The Dumb Discovery

THô Cupid flames from Vulcan stole,
And made a Bonfire of my Soul;
Resolv'd from Aetna to remove,
There to set up his Forge for Love:
With this perswasion prepossest,
That Flames pent in a narrow Breast,
Would dispatch sooner poyson'd Darts,
None so hot as Lovers hearts:
Yet thought I none this Shop can know,
Hid, like Aetna, under Snow.
None suspect, an outward Styx
With Phlegeton under ground should mix:
But my Ashes all betray,
And to my Work house shew the way.
Thus the Philosopher, who fraught
With an ambitious fury, thought
To be install'd a God, by night
Took downwards an immortal flight:
By his descension would aspire
Through the burning Mount, in fire:
Aetna, to undeceive the World,
His Iron Slippers upwards hurl'd.
He, greedy to advance his Name,
Beguil'd at once of Life and Fame.