Et date nutrici; nostraque sub arbore sæpe
Lac facitote bibat, nostraque sub arbore ludat.
Volume III.

B

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Teach him, when first his infant voice shall frame
Imperfect words, and lisp his mother's name,
To hail this tree; and say, with weeping eyes,
Within this plant my hapless parent lies;
And when in youth he seeks the shady woods,
Oh! let him fly the crystal lakes and floods,
Nor touch the fatal flow'rs; but, warn'd by me,
Believe a goddess shrin❜d in ev'ry tree.
My sire, my sister, and my spouse, farewel!
If in your breasts, or love, or pity, dwell,
Protect your plant, nor let my branches feel
The browsing cattle, or the piercing steel.
Farewel! and since I cannot bend to join
My lips to yours, advance, at least, to mine.
My son, thy mother's parting kiss receive,
While yet thy mother has a kiss to give.
I can no more; the creeping rind invades
My closing lips, and hides my head in shades:

Cumque loqui poterit, matrem facitote salutet,
Et tristis dicat: "Latet hoc sub stipite mater."
Stagna tamen timeat; nec carpat ab arbore flores:
Et frutices omnes corpus putet esse Dearum.
Chare, vale, conjux, et tu germana, paterque!
Queis si qua est pietas, ab acutæ vulnere falcis,
A pecoris morsu, frondes defendite nostras.
Et quoniam mihi fas ad vos incumbere non est,
Erigite huc artus, et ad oscula nostra venite,
Dum tangi possunt, parvumque attollite natum.

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Remove your hands, the bark shall soon suffice
Without their aid to seal these dying eyes."

She ceas'd at once to speak, and ceas'd to be,
And all the nymph was lost within the tree;
Yet latent life thro' her new branches reign'd,
And long the plant a human heat retain'd."

Plura loqui nequeo. nam jam per candida mollis
Colla liber serpit, summoque cacumine condor.
Ex oculis removete manus: sine munere vestro
Contegat inductus morientia lumina cortex."
Desierant simul ora loqui, simul esse: diuque
Corpore mutato rami caluere recentes."

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FROM THE FOURTEENTH BOOK OF

OVID'S METAMORPHOSES.

THE fair Pomona flourish'd in his reign.;
Of all the virgins of the sylvan train
None taught the trees a nobler race to bear,
Or more improv'd the vegetable care.
To her the shady grove, the flow'ry field,
The streams and fountains, no delights could yield;
'Twas all her joy the rip'ning fruits to tend,
And see the boughs with happy burthens bend,
The hook she bore instead of Cynthia's spear,
To lop the growth of the luxuriant year,
To decent forms the lawless shoots to bring,
And teach th' obedient branches where to spring.
Now the cleft rind inserted graffs receives,
And yields an offspring more than Nature gives;

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REGE Sub hoc Pomona fuit: qua nulla Latinas
Inter Hamadryadas coluit solertius hortos,
Nec fuit arborei studiosior altera fœtus:
Unde tenet nomen. Non sylvas illa, nec amnes;
Rus amat, et ramos felicia poma ferentes.
Nec jaculo gravis est, sed adunca dextera falce:
Qua modo luxuriem premit, et spatiantia passim
Brachia compescit; fissa modo cortice virgam
Inserit; et succos alieno præstat alumno.

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VERTUMNUS AND POMONA.

Now sliding streams the thirsty plants renew,
And feed their fibres with reviving dew.

These cares alone her virgin breast employ,
Averse from Venus and the nuptial joy.
Her private orchards, wall'd on ev'ry side,
To lawless sylvans all access deny'd.
How oft the Satyrs and the wanton Fawns,
Who haunt the forests, or frequent the lawns,
The god, whose ensign scares the birds of prey,
And old Silenus, youthful in decay,
Employ'd their wiles and unavailing care
To pass the fences, and surprise the fair!

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Like these Vertumnus own'd his faithful flame,
Like these rejected by the scornful dame.

To gain her sight a thousand forms he wears,
And first a reaper from the field appears:

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Nec patitur sentire sitim; bibulæque recurvas
Radicis fibras labentibus irrigat undis.

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Hic amor, hoc studium. Veneris quoque nulla cupido.
Vim tamen agrestum metuens, pomaria claudit
Intus: et accessus prohibet refugitque viriles.
Quid non et satyri saltatibus apta juventus,
Fecere, et pinu præcincti cornua panes,
Sylvanusque suis semper juvenilior annis;
Quique Deus fures, vel falce, vel inguine terret,
Ut potirentur ea? sed enim superabat amando
Hos quoque Vertumnus: neque erat felicior illis.
O quoties habitu duri messoris aristas

Corbe tulit, verique fuit messoris imago!

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