r ne'er an heifer moves;
"Nor burns the mare for mares: rams follow ewes;
"The stag pursues his female; birds thus join:
"Nor animal creation female shews
"With love of female seiz'd. Would none were I!
"But lest all monstrous loves Crete might not shew;
"Sol's daughter chose a bull; even that was male
"With female. Yet, if candidly I speak,
"My passion wilder far than hers appears.
"She hop'd-for love pursu'd; by fraud enjoy'd;
"Beneath an heifer's form, th' adulterous spark
"Deceiving. Be from every part of earth
"Assembled here the skill: let Daedalus
"Hither, on waxen wings rebend his flight,
"What could all aid? Could all their learned art
"Change me from maid to youth? or alter thee
"Iaenthe? But why resolute, thy mind
"Not fix? Why Iphis thus thyself forget,
"These stupid wishes driving hence, and thoughts
"So unavailing? Lo! what thou wast born,
"(Save thou would'st also thine own breast deceive)
"What is allow'd behold, and as a maid
"May love, love only. Hope, first snatch'd by love,
"Love feeds on still. From thee all hope is borne.
"No guardians thee debar the dear embrace;
"Nor watchful husband's care; no sire severe;
"Nor she herself denies thy pressing prayers,
"Yet art thou still forbid, though all agree;
"To reap the bliss, though gods and men unite.
"Behold, too, all my votive prayers succeed:
"The favoring gods whate'er I pray'd have given.
"My sire and hers, and even herself comply,
"But nature far more strong denies, alone
"Me irking with refusal. Lo! arrives
"The wish'd-for hour; the matrimonial light
"Approaches; when Iaenthe will be mine;
"And yet far from me. In the midst of waves
"For thirst I perish. Nuptial Juno, why
"Com'st thou, or Hymen to these rites; where none
"Leads to the altar, but where both are led?"--

Here staid her speech; nor less the other nymph
Burn'd; and O, Hymen, pray'd thy quick approach.
But what she wishes Telethusa dreads,
And searches for delays; feign'd sickness oft
Prolongs the time; oft omens dire, and dreams.
Now all her artful fictions are consum'd;
And now the long protracted period came,
For nuptial rites; and, but one day remain'd.
She from her own and daughter's head unbinds
The fillets; and with locks dishevell'd, clasps
The altar, crying;--"Isis, thou who dwell'st
"In Paraetonium; Mareotis' fields;
"In Pharos; and the sev'nfold mouths of