Nor to this figure, nor to that, are tied; For this eternal world is said of old But four prolific principles to hold, Four different bodies; two to heaven ascend, And other two down to the centre tend. Fire, first, with wings expanded mounts on high, Pure, void of weight, and dwells in upper sky; Then Air, because unclogged in empty space, Flies after fire, and claims the second place; But weighty Water, as her nature guides, Lies on the lap of Earth; and mother Earth subsides. All things are mixt with these, which all contain, And into these are all resolved again. Earth rarifies to dew; expanded more, The subtle dew in air begins to soar, Spreads as she flies, and, weary of her name, Extenuates still, and changes into flame; Thus having by degrees perfection won, Restless, they soon untwist the web they spun; And fire begins to lose her radiant hue, Mixed with gross air, and air descends to dew; And dew, condensing, does her form forego, And sinks, a heavy lump of earth, below. Thus are their figures never at a stand, But changed by Nature's innovating hand; All things are altered, nothing is destroyed, The shifted scene for some new show employed. Then, to be born, is to begin to be Some other thing we were not formerly; And what we call to die, is not to appear, Or be the thing that formerly we were. Those very elements, which we partake Alive, when dead, some other bodies make; Translated grow, have sense, or can discourse; But death on deathless substance has no force. That forms are changed I grant, that nothing can Continue in the figure it began: The golden age to silver was debased; To copper that; our metal came at last. The face of places, and their forms, decay, And that is solid earth, that once was sea; Seas, in their turn, retreating from the shore, Make solid land what ocean was before; And far from strands are shells of fishes found, And rusty anchors fixed on mountain ground; And what were fields before, now washed and worn By falling floods from high, to valleys turn, And, crumbling still, descend to level lands; And lakes, and trembling bogs, are barren sands; And the parched desert floats in streams unknown, Wondering to drink of waters not her own. Here nature living fountains opes; and there Seals up the wombs where living fountains were; Or earthquakes stop their ancient course, and bring Diverted streams to feed a distant spring. So Lycus, swallowed up, is seen no more, But, far from thence, knocks out another door. Thus Erasinus dives; and blind in earth Runs on, and gropes his way to second birth, Starts up in Argos meads, and shakes his locks Around the fields, and fattens all the flocks. So Mysus by another way is led,