Your arms entwine? Fear not-my word is given,
By blackest Stygian waves, I've sworn to grant
Whate'er you ask. Oh! may your choice be wise."
The warning ceased, but still the eager youth
His purpose holds, and burns to mount the car,
And grasp the reins. With ling'ring steps and slow
Phoebus, with saddened heart, conducts the youth
To the high chariot, Vulcan's splendid gift.
The axle, pole, the wheel's circumference
Were golden all, with silver spokes. The yoke
Studded with chrysolites and rarest gems

Shone with unborrowed light. While the bold boy
Gazes with wonder, from the ruddy East
Aurora wakeful open wide expands,
The rosy doors. On every side the stars
Affrighted flee away, save Lucifer,
Who lingers still. The anxious sire beholds
The seas and lands with light begin to glow
And the pale Moon to vanish; and commands
The winged-footed Hours to yoke the steeds.
The goddesses their lord's command obey
With speed, and from their lofty stalls they lead
The horses on ambrosial nectar fed,
Fire-breathing; in their foaming mouths the bits
They place. The father then to shield the boy
From scorching heat, his face with oil anoints
Of worth divine, and placing on his brow
His radiant diadem, with deep-heaved sigh,
"At least this warning heed, my son," he said,
"The whip forbear to use-they need it not.

The reins with firmness hold; 'twill try thy strength.
Nor let thy course incline to North or South;
The path is plain-the beaten track you'll see.
That earth and heaven in equal measure may
The heat receive, rise not too high, nor yet
Too low descend; too lofty flight will burn
The heavenly mansions,-flight too low, the earth.
The middle course is best. Thee and thy fate
To fortune I commit. May she to thee
More kindly be than thou art to thyself!
Ev'n as I speak, dark Night has fled and reached
Th' established bounds on th' Hesperian Shore.
No more delay! You're called. Aurora comes!
Take in thy hands the reins. But stay! perhaps
My counsel you will heed, while yet you can,
Nor longer seek to guide the flaming car.
In safety look from this high mount, while I
Shed o'er the universe benignant light."
The youth no answer made, but lightly leap'd
Into the chariot; then with eager hands
The reins he grasped, and standing proud erect
His father briefly thanked. Meanwhile the steeds
Swift-footed Pyrois, Eöus and Phlegon

And Aethon with neighing fill the air,

And with impatient feet the barriers paw.

The bars removed, before them open lies

The boundless world. Like arrow from the bow, They onward rush, pierce through th' opposing clouds, And far the East-wind's rapid flight outstrip.

As ships unballasted on ocean's surge

Are wildly tossed, the sport of wind and wave,
So Phoebus' car freed from its 'customed load
Leaps high in air, and sways from side to side.
But quick the aerial quadrupeds perceived
The lightened load, nor felt the master's hand.
Too late, alas! the terror-stricken boy
His error sees, as in his trembling hands

The reins relax-the steeds usurp control

And from the beaten highway madly plunge.

Then, warmed with Southern heat the gelid Bears

Their panting bodies in the icy wave

Essayed to dip; the serpent dire, which long
Had slumbered, chilled by Northern blasts
Awoke, and rage ineffable displayed.

When from the loftiest height of ether, down
Looked th' unlucky boy deep-deep below,
On the dim earth; pale Terror on him seized,
His knees refuse their office, o'er his eyes

A sudden darkness spreads. Would that he were
Of his high lineage ignorant! Would that he
As Merop's son, content with mortal doom
Had never dared immortal task to try!
What must he do? Behind extended lies
A lengthened track-a longer one before.
Each hastily he scans, with longing eye,

To the Sun's couch in western wave he turns,

Which Fate ordained he ne'er should reach, and then

Dissatisfied back to the East he looks.

He knows not what he does-in stupor deep

His senses are enthralled; no power has he

To draw or slack the reins, or to recall

The horses' names. Meanwhile the heavens around

With direful shapes of wo, and monsters grim

Are filled. There is one spot most terrible.
Across the sky through constellations two

With threat'ning curving arms, and poisoned tail
The Scorpion lies extended. When the boy

This monster huge in venom sweltering saw,

And saw his deadly sting in wrath uplift,

Now helpless, quite from fear, the reins threw down. No sooner had the reins wide-floating touched

The horses' backs, than with redoubled speed

Hither and thither, with wild fury rush

The maddened beasts, now mounting high amid
The loftiest stars that stud the heavens, and now,
Descending low, within the realm of earth.

Luna astounded sees the Sun-car glide
Far down below her own. The mountain tops

And clouds that veil them burst in angry flame.
The earth is parched and gapes in yawning chasms;
The growing crops, the trees and foliage burn
And the ripe grain its own destruction speeds.
Great cities with their time-enduring walls
Utterly perish,-while the raging flame
Kingdoms and their inhabitants consumes.
Athos and Tmolus and Cilician Taurus burn,
And Ida once in fountains rich, now dry
And Helicon, the Muses' seat, and Hæmus.
Etna with doubled fires blazes on high.
Eryx, Cynthus, Orthays and Parnassus
With double peak, the rapid fire devours.
And now Rhodope of her robe of snow
Is stript. Mimas, Dindyme, Mycale,
And Bacchus' sacred mount, Cithaeron burn.
The Scythian cold the rapid flames to check
Avails not. Caucasus with Ossa tall,
Pindus, and vast Olympus towering high,
The Alps aerial and cloudy Apennine
Together in one common ruin blaze.

