Page:Ovid's Metamorphoses (Vol. 2) - tr Garth, Dryden, et. al. (1727).djvu/20

12 Who, with peculiar Call, and flutt'ring Wing, Chirpt joyful, and malicious seem'd to sing: The only Bird of all its Kind, and late Transform'd in Pity to a feather'd State: From whence, O Dædalus, thy Guilt we date. His Sister's Son, when now twelve Years were past, Was, with his Uncle, as a Scholar plac'd; The unsuspecting Mother saw his Parts, And Genius fitted for the finest Arts. This soon appear'd; for when the spiny Bone In Fishes Backs was by the Stripling known, A rare Invention thence he learnt to draw, Fil'd Teeth in Ir'n, and made the grating Saw. He was the first, that from a Knob of Brass Made two strait Arms with widening Stretch to pass; That, while one stood upon the Center's Place, The other round it drew a circling Space. Dædalus envy'd this, and from the Top Of fair Minerva's Temple let him drop; Feigning that, as he lean'd upon the Tow'r, Careless he stoop'd too much, and tumbled o'er. The Goddess, who th' Ingenious still befriends, On this Occasion her Assistance lends; His Arms with Feathers, as he fell, she veils, And in the Air a new-made Bird he sails. The Quickness of his Genius, once so fleet, Still in his Wings remains, and in his Feet: Still, tho' transform'd, his ancient Name he keeps, And with low Flight the new-shorn Stubble sweeps. Declines the lofty Trees, and thinks it best To brood in Hedge-rows o'er it's humble Nest; And, in Remembrance of the former Ill, Avoids the Heights, and Precipices still. At length, fatigu'd with long laborious Flights, On fair Sicilia's Plains the Artist lights; Where