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How many Nations would to Sorrows turn,
And fee their Country waste, their Cities burn!
How would triumphant Difcord on the Plain,
Free as the Wind the Steeds of War unrein,

And with Varieties of Death her Purple Garment stain!
Then antient Thrones and Empires would decay,
And own a New Ufurping Tyrant's Sway:
Such fatal Stars did once before inspire
The Rival Chiefs, to fet the World on Fire :
Here Pompey, there Victorious Cafar stood,
And dire Pharfalia blush'd in Roman Blood.
And (if a Poet's Song may Credit gain)
The fame deftructive Stars at prefent reign,
That shake the Gaul and Spaniard with Alarms,
And drive contending Monarchies to Arms;
For Saturn, Jove, and Mars, with mingled Rays,
In Chiron's ruddy Arms, malignant blaze.

BESIDE, beneath these Stars that Plague arofe,
Which fiercely in the Seats of Pleasure glows ;
That the fweet Purpofe of our Kind destroys,
And or forbids, or poifons all our Joys.
For fo the Tales of late Tradition run,
That when the fatal Malady begun

To fpread, and fhew the lu king Cause within

By putrid Stains, and a difcolour'd Skin :

Then Mars fhone adverse, and in Cancer fet,
With livid Saturn inaufpicious met;

Their Influence join'd more peftilential grew,
And with their Rays th' envenom'd Vapour flew.

But

But why the Gods prefume I to display,

And, Mortal, tread their everlafting Way?
Why fearch I Caufes of portentous Weight,
Or doubtfully pursue retiring Fate?

Better abfolve my Promife, and unfold

What proper Stars work up the beauteous Mould,
And tell, what Phabus to his Poet told.

MANKIND, (as Fame reports) of old opprefs'd,

To Heav'n their fupplicating Sighs address'd

Much did the fad degen'rate Race complain,
How wide Deformity had fpread her Reign;

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How more than half their Kind were loathsom born,
Scandals of Nature, and their Parents Scorn.
Unknown the Caufe; whether the Air supply'd
With tainted Particles the Vital Tide;
Or the containing Womb the Venom bred,
And its own Shame the vicious Stamen fed.
'Tis certain, Beauty then but thinly grew,

Few were the charming Wives, the comely Husbands

few.

WHEN Jove thus faw the Realms of Beauty waftej And his own Image in Mankind debas'd,

A Synod of those Gods he calls, whose Care
Prefides peculiar o'er the wedded Pair.
First Juno, Regent of the Marriage Flame,
Bore on the Wings of painted Peacocks, came;
The Queen of Love her bridl'd Turtles drew
Thro the wide Azure, billing as they flew.

Next

Next did the Planter of the Vine appear,
And Ceres, Mother of the Golden Ear:
(For who, unaided by their kindly Heat,
Can love with Rapture, or with Force repeat?)
Apollo, for eternal Bloom ador'd,

Laft took his Place, and crown'd the facred Board.
Then from the Throne on high, the Council fat,
The King fupreme began the great Debate:
Briefly his Words our human Sorrows trace,
And Earth dishonour'd by a fightlefs Race.

THEN Phœbus rifing, leave of Speech obtain'd,
Thus to his Fellow-Gods the Caufe explain'd:
Mankind this Evil on themselves have brought,
From ill-tim'd Pleafure, and from want of Thought;
The Courfe of Heav'n unknown the World annoys
With fhapeless Females, and uncomely Boys:
Since then whatever Stars or Planets fhine,
Each in their various Spheres depend on mine;
Let me their Vertues and their Force explore,
And tell you facred Truths unheard before.
Where the flop'd Zodiac o'er the Globe extends,
And backward from the Pole its Circle bends;
Ye view the figur❜d Stars that there appear,

Their number Twelve, the Name of Signs they bear, Thro thefe my Course revolves, and finishes the Year. From thefe Deformity or Beauty trace,

Hence fpring the well-turn'd Limbs, the bloomy Grace, Hence the dark Figure, and forbidding Face.

FIRST,

FIRST, If the Ram, Europa's Bearer, rife,
And with his fiery Fleece infeft the Skies,
When bound in ftrict embrace the Couple meet,
When the warm Fluid glows with fruitful Heat ;
The Wife that reckons from that luckless Date,
Shall view an Off-fpring fhe her felf will hate..
That Product fhall disgrace his Parent's Bed,
With lank Crane-Neck, and spiral Length of Head:
His Legs un-pair'd, of difproportion'd Size,
A ftupid leaden Look, and downcast Eyes;
Thick Scales fhall plaite his Skin, and arm his Hand,
Or horrent with a furrow'd Roughness stand
O'er his broad Shoulders, and Athletic make;
Bright filver Locks in wanton Curls shall shake;
That ill-match'd Beauty, hideous to the Sight,
Will more deform the Monster-finish'd Wight.
But chief, if Mars fhall then infect the Earth,
Or Saturn, envious, glance upon his Birth;
For they are Foes to Beauty, and difarm
Each graceful Member of each killing Charm,
Nor leave one fingle Feature of Efteem,
That can from Scorn the wretched Mafs redeem.

NOR more the Bull adorns, or fiercer Eye
That darts his Beams obliquely from the Sky:
Ye too, ye Pleiades, deftructive shine,
And marr the Beauties of a lovely Line;

Your

Your felves, tho brightest in th' Etherial Plains,
Tho ev'ry Face fair Pleione retains,

And in each Daughter-Star the lovely Mother reigns;
Yet Ah! no Joy arifes from your Sway,

If Cynthia blend not her o'er- ruling Ray:

She forms the waxen Arms, the Limbs refines,
By her the Skin a polish'd Surface fhines,
And Beauty follows as the draws the Lines.

Numbers ftain,

WHY fhould I with the Bull my
Or paint the Birth beneath his brutal Reign?
Flatted his Nofe, his Noftrils gaping wide
Shall ftretch protuberant from Side to Side;
Thick Rolls of Fat around his Neck shall lie,
And a foul Fierceness threaten in his Eye;
Red Locks fhall glitter on his fiery Head,
And difagreeing Black his Eye-brows spread;
From his unwieldy Trunk, in broken Note,
His Voice shall jar, and rattle in his Throat.

NOT fo the Twins, for they, by Force innate,
Soft Sweetness, and harmonious Forms create,
Themselves all Harmony, a friendly Pair,

Who both their Mother's Charms and Sifter's share,
Gentle as Leda, and as Helen fair.

Thefe Jove prefer'd amid the Starry Space,
And bid them ftill appear in kind Embrace,
Fraternal Smiles, and lovely Looks affume,
To bless the growing Product of the Womb:
Hence they not only outward Charms supply,
Smiles in the Cheek, and Luftre in the Eye,

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