Then Phaethon from his lofty height beholds
A world in flames! The chariot too he feels
Is growing hot! He breathes the glowing air
Heated, as in some furnace vast.
And now

Around him thick in fiery showers fall

Ashes and glowing embers. Wrapped in smoke
Of pitchy blackness, he is whirled along,

He knows not whither, at the horses' will.

Then, as 'tis said, the Ethiop's dusky hue

By scorching heat was caused. Her waters dried
Rich Africa from smiling plenty changed

To desert waste. Then with dishevelled hair
The Nymphs their lakes and fountains lost deplored.
In vain Boeotia seeks the Dircean fount,

And Corinth mourns the lost Pirenian Spring.
Nor do the rivers broad the scorching heat
Escape. The Don amid its rolling waves,
Bubbles and boils. Thessalian Peneus,
Swift Ismenus and Erymanthus bold.
The yellow Evenus and Trojan Xanthus,
Destined again in after time to burn,

At Juno's proud command, now roll in flames.
Maeander too, of windings intricate,
Spartan Eurotas, and Mygdonian Melas,
Euphrates and Orontes, Thermodon,
Ganges, Phasis, Ister, Alpheus burn.

The rapid Tagus down its sandy bed

Pours liquid gold. The graceful swans that sing
Mæonian songs on Cayster's bosom hush.
Egyptian Nile in terror flees, and hides
His head in earth's remotest bound, and yet
Lies hid; his seven broad mouths, whereby
His waters mingled with the sea, dry up.

The western rivers, Rhine and Rhone and Po
And Tiber, future seat of empire shrink

To rivulets. On every hand the earth

Yawns wide, and through the fissures deep light gleams

On Tartarus, and consternation dire

Makes in the nether world. The sea contracts

Its bounds; and from its narrowed limits now
Mountains leap up, and islands multiply.
The fishes seek the depths, no longer now
The painted dolphin on the foaming waves
Dares sport.
The lifeless seals supinely float
On ocean's bosom. Nereus himself, 'tis said,
With Doris and her daughters in the caves
Of ocean hid. Thrice o'er the watery waste
Neptune, with features grim, his head did raise;
Thrice, scorched by heat, as hastily withdrew.
Then fruitful earth, the mother kind of all,

In dire extremity to Heaven turned

Her suppliant eye for aid; with trembling voice

The King of Heaven addressed. "Oh! mighty Jove,

"If I this fate deserve, why linger now

"Thy thunderbolts? If Fate has long decreed

"That I by fire must perish, let it come

"From thy great hand. Scarce can my parching tongue

"My woes unfold. From year to year I feel

"The ploughshare's wounds; for flocks the nutrient grass, "For man abundant fruits I yield, for you

"The rich frankincense. This then the reward

"Of my fertility,—the gratitude

"For all my service! Say that I deserved

"This fate, what has my brother done to move
"Your ire? Why do the seas to him by Fate
"Allotted shrink? But if my earnest prayers

66

Around you look,—the swift devouring flame

"Wraps either pole, and soon in ruin vast

"Your halls will sink. See! Laboring Atlas reels

"And on his shoulders broad a blazing world

"Can scarce sustain. If sea, and land and sky

"Together fall, Chaos is come again.

"For general good consult, and from the flames

"The relics of the Universe retrieve.

Thus Tellus spoke, but now the blinding smoke And vapor rising fast her utterance choked.

Then Jove omnipotent in conclave all

The high divinities of heaven convoked,

And to th' assembled Gods, in anxious words
Declares, that he to save the Universe

From ruin irretrievable, his arm

Must interpose. Up to the lofty mount,

Whence he is wont with friendly veil of clouds
The parching earth to wrap, and whence he hurls

His lightnings, and his thunders, he ascends.

But now, alas! no clouds has he to spread,
No rains to send. With slow and steady hand,
He poised the thunderbolt, his last resort,
And in an instant, hurled it gleaming bright
Full on the charioteer, and quickly checked
His wild career. The horses at the shock
Fell prostrate; but recovering, in affright
They leap opposing: from their necks they tear
The yoke. Here lie the reins, the broken wheels,
The axle there, on every side are spread

The scattered fragments of the ruined car.

But Phaethon, the flame devouring fast

His auburn hair, headlong through tract immense
Of air, fell like a falling star. And far,

Far from his native land upon the banks

Of winding Po, fell dead. His bleeding corse
Th' Hesperian Nymphs receive, and to the earth
Commit, and on his solitary tomb

This epitaph inscribe. "Here Phaethon lies,
"A youth of courage high, who proudly sought
"The chariot of the sun to guide. Alas!

"In high and noble enterprise he fell.

PATRICK HENRY AND THE COMMITTEE OF SAFETY.