Befides the wat'ry Treasures of the Skies, His Brother's Forces angry Jove employs. Summon'd, the River Gods from far and near,
Their Monarch's dread Commands with Silence [hear. Instant (all this a just Occasion claims)
Pourfrom your Urns, pour copious all your Streams,
All Banks, all Letts, all Obstacles remove,
At large let all your Floods unbridled rove.
He said: they haste, their Fountains all fet free
Rush in impetuous Torrents to the Sea.
Then with his pond'rous Mace he struck the Earth'
Broke up
her hidden Springs, and gave a Deluge
[Birth.
The conqu❜ring Floods wide-wafting now become
To Man and Beast, Death, Burial, and a Tomb;
All Nature's cover'd in one common Grave,
Nor Temples Gods, nor Gods their Temples fave.
Strong, lofty Domes that undestroy'd abide,
Are loft, furmounted in the whelming Tide;
Their Turrets highest Height the Surges hide.
Now one Refemblance Earth and Ocean bore,
All was a Sea, a Sea without a Shore.
One to the Hills, one to his Pinnace flies,
And where he lately plow'd, his Oars he plies.
The reeling Ship another vainly bore,
O'er his drown'd Corn, and Villa now no more.
Those Tow'rs of Oak o'er Woods and Vineyards
[flew,
Or ride at Anchor, where they lately grew.'
The frighted Mermaids stand amaz'd to fee
Cities and Groves a Landskip in the Sea.
Tygers and Wolves, with their unheeded Prey,
The more rapacious Deluge bore away.
In vain with Tusks the Boar was arm'd for Fight,
In vain the swimming Stag made swift for Flight.
The troubled Fowl flew circling long, 'till tir'd
Flutt'ring they fell, and in the Flood expir'd.
The fmall Remains of wretched Men, preferv'd
From drowning with the Crowd, at length were
ftarv'd.
Now Waves, like Curtains o'er the Tragic Scene,
Were spread, nor could the Mountains' Tops be [seen. Parnaffus only ftill unconquer'd ftood,
Whose lofty double Front defy'd the Flood,
In fruitful Phocis, Phocis now defac'd,
F No longer fruitful, but a wat'ry Wafte;
In a fmall Bark Deucalion here arriv'd,
His Spouse and He, who all the World surviv'd:
In Him alone unspotted Virtue fhin'd,
Just were his Actions, and devout his Mind.
And the the only good of all her Kind.
Arriving here, ftrait to the Pow'rs Divine,
Prefiding o'er the Hill, in Pray'r they joyn,
To antient Themis, and the facred Nine.
Jove, as he thus beheld the hapless Pair,
Forward to ask, and meriting his Care,
Saw these of human-kind the only Heirs,
And widow'd Nature floating in her Tears;
Order'd the North to blow, the Clouds to clear,
And Earth to Heav'n, and Heav'n to Earth appear.
And Neptune bid the roaring Waves affwage,
Threw by his Trident, and they dropt their Rage.
Calling cærulean Triton, as he stood
Enclos'd in fhining Scales above the Flood,
The well-known Signal of Retreat to make,
His hollow founding Shell he bids him take,
His twisted Shell which still in Windings grows,
And wider from the Mouth and wider fhows.
This, by the God infpir'd with vocal Air,
From Pole to Pole the distant Regions hear;
And all the Waters of the Sea and Land
With instant Speed obey the dread Command. The Ocean feeks his Bounds, the Streams fubfide, And calm within their wonted Chambers glide, Aloft their frighted Heads the Mountains rear, The guilty Waters fhrink and disappear.
The naked tops of Trees, deform'd with Mud,
Rifing difplay the Relicks of the Flood.
Thus was the World reftor'd
To a Friend in the Country, who complain'd of his Condition, and admir'd High Spirits in Low
HIS would be still my Wish, could I
Such bitter Curfe allow,
Let those I hate have Spirits high,
With Fortunes that are low.
But furely when we vapour most,
If angry Fortune frown;
She'll pull, in fpight of all our Boast,
Our lofty Spirits down.
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