Their hundredth year the babes were sucking still!
But when grown up their few remaining years
Were much harassed by strifes and anxious fears.
The human breast then first began to show
The fires that soon assumed a fiercer glow.
Hate, pride, and insolence arose so high,
Man often gave his fellow man the lie.
Religion trembled on her very throne,
And gods themselves could scarce get justice done.
But angry Jove destroyed this impious race.
And after death gave them the second place
Among terrestrial gods, which seemeth strange!
They must indeed have undergone a change.
Then father Jove hewed out another race,
Sumamed the Brazen (from their brazen face),
Whose chief delight was in the deeds of arms
That filled the earth with slaughters and alarms.
Their hearts are of the adamantine mold,
And giant strength their brawny limbs enfold.
Flesh they devoured, which nerved their souls for strife,
And lived ere useful iron crowned the arts of life.
For all was brazen: buckler, sword, cuirass,
And ev'n their houses, for they worked in brass.
An impious race they were, whose daring pride
The dreaded power of hell itself defied!
For once upon a time, to tempt the fates,
They would have stormed old Pluto's brazen gates,
Had not just then, upon the rabble rout,
Come 'venging Death, and snuffed their candles out.
Then came the race of Heroes, men renowned
For war's achievements and for skill profound.
