Page:Virgil's Pastorals, Georgics and Aeneis - Dryden (1709) - volume 1.pdf/241

Geor. I. Epirus for th' Elean Chariot breeds, (In hopes of Palms,) a Race of running Steeds. This is the Orig'nal Contract; these the Laws Impos'd by Nature, and by Nature's Cause, On sundry Places, when Deucalion hurl'd his Mother's Entrails on the desart World: Whence Men, a hard laborious Kind, were born. Then borrow part of Winter for thy Corn; And early with thy Team the Gleeb in Furrows turn. That while the Turf lies open, and unbound, Succeeding Suns may bake the Mellow Ground. But if the Soil be barren, only scar The Surface, and but lightly print the Share, When cold Arcturus rises with the Sun: Lest wicked Weeds the Corn shou'd over-run In watry Soils; or lest the barren Sand Shou'd suck the Moisture from the thirsty Land. Both these unhappy Soils the Swain forbears, And keeps a Sabbath of alternate Years: That the spent Earth may gather heart again; And, better'd by Cessation, bear the Grain. At least where Vetches, Pulse, and Tares have stood, And Stalks of Lupines grew (a stubborn Wood:) Th' ensuing Season, in return, may bear The bearded product of the Golden Year. For Flax and Oats will burn the tender Field, And sleepy Poppies harmful Harvests yield. Rh