'Ye know, harmonious maids, (for what of all My various life was e'er from you estranged?) Oft hath my solitary song to you Reveal'd that duteous pride which turn'd my steps 380 To willing exile; earnest to withdraw From envy and the disappointed thirst Of lucre, lest the bold familiar strife, Which in the eye of Athens they upheld Against her legislator, should impair With trivial doubt the reverence of his laws. To Egypt therefore through the AEgean isles My course I steer'd, and by the banks of Nile Dwelt in Canopus. Thence the hallow'd domes Of Sals, and the rites to Isis paid, 390 I sought, and in her temple's silent courts, Through many changing moons, attentive heard The venerable Sonchis, while his tongue At morn or midnight the deep story told Of her who represents whate'er has been, Or is, or shall be; whose mysterious veil No mortal hand hath ever yet removed. By him exhorted, southward to the walls Of On I pass'd, the city of the sun, The ever-youthful god. Twas there, amid 400 His priests and sages, who the livelong night Watch the dread movements of the starry sphere, Or who in wondrous fables half disclose The secrets of the elements, 'twas there That great Paenophis taught my raptured ears The fame of old Atlantis, of her chiefs, And her pure laws, the first which earth obey'd. Deep in my bosom sunk the noble tale; And often, while I listen'd, did my mind Foretell with what delight her own free lyre 410 Should sometime for an Attic audience raise Anew that lofty scene, and from their tombs Call forth those ancient demigods, to speak Of Justice and the hidden Providence That walks among mankind. But yet meantime The mystic pomp of Ammon's gloomy sons Became less pleasing. With contempt I gazed On that tame garb and those unvarying paths, To which the double yoke of king and priest Had cramp'd the sullen race. At last, with hymns 420 Invoking our own Pallas and the gods Of cheerful Greece, a glad farewell I gave To Egypt, and before the southern wind Spread my full sails. What climes I then survey'd, What fortunes I encounter'd in the realm Of Croesus or upon the Cyprian shore, The Muse, who prompts my bosom, doth not now Consent that I reveal. But when at length Ten times the sun returning from the south Had strow'd with flowers the verdant earth, and fill'd 430 The groves with music, pleased I then beheld The term of those long errors drawing nigh. Nor yet, I said, will I sit down within The walls of Athens, till my feet have trod The Cretan soil, have pierced those reverend haunts Whence Law and Civil Concord issued forth As from their ancient home, and still to Greece Their wisest, loftiest discipline proclaim. Straight where Amnisus, mart of wealthy ships,