In ample oceans, disembogued, are lost: He shades the woods, the values he restrains With rocky mountains, and extends the plains. And as five zones the ætherial regions bind, Five, correspondent, are to earth assigned; The sun, with rays directly darting down, Fires all beneath, and fries the middle zone: The two beneath the distant poles complain Of endless winter, and perpetual rain. Betwixt the extremes, two happier climates hold The temper that partakes of hot and cold. The fields of liquid air, inclosing all, Surround the compass of this earthly ball: The lighter parts lie next the fires above; The grosser near the watery surface move: Thick clouds are spread, and storms engender there, } And thunder's voice, which wretched mortals fear, } And winds that on their wings cold winter bear. } Nor were those blustering brethren left at large, On seas and shores their fury to discharge: Bound as they are, and circumscribed in place, They rend the world, resistless, where they pass, And mighty marks of mischief leave behind; Such is the rage of their tempestuous kind. First, Eurus to the rising morn is sent, (The regions of the balmy continent,) And eastern realms, where early Persians run, To greet the blest appearance of the sun. Westward the wanton Zephyr wings his flight, Pleased with the remnants of departing light; Fierce Boreas with his offspring issues forth, To invade the frozen waggon of the North; While frowning Auster seeks the southern sphere, And rots, with endless rain, the unwholesome year. High o'er the clouds, and empty realms of wind, The God a clearer space for heaven designed; Where fields of light and liquid æther flow, Purged from the ponderous dregs of earth below. Scarce had the Power distinguished these, when straight The stars, no longer overlaid with weight, Exert their heads from underneath the mass, } And upward shoot, and kindle as they pass, } And with diffusive light adorn the heavenly place. } Then, every void of nature to supply, With forms of gods he fills the vacant sky: New herds of beasts he sends, the plains to share; } New colonies of birds, to people air; } And to their oozy beds the finny fish repair. } A creature of a more exalted kind Was wanting yet, and then was Man designed; Conscious of thought, of more capacious breast, For empire formed, and fit to rule the rest: Whether with particles of heavenly fire The God of nature did his soul inspire; Or earth, but new divided from the sky, And pliant still, retained the etherial energy; Which wise Prometheus tempered into paste, And, mixed with living streams, the godlike image cast. Thus, while the mute creation downward bend