These and the middle zone between, kind heav'n
Two more in pity to frail man has giv'n:
Thro' these a way is cut, in radiant round
Obliquely wheeling where the signs are found. 280
High as the world at Scythia's steeps ascends,
So low as Libya's sands it downward bends:
One pole for ever it's aerial brow
Lifts o'er our heads; one the pale ghosts below
And sable Styx beneath their feet behold: 285
There glides the Dragon of enormous mould,
And, winding like a river, wreaths his train
Between the Bears, the Bears that dread the main.
Here, or perpetual rests still night 'tis said,
And adds new horrors to the thick'ning shade, 290
Or from our hemisphere with gladd'ning ray
Aurora hastens, and brings back the day;
And when on us Sol's panting steeds first breath,
Then lights clear Vesper the late lamps beneath.
Hence in the dubious sky we learn to know 295
The threatening tempest, when to reap and sow,
Lash the false sea with oars, in lengthen'd line
Arrange arm'd fleets, or fell the forest-pine.
Nor think that vainly the stars set and rise,
Or that the vary'd year no hints supplies. 300
When
