[_So young Dione_. l. 47. There is an antient gem representing Venus
rising out of the ocean supported by two Tritons. From the formality of
the design it would appear to be of great antiquity before the
introduction of fine taste into the world. It is probable that this
beautiful allegory was originally an hieroglyphic picture (before the
invention of letters) descriptive of the formation of the earth from the
ocean, which seems to have been an opinion of many of the most antient
philosophers.]


III. "You! who then, kindling after many an age,
Saw with new fires the first VOLCANO rage,
O'er smouldering heaps of livid sulphur swell
70 At Earth's firm centre, and distend her shell,
Saw at each opening cleft the furnace glow,
And seas rush headlong on the gulphs below.--
GNOMES! how you shriek'd! when through the troubled air
Roar'd the fierce din of elemental war;
75 When rose the continents, and sunk the main,
And Earth's huge sphere exploding burst in twain.--
GNOMES! how you gazed! when from her wounded side
Where now the South-Sea heaves its waste of tide,
Rose on swift wheels the MOON'S refulgent car,
80 Circling the solar orb; a sister-star,
Dimpled with vales, with shining hills emboss'd,
And roll'd round Earth her airless realms of frost.


[_The first volcano_. l. 68. As the earth before the existence of