Page:Virgil - The Georgics, Thomas Nevile, 1767.djvu/121

 Book IV. Hither conduct, conduct my son, she said;

This youth the threshold of the Gods may tread.

Strait, to prepare his way, on either side,

As thus she spoke, she bade the floods divide:

Arch'd like a mountain rose the waters round,

And in their bosom thro' the blue profound

Sent him secure: now crouding on his view

His mother's moist domains his wonder drew,

The leafy scenes, that rustle with the waves,

The lakes confin'd in subterranean caves:

Stun'd with the rapid roar distinct he ey'd

Beneath vast Earth the various streams that glide;

Phasis, Caïcus; deep Enipeus' source;

Whence Father Tiber first derives his course;

Whence Lycus flows, and Anio's currents stray;

And Hypanis o'er rocks bursts his rough way:

Whence too Eridanus, a bull in face,

Whose front two horns with golden splendors grace,

Than whom no River o'er the fertile plain

Pours with a tide more furious to the main.

Soon as the grotto, hung with pumice stone,

The youth had reach'd, and his vain griefs made known,

For him the Nymphs fresh water from the spring,

And towels of clipt down, in order bring, Replace