Then, more than blest, I fondly swear, "No pow'r can with love's pow'r compare! "None in the starry court of Jove

"Is greater than the god of love! "If any can yet greater be,

"Yes, my Neæra! yes, 'tis Thee !"

BASIUM VI.

DE meliore notá bis basia mille paciscens
Basia mille dedi, basia mille tuli.

Explêsti numerum, fateor, jucunda Neæra!
Expleri numero sed nequit ullus amor.

Quis laudet Cererem numeratis surgere aristis?
Gramen in irriguâ quis numeravit humo?

Quis tibi, Bacche, tulit pro centum vota racemis?
Agricolumve Deum mille poposcit apeis?
Cùm pius irrorat sitienteis Juppiter agros,
Decidua guttas non numeramus aquæ.

Sic

quoque, cùm ventis concussus inhorruit aër, Sumpsit et iratá Juppiter arma manu,

[Agricolumve Deum, &c.]

Aristæus, one of the rural

deities, who is said to have first discovered the use of honey; vide Pausanias, in Arcadicis. A pretty history of him may be found in Virgil, Georg. iv.

KISS. VI.

TWO thousand Kisses of the sweetest kind,
'Twas once agreed, our mutual love should bind;
First from my lips a rapt'rous thousand flow'd,
Then you a thousand in your turn bestow'd;
The promis'd numbers were fulfill'd, I own,
But Love suffic'd with numbers ne'er was known!
What mortal strives to count each springing blade,
That spreads the surface of a grassy mead ?
Who prays for number'd ears of rip'ning grain,
When lavish Ceres yellows o'er the plain?
Or to a scanty hundred would confine

The clust'ring grapes, when Bacchus loads the vine?
Who asks the Guardian of the honied store
To grant a thousand bees, and grant no more?
Or tells the drops, while o'er some thirsty field
The liquid stores are from above distill'd?
When Jove with fury hurls the moulded hail,
And earth and sea destructive storms assail,
Or when he bids, from his tempestuous sky,
The winds unchain'd with wasting horror fly,

Grandine confusá terras et cærula pulsat,
Securus sternat quot sata, quotve locis.

Seu bona, seu mala sunt, veniunt uberrima cœlo:
Majestas domui convenit illa Jovis.

Tu quoque cùm dea sis, diva formosior illa,
Concha per æquoreum quam vaga ducit iter ;
Basia cur numero, cœlestia dona, coërces?
Nec numeras gemitus, dura puella, meos ?

Nec lachrymas numeras, quæ per faciemque si

numque,

Duxerunt rivos semper-euntis aquæ?

[Concha per æquoreum, &c.] The shell of Venus has been celebrated by classics, both ancient and modern; Et faveas conchâ Cypria vecta tuâ

TIBULL LIB. III. EL. 3.

And aid me, Venus! from thy pearly car.

And thus Hercules Strozza:

GRAINGER.

Nabat Erythreâ materna per æquora conchâ,

Qualis erat spumis edita, nuda Venus.

HERC. STROZ. AMO. L. II. EL. 5.

In Erythrean shell the sea-born Queen

Rode on her native waves, her native beauties seen.

[Duxerunt rivos semper-euntis, &c.] Sidronius Hosschius, a Latin poet, of Marke, in Germany, who flourished

The God ne'er heeds what harvests he may spoil,
Nor yet regards each desolated soil :

So, when its blessings bounteous Heav'n ordains,
It ne'er with sparing hand the good restrains;
Evils in like abundance, too, it show'rs;
Well suits profusion with immortal Pow'rs!
Then since such gifts with heav'nly minds agree,
Shed, Goddess-like, your blandishments on me ;
And say, Neæra! for that form divine
Speaks thee descended of ætherial line;
Say, Goddess! than that Goddess lovelier far
Who roams o'er ocean in her pearly car;
Your kisses, boons celestial! why withhold?
Or why by scanty numbers are they told?
Still you ne'er count, hard-hearted Maid! those
sighs

Which in my lab'ring breast incessant rise;

in the beginning of the 17th century, in like manner expresses Love's perpetual sorrow.

Utque per attritas rivum sibi ducit arenas,

Quæ riguo manat fonte perennis aqua;

Sic exesa tibi sulcos duxere per ora

Ex oculis imbres qui tibi semper eunt.

S. P. HOSSCH. LACRIM. ELEG. X.

As wears the furrow'd sands, with ceaseless wave,
The stream, that some exhaustless fount supplies:

So show'rs thy tear-worn beauties ever lave,

Sad show'rs, that stream incessant from thine eyes!

D