Enslaved but to be free, and conquered but to reign. 'Tis time my hard-mouthed coursers to controul, Apt to run riot, and transgress the goal, And therefore I conclude: whatever lies In earth, or flits in air, or fills the skies, All suffer change; and we, that are of soul And body mixed, are members of the whole. Then when our sires, or grandsires, shall forsake The forms of men, and brutal figures take, Thus housed, securely let their spirits rest, Nor violate thy father in the beast, Thy friend, thy brother, any of thy kin; If none of these, yet there's a man within. O spare to make a Thyestean meal, To inclose his body, and his soul expel. Ill customs by degrees to habits rise, Ill habits soon become exalted vice: What more advance can mortals make in sin, So near perfection, who with blood begin? Deaf to the calf that lies beneath the knife, Looks up, and from her butcher begs her life; Deaf to the harmless kid, that, ere he dies, } All methods to procure thy mercy tries, } And imitates in vain thy children's cries. } Where will he stop, who feeds with household bread, Then eats the poultry, which before he fed? Let plough thy steers; that, when they lose their breath, To nature, not to thee, they may impute their death. Let goats for food their loaded udders lend, And sheep from winter-cold thy sides defend; But neither springes, nets, nor snares employ, And be no more ingenious to destroy. Free as in air, let birds on earth remain, Nor let insidious glue their wings constrain; Nor opening hounds the trembling stag affright, Nor purple feathers intercept his flight; Nor hooks concealed in baits for fish prepare, Nor lines to heave them twinkling up in air. Take not away the life you cannot give; For all things have an equal right to live. Kill noxious creatures, where 'tis sin to save; This only just prerogative we have: But nourish life with vegetable food, And shun the sacrilegious taste of blood.-- These precepts by the Samian sage were taught, Which godlike Numa to the Sabines brought, And thence transferred to Rome, by gift his own; A willing people, and an offered throne. O happy monarch, sent by heaven to bless A savage nation with soft arts of peace; To teach religion, rapine to restrain, Give laws to lust, and sacrifice ordain: Himself a saint, a goddess was his bride, And all the muses o'er his acts preside. FOOTNOTES: [41] Nessus, mortally wounded by Hercules with a poisoned arrow. [42] A latinism, for restores, or presents anew. TRANSLATIONS FROM OVID'S ART OF LOVE. THE FIRST BOOK OF OVID'S ART OF LOVE.