My lodging is on the cold ground. Lord Radcliffe succeeded to his father in 1696-7, and died 29th April, 1705. [19] These lines are quoted from Lord Dorset's address "to Mr Edward Howard, on his incomparable, incomprehensible poem, called, The British Princes:" Wit, like tierce claret, when it 'gins to pall, Neglected lies, and's of no use at all; But, in its full perfection of decay, Turns vinegar, and comes again in play. [20] The poet apparently speaks of Lady Radcliffe, who probably inherited those vocal powers, with which her mother, Moll Davies, charmed Charles II. The Grace might be her daughter. THE FIRST BOOK OF OVID'S METAMORPHOSES. Of bodies changed to various forms I sing:-- Ye gods, from whence these miracles did spring, Inspire my numbers with celestial heat, Till I my long laborious work complete; And add perpetual tenor to my rhymes, Deduced from nature's birth to Cæsar's times. Before the seas, and this terrestrial ball, And heaven's high canopy, that covers all, One was the face of nature, if a face; Rather a rude and indigested mass; A lifeless lump, unfashioned, and unframed, Of jarring seeds, and justly chaos named. No sun was lighted up the world to view; No moon did yet her blunted horns renew; Nor yet was earth suspended in the sky, Nor, poised, did on her own foundations lie; Nor seas about the shores their arms had thrown; But earth, and air, and water, were in one. Thus air was void of light, and earth unstable, And water's dark abyss unnavigable. No certain form on any was imprest; All were confused, and each disturbed the rest: For hot and cold were in one body fixed; And soft with hard, and light with heavy, mixed. But God or Nature, while they thus contend, To these intestine discords put an end. Then earth from air, and seas from earth, were driven, And grosser air sunk from ætherial heaven. Thus disembroiled, they take their proper place; } The next of kin contiguously embrace; } And foes are sundered by a larger space. } The force of fire ascended first on high, And took its dwelling in the vaulted sky. Then air succeeds, in lightness next to fire, Whose atoms from unactive earth retire. Earth sinks beneath, and draws a numerous throng, Of ponderous, thick, unwieldy seeds along. About her coasts unruly waters roar, And, rising on a ridge, insult the shore. Thus when the God, whatever God was he, Had formed the whole, and made the parts agree, That no unequal portions might be found, He moulded earth into a spacious round; Then, with a breath, he gave the winds to blow, And bade the congregated waters flow: He adds the running springs, and standing lakes, And bounding banks for winding rivers makes. Some part in earth are swallowed up, the most