facrifices to him, and inftituting games in his honour. The mention of thofe games naturally brings back the Poet to Diagoras; and gives him occafion, from the two victories obtained by Diagoras in those games, to enumerate all the prizes won by that famous conqueror in all the games of Greece: after which enumeration, he begs of Jupiter, in a folemn prayer, to grant Diagoras the love of his country, and the admiration of all the world, as a reward for the many virtues for which he and his family had always been diftinguished, and for which their country had fo often triumphed: and then, as if he had been a witnefs of the extravagant transports of the Rhodians (to which, not the festival only occafioned by the triumphal entry of their countryman, and the glory reflected upon them by his victories, but much more the flattering and extraordinary sulogiums bestowed upon the whole nation in this Ode, might have given birth), the Poet on a fudden changes his hand, and checks their pride by a moral reflection on the viciffitude of fortune, with which he exhorts them to moderation, and fo concludes.

A

HEROIC STANZAS,

I.

S when a father in the golden vase,

The pride and glory of his wealthy ftores, Bent his lov'd daughter's nuptial torch to grace, The vineyard's purple dews profusely pours;

II. Then

II.

Then to his lips the foaming chalice rears,
With bleffings hallow'd, and aufpicious vows,
And, mingling with the draught tranfporting tears,
On the young bridegroom the rich gift bestows;
III.

The precious earnest of efteem fincere,
Of friendly union and connubial love :
The bridal train the facred pledge revere,
And round the youth in fprightly measures move.
IV.

He to his home the valued prefent bears,
The grace and ornament of future feafts;
Where, as his father's bounty he declares,
Wonder shall feize the gratulating guests.

V.

Thus on the valiant, on the fwift, and ftrong,
Caftalia's genuine nectar I bestow;

And, pouring forth the Mufe-defcended song,
Bid to their praises the rich numbers flow.
vi.

Grateful to them refounds th' harmonick Óde,
The gift of friendship and the pledge of fame.
Happy the mortal, whom th' Aonian God
Chears with the musick of a glorious name!

VII.

The Mufe her piercing glances throws around,
And quick, difcovers every worthy deed:
And now the wakes the lyre's inchanting found,
Now fills with various ftrains the vocal reed:

VIII. But

VIII.

But here each instrument of fong divine,,
The vocal reed and lyre's enchanting string,
She tunes; and bids their harmony combine
Thee, and thy Rhodes, Diagoras, to fing;

IX.

Thee and thy country, native of the flood,
Which from bright Rhodos draws her honour'd name,
Fair nymph, whofe charms fubdued the Delphic God,
Fair blooming daughter of the Cyprian dame :

X.

To fing thy triumphs in th' Olympick fand,
Where Alpheus faw thy giant-temples crown'd;
Fam'd Pythia too proclaim'd thy conquering hand,
Where sweet Castalia's mystic currents found.

XI.

Nor Damagetus will I pafs unfung,

Thy fire, the friend of Juftice and of Truth;
From noble ancestors whofe lineage sprung,

The chiefs who led to Rhodes the Argive youth.
XII.

There near to Afia's wide-extended strand,
Where jutting Embolus the waves divides,
In three divifions they they poffefs'd the land,
Enthron'd amid the hoarfe-refounding tides.

XIII.

To their defcendants will I tune my lyre,
The offspring of Alcides bold and strong;
And from Tlepolemus, their common fire,
Deduce the national hiftorick fong.

XIV. Tlepole

XIV.

Tlepolemus of great Alcides came,
The fruits of fair Aftydameïa's love,
Jove-born Amyntor got the Argive dame :
So either lineage is deriv'd from Jove.

XV.

But wrapt in error is the human mind,
And human blifs is ever infecure :

Know we what fortune yet remains behind?
Know we how long the prefent fhall endure?

XVI.

For lo the founder of the Rhodian ftate,
Who from Saturnian Jove his being drew,
While his fell bofom fwell'd with vengeful hate,
The baftard-brother of Alcmena flew.

XVII.

With his rude mace, in fair Tiryntha's walls,
Tlepolemus inflicts the horrid wound :
Ev'n at his mother's door Licymnius falls,

Yet warm from her embrace, and bites the ground.

XVIII.

Paffion may oft the wifeft heart furprize:

Confcious and trembling for the murderous deed,

To Delphi's Oracle the hero flies,

Solicitous to learn what Heaven decrced.

Tlepolemus.

XIX, Him

XIX.

Him bright-hair'd Phœbus, from his odorous fane,

Bade fet his flying fails from Lerna's fhore, And, in the bolom of the Eastern Main, That fea-girt region haften to explore;

XX.

That blissful island, where a wonderous cloud
Once rain'd, at Jove's command, a golden fhower;
What time, affifted by the Lemnian God,

The King of Heaven brought forth the Virgin Power.
XXI.

By Vulcan's art the father's teeming head

Was open'd wide, and forth impetuous sprung, And fhouted fierce and loud, the Warrior Maid: Old Mother Earth and Heaven affrighted rung. XXII.

Then Hyperion's fon, pure fount of day,

Did to his children the strange tale reveal :

He warn'd them ftrait the facrifice to flay,

And worship the young Power with earliest zeal.
XXIII.

So would they footh the mighty father's mind,
Pleas'd with the honours to his daughter paid;
And fo propitious ever would they find
Minerva, warlike, formidable maid. "

XXIV.

On ftaid precaution, vigilant and wife,
True virtue and true happiness depend;
But oft Oblivion's darkening clouds arise,
And from the deftin'd scope our purpose bend.

XXV, The