PHOSEON Lib. III.

Sed tamen haeret amor >• credit que dolore re*
pulfae. 395
Attenuant vigiles corpus miferabile curae:
Adducitque cutem maciesi & in dera juccus
Corporis omnis abit. 'vox tantum , atque ojfa
fuperfunt.

Vox manet. ojfaferunt lapidis traxijfefguram
[Inde latet Jihis: nulloque in monte vide*

tur > 400
Omnibus auditur. fonus efl, qui 'vi'vit in illa.~j
Sic hanc ,fic alias, undis aut montibus ortas,
Luferat hie Nymphas >• fie coetus ante viriles.
Inde manus aliquis defpeUus ad aether a tol-

lens.,

Sic amet ifle, licet ,fic nonpotiatur amato, 405
Dixerat. adjenfit precibus Rhamnufia jujlis.

Fons erat illimis, nitidis argent eus undis,
Quern neque pajiores, neque pajiae monte ca-
pellae

Contigerant, aliudve pecus: quern nulla vo*
lucris ,

JSfec fera turbarat, nec lapfus ab arbore ra-
mus. 410

Gramen erat circa, quod proximus humor a*
lebat:

Sihaque, fole lacum pajfura tepefcere nullo.
Hie puer, Jiudto <venandi laffus & aeflu,
Trocubuit ,• faciemque loci, fontemque fecutus
Dumque fitim fedare cupit, Jitis altera cre-
dit. 415

PHOSES. Book III. 97

The Nymph , when nothing could Narcijfus
move,

Still da/h'd with Bluflies for her flighted Love,
Liv'd in the lliady Covert of the Woods,
In folitary Caves and dark Abodes j
Where pining wander'd the rejected Fair,
'Till harra&'d out, and worn away with Care>
The founding Skeleton, of Blood bereft,
Befides her Bones and Voice had nothing left.
Her Bones are petrify'd, her Voice is found
In Vaults, where ftill it doubles ev'ry Sound.

Thus did the Nymphs in vain carefs the Boy,
He ftill was lovely, but he ftill was Coy •
When one fair Virgin of the flighted Train >
Thus pray'd the Gods, provok'd by his Disdain, (.
3i Oh may he love like me, and love like me in C
vain 1 *
Rhamnufia pity'd the negle&ed Fair,
And with juft Vengeance anfwer'd to her Pray'n

There Hands a Fountain in a darkfom Wood,
Nor ftain'd with falling Leaves nor rifing Mud;
Untroubled by the Breath of Winds it refts,
Unfully'd by the Touch of Men or Beafts
High Bow'rs of ihady Trees above it grow,
And rifing Grafs and chearful Greens below.
Pleas'd with the Form and Coolnefs of die Place,
And over-heated by the Morning Chace,
tfarcifus on the graflie Verdure lyes:
But whilft within the Chryftal Fount he tries I
To quench his Heat, he feels new Heats arife. *

EXPLICATION OF THE SIXTH FABLE.

IN explaining the Fable of Echo, I do not know
whether I had not better have recourie to Na-
tural Philofophy rather than to Hiftory. For tho
what Ovid fays fhould be true, that Echo was the
Confident of Jupiter , and that fhe amufed Juno
while he was with his Miftrefles tho we ihould
know that the Nymph fell in love with Narciflus,
whofe Difdain forced her, at laft , to retire to the
Bottoms of Caves and Rocks, where, entirely dried
up and confumed by the ardour of her Paflion, there
remained nothing more of her than the Voice; all
this would ftill forward us but very little in our En-
quiry. Wherefore it is better to fay that the Poets,
who enliven'd every thing by their Fictions > inven-
ted the Fable to explain this Phenomenon after an
ingenious manner. For in the Poets , as Monfieur
Deipreaux very juftly obferves:

Toutprtnd un corps, une ante, un esprit, un vifage,

Chaque Vertu devient une Divinite\

Minerve efl la Prudence Venus la BeautL

Echo n'eft plus un Son qui dans Vair retentive.

Cefi une Nytnpbe en pleurs qui fe plaint de Narcife, &v.

Tofupport the Philofophical Explanation, it is (aid that
Echo was the Daughter of the Air and the Tongue ■>
and if it is added that the God Pan fell in love
with her, it is, very probably, becaufe he endeavoured
to find out the Caufe of that Phenomenon.

However , if Hiftory muft ftill come in for a
Share in tb« Fable, we may fay that it had its rife
from fome Nymph, who having wander'd fo far in
the Woods that Ihe could not find the way back
again, Thofe who were fent to feek her , hearing
nothing but the Echo of their own Words in anfwer
to all their Demands, they reported that the Nymph
had been changed into a Voice.

To**. I.

Fab. VIL