Chapter IV

Next beauteous Baia’s warm remains invite
To Nero’s stoves my wond’ring sight;
Where palaces and domes destroy’d
Leave a flat unwholesome void:
Where underneath the cooling wave,
Ordain’d pollution’s fav’rite spot to lave,
Now hardly heaves the stifled sigh
Hot, hydropic luxury.
Yet, chas’d by Heav’n’s correcting hand,
Tho’ various crimes have fled the land;
Tho’ brutish vice, tyrannic pow’r,
No longer tread the trembling shore,
Or taint the ambient air;
By destiny’s kind care arrang’d,
Th’ inhabitants are scarcely chang’d;
For birds obscene, and beasts of prey,
That seek the night and shun the day,
Still find a dwelling there.