This answer Proteus gave; nor more he said } But in the billows plunged his hoary head; } And, where he leaped, the waves in circles widely spread. } The nymph returned, her drooping son to cheer, And bade him banish his superfluous fear: "For now," said she, "the cause is known, from whence Thy woe succeeded, and for what offence. The nymphs, companions of the unhappy maid, This punishment upon thy crimes have laid; And sent a plague among thy thriving bees.-- With vows and suppliant prayers their powers appease: The soft Napæan race will soon repent[26] Their anger, and remit the punishment. The secret in an easy method lies; Select four brawny bulls for sacrifice, Which on Lycæus graze without a guide; Add four fair heifers yet in yoke untried. For these, four altars in their temple rear, And then adore the woodland powers with prayer. From the slain victims pour the streaming blood, And leave their bodies in the shady wood: Nine mornings thence, Lethæan poppy bring, To appease the manes of the poet's[27] king: And, to propitiate his offended bride, A fatted calf and a black ewe provide: This finished, to the former woods repair." } His mother's precepts he performs with care; } The temple visits, and adores with prayer; } Four altars raises; from his herd he culls, For slaughter, four the fairest of his bulls: Four heifers from his female store he took, All fair, and all unknowing of the yoke. Nine mornings thence, with sacrifice and prayers, The powers atoned, he to the grove repairs. Behold a prodigy! for, from within The broken bowels, and the bloated skin, A buzzing noise of bees his ears alarms: Straight issue through the sides assembling swarms. Dark as a cloud, they make a wheeling flight, Then on a neighbouring tree, descending, light: Like a large cluster of black grapes they show, And make a large dependance from the bough. Thus have I sung of fields, and flocks, and trees, And of the waxen work of labouring bees; While mighty Cæsar, thundering from afar, Seeks on Euphrates' banks the spoils of war; With conquering arts asserts his country's cause, With arts of peace the willing people draws; On the glad earth the golden age renews, And his great father's path to heaven pursues; While I at Naples pass my peaceful days, Affecting studies of less noisy praise; And, bold through youth, beneath the beechen shade, The lays of shepherds, and their loves, have played. FOOTNOTES: [18] Note I. [19] Dr Carey reads, "_through_ the race of life they quickly run," and has altered the punctuation to the sense thus conveyed; but I retain the reading of the first edition--_though_--which is clearly the meaning of Virgil. The original is as follows: