Page:Ovid's Metamorphoses (Vol. 1) - tr Garth, Dryden, et. al. (1727).djvu/90

The rest of Animals, from teeming Earth
Produc'd, in various Forms receiv'd their birth.
The native Moisture, in its close retreat,
Digested by the Sun's Ætherial Heat,
As in a kindly Womb, began to breed:
Then swell'd, and quicken'd by the vital Seed.
And some in less, and some in longer Space,
Were ripen'd into Form, and took a sev'ral Face.
Thus when the Nile from Pharian Fields is fled,
And seeks, with ebbing Tides, his ancient Bed,
The fat Manure with Heav'nly fire is warm'd;
And crusted Creatures, as in Wombs, are form'd;
These, when they turn the Glebe, the Peasants find;
Some rude, and yet unfinish'd in their kind:
Short of their Limbs, a lame imperfect Birth:
One half alive; and one of lifeless Earth.
For Heat, and Moisture, when in Bodies join'd,
The Temper that results from either Kind
Conception makes; and fighting till they mix,
Their mingled Atoms in each other fix.
Thus Nature's Hand the Genial Bed prepares
With friendly Discord, and with fruitful Wars.
From hence the surface of the Ground with Mud,
And Slime besmear'd, (the Fæces of the Flood)
Receiv'd the Rays of Heav'n; and sucking in
The Seeds of Heat, new Creatures did begin:
Some were of sev'ral Sorts produc'd before,
But of new Monsters, Earth created more.
Unwillingly, but yet she brought to Light
Thee, Python too, the wondring World to fright,
And the new Nations, with so dire a Sight:
So monstrous was his Bulk, so large a Space
Did his vast Body, and long Train embrace.
Whom Phœbus basking on a Bank espy'd;
E'er now the God his Arrows had not try'd

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