Resolv'd I shou'd not his Embrace escape,
Again the God resumes his fluid Shape;
To mix his Streams with mine he fondly tries,
But still Diana his Attempt denies,
She cleaves the Ground; thro' Caverns dark I run
A diff'rent Current, while he keeps his own.
To dear Ortygia she conducts my Way,
And here I first review the welcome Day.
Here Arethusa stopt; then Ceres takes
Her golden Carr, and yokes her fiery Snakes;
With a just Rein, along Mid-heaven she flies
O'er Earth, and Seas, and cuts the yielding Skies.
She halts at Athens, dropping like a Star,
And to Triptolemus resigns her Carr.
Parent of Seed, she gave him fruitful Grain,
And bad him teach to Till and Plough the Plain;
The Seed to sow, as well in fallow Fields,
As where the Soil manur'd a richer Harvest yields.
The Transformation of Lyncus.
The Youth o'er Europe, and o'er Asia drives,
'Till at the Court of Lyncus he arrives.
The Tyrant Scythia's barb'rous Empire sway'd;
And when he saw Triptolemus, he said,
How cam'st thou, Stranger, to our Court, and why?
Thy Country, and thy Name? The Youth did thus reply;
Triptolemus my Name; my Country's known
O'er all the World, Minerva's fav'rite Town,
Athens, the first of Cities in Renown.
By Land I neither walk'd, nor sail'd by Sea,
But hither thro' the Æther made my Way.
By me, the Goddess who the Fields befriends,
These Gifts, the greatest of all Blessings, sends.
The Grain she gives if in your Soil you sow,
Thence wholsom Food in golden Crops shall grow.
