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Thofe, only those, shall in my fate partake,
Who love the daring for the danger's fake;
Thofe who can fuffer all the worst can come,

660

670

675

And think it what they owe themselves and Rome.
If any yet fhall doubt, or yet shall fear;
If life be, more than liberty, his care;
Here, ere we journey farther, let him stay,
Inglorious let him, like a flave, obey,
And feek a mafter in fome safer way.
Foremost, behold, I lead you to the toil,
My feet fhall foremost print the dusty foil:
Strike me the firft, thou flaming God of Day,
First let me feel thy fierce, thy scorching ray;
Ye living poifons all, ye fnaky train,
Meet me the first upon the fatal plain.
In every pain, which you my warriors fear,
Let me be firft, and teach you how to bear.
Who fees me pant for drought, or fainting first,
Let him upbraid me, and complain of thirst.
If e'er for fhelter to the fhades I fly,
Me let him curfe, me, for the fultry sky.
If while the weary foldier marches on,
Your leader by distinguish'd ease be known,
Forfake my caufe, and leave me there alone.
The fands, the ferpents, thirk, and burning heat,
Are dear to patience, and to virtue sweet;
Virtue, that scorns on cowards terms to please,
Or cheaply to be bought, or won with cafe;
But then the joys, then fimiles upon her state,
Then faireft to herfelf, then most complete,
When glorious danger makes her truly great.

}

685

So

So Libya's plains alone shall wipe away
The foul dishonours of Pharfalia's day;
So fhall your courage now tranfcend that fear:
You fled with glory there, to conquer here.

He faid; and hardy love of toil infpir'd;
And every breaft with godlike ardour fir'd.
Straight, careless of return, without delay
Through the wide waste he took his pathlefs way.
Libya, ordain'd to be his last retreat,

Receives the hero, fearless of his fate;

Here the good gods his last of labours doom,
Here fhall his bones and facred duft find room,
And his great head be hid, within an humble tomb.

If this large globe be portion'd right by fame,
Then one third part shall fandy Libya claim :
But if we count, as funs defcend and rife,
If we divide by east and west the skies,
Then, with fair Europe, Libya fhall combine,
And both to make the western half shall join.
Whilft wide-extended Afia fills the reft,
Of all from Tanais to Nile poffeft,

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And reigns fole emprefs of the dawning eaft.
Of all the Libyan foil, the kindliest found
Far to the western feas extends its bound;
Where cooling gales, where gentle Zephyrs fly,
And setting funs adorn the gaudy sky :
And yet ev'n here no liquid fountain's vein
Wells through the foil, and gurgles o'er the plain;
But from our northern clime, our gentler heaven,
Refreing dews and fruitful rains are driven;

}

715

All

7251

All bleak, the god, cold Boreas, spreads his wing, 720
And with our winter gives the Libyan fpring..
No wicked wealth infects the simple soil,
Nor golden ores disclose their shining spoil:
Pure is the glebe, 'tis earth, and earth alone,
To guilty pride and avarice unknown:
There citron groves, the native riches, grow,
There cool retreats and fragant shades bestow,
And hofpitably screen their guests below.
Safe by their leafy office, long they stood.
A facred, old, unviolated wood,..
Till Roman luxury to Afric paft,

}

730

}

And foreign axes laid their honours waste.
Thus utmoft lands are ranfack'd, to afford
The far-fetch'd dainties, and the costly board,
But rude and wasteful all thofe regions lie
That border on the Syrts, and feel too nigh
Their fultry fummer fun, and parching y..
No harvest, there, the scatter'd grain repays,.
But withering dies, and ere it fhoots decays :
There never loves to fpring the mantling vine,
Nor wanton ringlets round her elm to twine :
The thirsty duft prevents the fwelling, fruit,
Drinks up the generous juice, and kills the root;
Through fecret veins no tempering noistures pafs,
To bind with viscous force the mouldering mass; 745
But genial Jove, averfe, dildains to smile,
Forgets, and curses the neglected soil.
Thence lazy Nature droops her idle head,

As every vegetable fenfe were dead;

749

Thence

}

755,

}

Thence the wide dreary plains one visage wear,
Alike in fummer, winter, fpring appear,
Nor feel the turns of the revolving year..
Thin herbage here (for fome ev'n here is found)
The Nafamonian hinds collect around;
A naked race, and barbarous of mind,
That live upon the loffes of mankind :
The Syrts fupply their wants and barren soil,
And ftrow th' unhofpitable fhores with spoil.
Trade they have none, but ready still they stand,
Rapacious, to invade the wealthy ftrand,
And hold a commerce, thus, with every distant land.
Through this dire country Cato's journey lay,
Here he purfued, while Virtue led the way.
Here the bold youth, led by his high command,
Fearless of ftorms and raging winds, by land
Repeat the dangers of the fwelling main,
And ftrive with ftorms and raging winds again.
Here all at large, where nought reftrains his force,
Impetuous Aufter runs his rapid course ;
Nor mountains here, nor ftedfast rocks refift,
But free he fweeps along the fpacious lift.
No ftable groves of ancient oaks arise,
To tire his rage, and catch him as he flies;
But wide, around, the naked plains appear,
Here fierce he drives unbounded through the air,
Roars and exerts his dreadful empire here.
The whirling duft, like waves in eddies wrought,
Rifing aloft, to the mid heaven is caught;
There hangs a fullen cloud; nor falls again,
Nor breaks, like gentle vapours, into rain.

765

770.

780

Gazing,

Gazing, the poor inhabitant defcries,

Where high above his land and cottage flies;
Bereft, he fees his loft poffeffions there,
From earth transported, and now fix'd in air.
Not rifing flames attempt a bolder flight;
Like fmoke by rifing flames uplifted, light
The fands afcend, and stain the heavens with night.
But now, his utmost power and rage to boast,
The ftormy god invades the Roman hoft;
The foldier yields, unequal to the shock,
And ftaggers at the wind's ftupendous ftroke.
Amaz'd he fees that earth, which lowly lay,
Forc'd from beneath his feet, and torn away.
Oh Libya! were thy pliant furface bound,
And form'd a folid, clofe-compacted ground;
Qr hadst thou rocks, whofe hollows deep below
Would draw thofe ranging winds that loofely blow;
Their fury, by thy firmer mafs oppos'd,

Or in thofe dark infernal caves inclos'd,

790.

795

800

Thy certain ruin would at once complete,
Shake thy foundations, and unfix thy feat :
But well thy fitting plains have learn'd to yield;
Thus, not contending, thou thy place haft held,
Unfix'd art fix'd, and flying keep it the field.
Helms, fpears and thields, fnatch'd from the warlike hoft,
Through heaven's wide regions far away were toft ;
While diftant nations, with religious fear,
Beheld them, as fome prodigy in air,

And thought the gods by them denounc'd a war.
Such haply was the chance, which firft did raife 810
The pious tale, in priefly Numa's days;

Such

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