Tamed with a sharper pain. The fearful doe, } And flying stag, amidst the greyhounds go, } And round the dwellings roam of man, their fiercer foe. } The scaly nations of the sea profound, Like shipwrecked carcases, are driven aground, And mighty phocæ, never seen before In shallow streams, are stranded on the shore. The viper dead within her hole is found: Defenceless was the shelter of the ground. The water-snake, whom fish and paddocks fed, With staring scales lies poisoned in his bed: To birds their native heavens contagious prove; From clouds they fall, and leave their souls above. Besides, to change their pasture 'tis in vain, Or trust to physic; physic is their bane. The learned leaches in despair depart, And shake their heads, desponding of their art. Tisiphone, let loose from under ground, Majestically pale, now treads the round, Before her drives diseases and affright, } And every moment rises to the sight, } Aspiring to the skies, encroaching on the light. } The rivers, and their banks, and hills around, With lowings and with dying bleats resound. At length, she strikes an universal blow; To death at once whole herds of cattle go; Sheep, oxen, horses, fall; and, heaped on high, The differing species in confusion lie, 'Till, warned by frequent ills, the way they found To lodge their loathsome carrion under ground: For useless to the currier were their hides; Nor could their tainted flesh with ocean tides Be freed from filth; nor could Vulcanian flame The stench abolish, or the savour tame. Nor safely could they shear their fleecy store, (Made drunk with poisonous juice, and stiff with gore,) Or touch the web: but, if the vest they wear, Red blisters rising on their paps appear, And flaming carbuncles, and noisome sweat, And clammy dews, that loathsome lice beget; Till the slow-creeping evil eats his way, Consumes the parching-limbs, and makes the life his prey. FOOTNOTES: [13] It has been objected to me, that I understood not this passage of Virgil, because I call Niphates a river, which is a mountain in Armenia. But the river arising from the same mountain is also called Niphates; and, having spoken of Nile before, I might reasonably think that Virgil rather meant to couple two rivers, than a river and a mountain. DRYDEN. [14] Dr Carey reads _dropping_; but there is no authority, and seemingly no necessity, for the change. [15] Dr Carey reads _conquests_, in the plural; but the word, in the singular, implies more emphatically a career of victory. [16] The transition is obscure in Virgil. He began with cows, then proceeds to treat of horses, now returns to cows. DRYDEN. [17] Astrologers tell us, that the sun receives his exaltation in the sign Aries: Virgil perfectly understood both astronomy and astrology. GEORGICS. BOOK IV. ARGUMENT.