Blent with a curious air, and spoiled the whole.
When thus arrayed, the gods agreed to call
Her name Pandora, as the gift of all,
And sent her with the swift-winged Argicide[1]
To thoughtless Epimetheus[2] as a bride.
He, with less prudence than his cautious brother,
Could not his rising admiration smother,
And though he knew what countless woes must come,
Still took the fatal beauty to his home.
Ere this misfortune men possessed the earth,
Free from the miseries of their present birth.
But on the downward road they soon advance,
That is to say, when they have half a chance.
And soon it came, for Epimetheus's wife
Ope'd the forbidden jar,[3] with Sorrows rife,
When out the monsters tumbled by the score.
And scoured the earth, e'en to its farthest shore.
Hope, glorious Hope, alone within remained,
Said to have been by Jove's command detained;
But all the rest unnumbered wander free
O'er the dominions of the earth and sea.
By night and day they wing their silent flight,
To breathe on mortal men their deadly blight,
And work in a mysterious way some dread design:
Who can the ways of Providence divine?
Still, men not all at once rushed into crime;
Ages elapsed before they reached their prime.
Through what successive changes their estate
Relapsed from good to bad, I'll now relate.
