Him, and his collegues, who with honest zeal O'er Tenedos prefide, and guard the publick weal.

ANTIS TROPHE I.

And lo! with frequent offerings they adore
Thee, first invok'd in every folemn prayer!
To thee unmix'd libations pour,

And fill with odorous fumes the fragrant air.
Around in feftive fongs the hymning choir`
Mix the melodious voice and founding lyre.
While ftill, prolong'd with hofpitable love,
Are folemniz'd the rites of Genial Jove:
Then guard him, Vefta, through his long career,
And let him clofe in joy his minifterial year.

E PODE L

But hail, Arcefilas! all hail

To thee! blefs'd father of a fon fo great!
Thou, whom on Fortune's highest scale
The favourable hand of Heaven hath fet,
Thy manly form with beauty hath refin’d,
And match'd that beauty with a valiant mind.
Yet let not man too much prefume,

Though grac'd with Beauty's fairest bloom;
Though for fuperior ftrength renown'd;
Though with triumphal chaplets crown'd:
Let him remember, that in flesh array'd
Soon fhall he fee that mortal veftment fade;
Till laft imprifon'd in the mouldering urn
To earth, the end of all things, he return.

STRO

STROPHE II.

Yet fhould the worthy from the publick tongue
Receive their recompence of virtuous praise;
By every zealous patriot fung,

And deck'd with every flower of heavenly lays.
Such retribution in return for fame,

Such, Ariftagoras, thy virtues claim ;

Claim from thy country, on whofe glorious brows
The wreftler's chaplet ftill unfaded blows

Mix'd with the great Pancratiaftick crown,

Which from the neighbouring youth thy early valour

won.

ANTIS TROPHE II.

And (but his timid parents' cautious love,
Diftrufting ever his too forward hand,
Forbade their tender fon to prove
The toils of Pythia' or Olympia's fand)
Now by the gods I fwear, his valorous might
Had 'fcap'd victorious in each bloody fight:
And from Caftalia, or where dark with fhade
The Mount of Saturn rears its olive-head,

Gicat and illuftrious home had he return'd; While by his fame eclips'd his vanquifh'd foes had mourn'd.

E PODE II.

Then his triumphal treffes bound

With the dark verdure of th' Olympick grove,

With joyous banquets had he crown'd The great Quinquennial Festival of Jove;

P 3

And

And chear'd the folemn pomp with choral fays,
Sweet tribute, which the Mufe to Virtue pays.
But, fuch is man's prepofterous fate!
Now with o'er-weening pride elate
Too far he aims his fhaft to throw,
And ftraining burfts his feeble bow.
Now pufillanimous, deprefs'd with fear,
He checks his virtue in the mid-career;
And of his ftrength distrustful coward flies
The contest, though impower'd to gain the prize

But who could err in prophecying good Of him, whofe undegenerating breaft Swells with a tide of Spartan blood, From fire to fire in long fucceffion trac'd Up to Pifander; who in days of yore From old Amycle to the Lesbian shore And Tenedos, collegued in high command With great Oreftes, led th' Æolian band? Nor was his mother's race lefs ftrong and brave, Sprung from a stock that grew on fair Ifmenus' wave,

Though for long intervals obscur'd, again
Oft-times the feeds of lineal worth appear.

For neither can the furrow'd plain
Full harvests yield with each returning year:
Nor in each period will the pregnant bloom
Inveft the finiling tree with rich perfume.

So,

So, barren often and inglorious pafs
The generations of a noble race;

While Nature's vigour, working at the root,
In after-ages fwells, and bloffoms into fruit.

Nor hath Jove given us to foreknow
When the rich years of virtue fhall fucceed;
Yet bold and daring on we go,

Contriving schemes of many a mighty deed.
While Hope, fond inmate of the human mind,
And felf-opinion, active, rash, and blind;
Hold up a falfe illusive ray,

That leads our dazzled feet aftray

Far from the fprings, where calm and flow
The fecret ftreams of wisdom flow.

Hence fhould we learn our ardour to restrain:
And limit to due bounds the thirst of gain.
To rage and madness oft that paffion turns,
Which with forbidden flames despairing burns.

THE SECOND ISTHMIAN ODE.

This Ode was written upon occafion of a victory obtained in the Chariot-Race by Xenocrates of Agrigentum in the Ifthmian games; it is however addreifed not to Xenocrates himself, but to his fon Thrafybulus; from whence, and from Pindar's always speaking of Xenocrates in the perfect tense, it is most probable it was written after the death of Xenocrates; and for this reafon it has by fome been reckoned among the Spara or Elegies of Pindar.

THE introduction contains a fort of an apology for a Poet's taking moncy for his compofitions; a thing, fays Pindar, not practifed formerly by the fervants of the Mufes, who drew their infpiration from love alone, and wrote only from the heart: but as the world is grown interested, fo are the Poets become mercenary; obferving the truth of that famous faying of Ariftodemus the Spartan, "Money makes "the man" a truth, he fays, which he himself experienced, having with his riches loft all his friends; and of this truth, continues Pindar, you, Thrafybulus, are not ignorant, for you are a wife man: I fhall, therefore fay no more

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