Niger. To do a kind and careful father's part,
In satisfying every pensive heart

Of these my daughters, my most loved birth :
Who, though they were the first form'd dames of earth,TM
And in whose sparkling and refulgent eyes,
The glorious sun did still delight to rise;

Though he, the best judge, and most formal cause
Of all dames' beauties, in their firm hues, draws
Signs of his fervent'st love; and thereby shows
That in their black, the perfect'st beauty grows;
Since the fixt colour of their curled hair,
Which is the highest grace of dames most fair,
No cares, no age can change; or there display
The fearful tincture of abhorred gray;

Since death herself (herself being pale and blue)
Can never alter their most faithful hue;
All which are arguments, to prove how far
Their beauties conquer in great beauty's war; }
And more, how near divinity they be,
That stand from passion, or decay so free.
Yet, since the fabulous voices of some few
Poor brain-sick men, styled poets here with you,
Have, with such envy of their graces, sung
The painted beauties other empires sprung;
Letting their loose and winged fictions fly
To infect all climates, yea, our purity;
As of one Phaëton," that fired the world,
And that, before his heedless flames were hurl'd
About the globe, the Æthiops were as fair
As other dames; now black, with black despair:
And in respect of their complexions chang'd,
Are eachwhere, since, for luckless creatures rang'd;°

m Read Diod. Sicul. lib. iii. It is a conjecture of the old ethnics, that they which dwell under the south, were the first begotten of the earth.

"Notissima fabula, Ovid. Met. lib. ii.

• Alluding to that of Juvenal, Satyr. v. Et cui per mediam nolis

Occurrere noctem.

Which, when my daughters heard, (as women are
Most jealous of their beauties) fear and care
Possess'd them whole; yea, and believing them,"
They wept such ceaseless tears into my stream,
That it hath thus far overflow'd his shore

To seek them patience: who have since, e'ermore
As the sun riseth, charg'd his burning throne
With vollies of revilings; 'cause he shone

On their scorch'd cheeks with such intemperate fires,
And other dames made queens of all desires.
To frustrate which strange error, oft I sought,
Tho' most in vain, against a settled thought
As women's are, till they confirm'd at length
By miracle, what I, with so much strength
Of argument resisted; else they feign'd:

- For in the lake where their first spring they gain'd, As they sat cooling their soft limbs, one night, Appear'd a face, all circumfused with light;

(And sure they saw't, for Æthiops' never dream) Wherein they might decipher through the stream, These words:

That they a land must forthwith seek,
Whose termination, of the Greek,

Sounds TANIA; where bright Sol, that heat

Their bloods, doth never rise or set,"

But in his journey passeth by,

And leaves that climate of the sky,

To comfort of a greater light,

Who forms all beauty with his sight.

In search of this, have we three princedoms past,
That speak out Tania in their accents last;
Black Mauritania, first; and secondly,

P The poets.

A custom of the Ethiops, notable in Herod. and Diod. Sic. See Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. v. cap. 8.

r Plin. ibid.

s Consult with Tacitus, in vita Agric. and the Paneg. ad Constant.

Swarth Lusitania; next we did descry

Rich Aquitania: and yet cannot find

The place unto these longing nymphs design'd.
Instruct and aid me, great Oceanus,
What land is this that now appears to us?

Ocea. This land, that lifts into the temperate air His snowy cliff,' is Albion the fair;

So call'd of Neptune's son," who ruleth here:
For whose dear guard, myself, four thousand year,
Since old Deucalion's days, have walk'd the round
About his empire, proud to see him crown'd
Above my waves.

At this the Moon was discovered in the upper part of the house, triumphant in a silver throne, made in figure of a pyramis. Her garments white and silver, the dressing of her head antique, and crowned with a luminary, or sphere of light: which striking on the clouds, and heightened with silver, reflected as natural clouds do by the splendour of the moon. The heaven about her was vaulted with blue silk, and set with stars of silver, which had in them their several lights burning. The sudden sight of which made NIGER to interrupt OCEANUS with this present passion.

O see, our silver star!
Whose pure, auspicious light greets us thus far!
Great Ethiopia goddess of our shore,*
Since with particular worship we adore
Thy general brightness, let particular grace
Shine on my zealous daughters: shew the place

* Orpheus, in his Argonaut. calls it Aɛvкatov Xépoov.

"Alluding to the right of styling princes after the name of their princedoms: so is he still Albion, and Neptune's son that governs. As also his being dear to Neptune, in being so embraced by him.

The Æthiopians worshipped the moon by that surname. See Step. περὶ πόλεων, in voce ΑΙΘΙΟΠΙΟΝ.

Which long their longings urg'd their eyes to see,
Beautify them, which long have deified thee.

Æthi. Niger, be glad : resume thy native cheer.
Thy daughters' labours have their period here,
And so thy errors. I was that bright face
Reflected by the lake, in which thy race
Read mystic lines; which skill Pythagoras
First taught to men, by a reverberate glass.*
This blessed isle doth with that TANIA end,
Which there they saw inscribed, and shall extend
Wish'd satisfaction to their best desires.
Britannia, which the triple world admires,
This isle hath now recover'd for her name;
Where reign those beauties that with so much fame
The sacred Muses' sons have honoured,
And from bright Hesperus to Eous spread.
With that great name Britannia, this blest isle
Hath won her ancient dignity, and style,

A WORLD DIVIDED FROM THE WORLD: and tried
The abstract of it, in his general pride.

For were the world, with all his wealth, a ring,
Britannia, whose new name makes all tongues sing,
Might be a diamant worthy to inchase it,

Ruled by a sun, that to this height doth grace it: Whose beams shine day and night, and are of force - To blanch an Æthiop and revive a corse.

His light sciential is, and, past mere nature, - Can salve the rude defects of every creature. Call forth thy honour'd daughters then; And let them, 'fore the Britain men,

Which skill Pythagoras

First taught to men, by a reverberate glass.] The allusion is to what is told us by the scholiast on Aristophanes, that Pythagoras discovered a method of writing with blood on a speculum, or polished mirror; and this being held opposite to the moon, what was written on the glass would be reflected on the orb of the moon, and would appear to be written thereon. Nub. v. 750. WHAL.

Indent the land, with those pure traces
They flow with, in their native graces.
Invite them boldly to the shore;
Their beauties shall be scorch'd no more:
This sun is temperate, and refines

All things on which his radiance shines.

Here the Tritons sounded, and they danced on shore, every couple, as they advanced, severally presenting their fans: in one of which were inscribed their mixt names, in the other a mute hieroglyphic, expressing their mixed qualities. Their own single dance ended, as they were about to make choice of their men: one, from the sea, was heard to call them with this CHARM, sung by a tenor voice.

Come away, come away,

We grow jealous of your stay:
If you do not stop your ear,
We shall have more cause to fear
Syrens of the land, than they
To doubt the Syrens of the sea.

Here they danced with their men several measures
and corantos. All which ended, they were again
accited to sea, with a SONG of two trebles, whose
cadences were iterated by a double echo from several
parts of the land.

Daughters of the subtle flood,

Do not let earth longer entertain you;
1 Ech. Let earth longer entertain you.
2 Ech. Longer entertain you.

y Which manner of symbol I rather chose, than imprese, as well for strangeness, as relishing of antiquity, and more applying to that original doctrine of sculpture, which the Egyptians are said first to have brought from the Ethiopians. Diod. Sicul. Herod.