'"If to the wretched any faith be given, I swear by all th' unpitying powers of Heaven, 70 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: Teach him, when first his infant voice shall frame 80 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 flowers; but, warn'd by me, Believe a goddess shrined in every tree. My sire, my sister, and my spouse, farewell! If in your breasts or love or pity dwell, Protect your plant, nor let my branches feel 90 The browsing cattle or the piercing steel. Farewell! 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: Remove your hands, the bark shall soon suffice Without their aid to seal these dying eyes." 'She ceased at once to speak and ceased to be, 100 And all the nymph was lost within the tree; Yet latent life through her new branches reign'd, And long the plant a human heat retain'd.' VERTUMNUS AND POMONA, 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 improved the vegetable care. To her the shady grove, the flowery field, The streams and fountains no delights could yield: 'Twas all her joy the ripening fruits to tend, And see the boughs with happy burdens bend. The hook she bore instead of Cynthia's spear, To lop the growth of the luxuriant year, 10 To decent forms the lawless shoots to bring, And teach th' obedient branches where to spring. Now the cleft rind inserted grafts receives, And yields an offspring more than nature gives; Now sliding streams the thirsty plants renew, And feed their fibres with reviving dew.