Page:Ovid's Metamorphoses (Vol. 1) - tr Garth, Dryden, et. al. (1727).djvu/78

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But when good Saturn, banish'd from above, Was driv'n to Hell, the World was under Jove. Succeedings Times a Silver Age behold, Excelling Brass, but more excell'd by Gold. Then Summer, Autumn, Winter did appear: And Spring was but a Season of the Year. The Sun his Annual Course obliquely made, Good Days contracted, and enlarg'd the bad. Then Air with sultry Heats began to glow; The Wings of Winds were clogg'd with Ice and Snow; And shivering Mortals, into Houses driv'n, Sought Shelter from th' Inclemency of Heav'n. Those Houses, then, were Caves, or homely Sheds; With twining Oziers fenc'd; and Moss their Beds. Then Ploughs, for Seed, the fruitful Furrows broke, And Oxen labour'd first, beneath the Yoke.

To this came next in course, the Brazen Age: A warlike Offspring, prompt to bloody Rage, Not impious yet

Hard Steel succeeded then: And stubborn as the Mettal, were the Men. Truth, Modesty, and Shame, the World forsook: Fraud, Avarice, and Force, their Places took. Then Sails were spread, to every Wind that blew, Raw were the Sailors, and the Depths were new: Trees, rudely hollow'd, did the Waves sustain; E'er Ships in Triumph ploughed the watry Plain. Then