Page:Rape of Prosperine - Claudian (1854).djvu/50

 On their paternal urns the Naids lean, The mute Fauns wonder at the starry sheen.
 * Then from Olympus' height the Father spake:

"Once more the things of Earth my cares awake; Long time to deep forgetfulness consigned, Since the dull age, when Saturn lull'd mankind To torpid ease: I left them then to try The rude extremes of toil and penury, The stings and goads of life: for them the field Spontaneous harvests would no longer yield; The woods with honey flowed not, and their thirst No wine to quench from gushing fountains burst. It was not envy—how should envy move The harmless natures of the Gods above?— It was—that luxury should not tempt from right, Nor large abundance dim the moral sight; That want, stern monitress, should teach the mind Hid paths of science step by step to find; That strenuous act from patient thought should spring, And art Experience to perfection bring. And yet for this a tyrant am I styled, And Nature mourns her wrong'd and suffering child: The change from Saturn's milder rule deplores, And calls me niggard of her boundless stores;