58
A HYMNE TO HERMES.
And black-browd Night (his Mistresse) did decline
Exceeding swiftly; Daies most earely light
Fast hasting to her first point; to excite
Worldlings to worke; and in her Watch-towre, shone,
King Pallas-Megamedes seed, (the Moone)
When through th'Alphæan flood, Ioues powerfull Sonne
Phœbus-Apollo's ample-foreheaded Herd
(Whose necks, the laboring yoke, had neuer spher'd)
Draue swiftly on; and then into a stall
(Hillie; yet past to, through an humble vale
And hollow Dells, in a most louely Meade)
He gatherd all; and them diuinely fedd
With Odorous Cypresse; and the rauishing Tree
That makes his Eaters, lose the memorie
Of name, and countrie. Then he brought, withall;
Much wood; whose sight, unto his serch let fall
The Art of making fire. Which thus he tried:
He tooke a branch of Lawrell, amplified
Past others, both in beautie, and in sise;
Yet, lay next hand; rubb'd it; and strait did rise
A warme fume from it. Steele, being that did raise
(As Agent) the attenuated Baies
To that hot vapor. So that, Hermes found
Both fire first; and of it, the seede, close bound
In other substances; and then, the seed
He multiplied; of sere-wood making feed
The apt heat of it; in a pile Combin'de,
Laid in a lower Pit; that in flames strait shin'de;
Exceeding swiftly; Daies most earely light
Fast hasting to her first point; to excite
Worldlings to worke; and in her Watch-towre, shone,
King Pallas-Megamedes seed, (the Moone)
When through th'Alphæan flood, Ioues powerfull Sonne
Phœbus-Apollo's ample-foreheaded Herd
(Whose necks, the laboring yoke, had neuer spher'd)
Draue swiftly on; and then into a stall
(Hillie; yet past to, through an humble vale
And hollow Dells, in a most louely Meade)
He gatherd all; and them diuinely fedd
With Odorous Cypresse; and the rauishing Tree
That makes his Eaters, lose the memorie
Of name, and countrie. Then he brought, withall;
Much wood; whose sight, unto his serch let fall
The Art of making fire. Which thus he tried:
He tooke a branch of Lawrell, amplified
Past others, both in beautie, and in sise;
Yet, lay next hand; rubb'd it; and strait did rise
A warme fume from it. Steele, being that did raise
(As Agent) the attenuated Baies
To that hot vapor. So that, Hermes found
Both fire first; and of it, the seede, close bound
In other substances; and then, the seed
He multiplied; of sere-wood making feed
The apt heat of it; in a pile Combin'de,
Laid in a lower Pit; that in flames strait shin'de;
