Page:Prometheus Bound (Webster 1866).djvu/38

 Like the puny ants. Nor had they certain sign

Either of winter or of flowery spring

Or fruitful summer, but in all they did

Were without rule, until I shewed the risings

And the perplexing settings of the stars.

And the chief among inventions, numbers, too

I found them, and the art of joining letters,

Handmaid of universal memory

And mother of all learning. And I first

Brought to the yoke the beasts who yield themselves

To the harness and to riders, that so they

Might take men's place in all their heavier toils,

And, pride of lavish wealth, in chariots

I fastened horses docile to the reins.

And the mariner's sea-breasting sail-winged cars

None other planned but I. These the devices

I made for mortals: yet I, wretched, know

No artifice to banish mine own ills

A graceless ill thou bearest. Through a warp

In the mind thou wentst astray, and now dost thou,