When fill'd with rain, and moved by Venus' power,
Loves to descend to anxious earth's embrace;
Then when these two are join'd in tender love
They are the parents of all fruits to us,
They bring them forth, they cherish them; and so
The race of man both lives and flourishes.
And that most magnificent poet Æschylus, in his Danaides, introduces Venus herself speaking thus—
Then, too, the earth feels love, and longs for wedlock,
And rain, descending from the amorous air,
Impregnates his desiring mate; and she