Water and corn by turns possess the plain, 

 And Ceres now, and now the Naiads reign. 



Lakes for their fishes some on hills prepare, 

 From whence the water with a friendly care 

 Supplies their gardens with refreshing tides 5 

 Or, under ground, thro' wooden pipes it glides, 

 Till, with a sudden noise it mounts again, 

 And sportful falls in sheets of copious rain. 

 Oft will the streams, o'erflowing, fill the mead 

 With wond'ring nations of the scaly breed; 

 The fish exulting wanders o'er the plain, 

 And now admires the grass and now the grain; 

 Deep in the spacious furrows lies conceal'd, 

 Or crops .the floating herbage of the field ; 

 Till, left to perish in the mud, too late 

 He sees his error, and bewails his fate. 

 By Vice's stream a youth, thus hurry'd o'er 

 Fair Virtue's bounds to paths unknown before, 

 With transport follows where soft pleasure leads, 

 And roves thro' flow'ry but forbidden meads: 

 But, when his joys are like a torrent fled, 

 Sad he reviews the life that once he led ; 

 Now, tho' too late, he struggles to retire, 

 But still remains and flounders in the mire; 

 Till, by experience vainly render'd wise, 

 He sees his folly and repenting dies. 



In hollow depths of rocks the fish delight, 

 The cooling shade t' enjoy and shun the sight; 

 Be thou indulgent to the finny race 

 And after nature's model, form the place; 

 But since the stream, unable here to flow, 

 Will often stagnate and corrupted grow; 

 Rather let shelt'ring trees o'ershade the flood; 

 But then the leaves, when shaken from the wood,, 

 Should with the current down the river swim, 

 Lest by corrupting they defile the stream. 



Let 



