Fable XXVI. The Shepherd Cleobulus and the Nymph Philida

A S a peofiye (hepherd tended his flock, upon the •^^ flowery banks of the river Achclous, the Fauns and Satyrs, that lurked in the neighbouring groves, daoced upon the grass, to the melodious found of bis pipe, the Naiads, hid beneath the waters of the river, reared their heads above the reeds to listen to his music. Achelous himself, leaning upon his inclined urn, shewed his front, where there remained but one bom ever since his combat with the great Hercules, and this melody suspended for a while the anguish of the vanquished god. the fliepherd saw, unmoved, the Naiads admiring him; he thought of none but the (hepherdefs Philida, who was simple, natural, without the foreign aid of ornament; fortune ne'er gave ber any borrowed lustre, and the Graces alone had adorned and beautified her with their own hands; such went iht forth from her village, mindless of every thing but of her iheep. the nymph alone was flranger to her beauty, all the other fliepherdefTes were jealous of it. the shepherd loved her, and did not dare

XOO THE SHEPHERD CLEOBULUS to tell her To: \irhat he loved mod Id her was tha( matchless virtue, simple and severe, which kept lovers at a diilance, and which cooditutes the trued charm of beauty, but the ingenious pailion fiiggefls the art of representing what might be bold and dangerous to declare, he therefore ceased all his mod pleasant songs, to tune one that might touch the fair one's heart, he knew she loved the virtue of the heroes, who, in the. toilsome field, had glory won: he sung, under a sictitious name, his own adventures; for, at that time, Jieroes themselves were shepherds, nor disdained the crook, and, therefore, thus he sung: when Polynices brave, marched to besiege the city Thebes,. and to overturn the throne of his own brother Eteocles, all the Kings of Greece appeared in hodile arms, and, againd the bcfieged, their chariots drove. Adradus then, who father was in law to Polynices, hewed refiftlefs down, the adverse troops; as with his keen-edged scythe the reaper sweeping, mows the golden crops, on t'other side, Amphiaraus see! the soothfayer, who, conscious of his fate, advanced into the sight, and was at once swallowed by Earth, which opened its abyss to hurl him headlong to the banks of Zvpi; in falling he deplored his faithless wife, sad by behold Oedipus's sons, in hodile, not in brotherly embrace; as when a leopard and a tyger tear each other on the rocks of Caucasus: they rolled each other on the sandy beach, seeming to pant each for his bro;

AND THB NYMPH PHILIDA. |OI

Xher's blood, during this horrid sight, Cleobulus, who followed Folynices, combated against a brave Theban, whom the God of war rendered almofl invincible, the shaft of the Theban, guided by the god, had pierced Cleobulus's neck, but that he sprung nimble aside: he, instant, plunged his dart deep in the bowels of his hardy foe: the Theban 's blood streams copi-, ous, his bright eyes grow dim, his noble mien and all his fire forsake him; now, now, squalid death deforms his comely features; lo! his youthful bride sees him expiring from a turret's height; and O! what pangs tranfpierce her tender heart! in his misfortune, still too happy man, to have been loved and wailed; I'd die, like him, with pleasure, fo I might be loved as he; for what avails great valour, or the glory of famous combats; and O! what avails or youth, or beauty, when one cannot please nor move the objeft loved!— the (hepherdefs, who had lei:\t attentive ear to his fo tender song, now conceived that the shepherd was Cleobulus, vanquisher of the Theban. she grewfen- (ible of the glory he had acquired, of the Graces that (hone in him, and of the pangs he suffered for her; she gave him her heart and hand; an happy Hymen joined the lovely pair; their happiness was envied by all the (hepherds round, and by the country-deities themselves. by their union, by their innocent life, by their rural paflimes, even in the hour of age, they equalled the blissful fate of Philemon and Baucis.

AND