With them fate Phineus, and refresh`d his foul
With favery viands and the chearing bowl.
Uníatiated he feeds, and bathes in ftreams
Of extafy beyond the blifs of dreams.

THE HYMN OF CLEANTHES.

UNDER various facred names ador'd!
Divinity fupreme! all potent lord!
Author of nature! whofe unbounded sway
And legiflative power all things obey!
Majestic Jove! all hail! To thee belong
The fuppliant prayer, and tributary song :
To thee from all thy mortal offspring due;
From thee we came, from thee our being drew;
Whatever lives and moves, great fire! is thine,
Embodied portions of the foul divine.
Therefore to thee will I attune my string,
And of thy wondrous power for ever fing.
The wheeling orbs, the wandering fires above,
That round this earthly fphere inceffant move,

Through

Cleanthes, the author of this hymn, was a Stoick philofopher, a difciple of Zeno. He wrote many pieces, none of which are come down to us, but this and a few fragments, which are printed by H. Stephens, in a collection of philofophical poems. This hymn was tranflated at the request of a very learned and ingenicus friend of mine, who was pleased to find fuch just fentiments of the Deity in a Heathen, and fo much poetry in a philofopher.

Through all this boundless world admit thy sway,
And roll fpontaneous where thou point'st the
Such is the awe impreft on nature round

way.

When through the void thy dreadful thunders found,
Those flaming agents of thy matchless power:
Aftonish'd worlds hear, tremble, and adore.
Thus paramount to all, by all obey'd,

Ruling that reafon which through all convey'd
Informs this general mass, thou reign'st ador'd,
Supreme, unbounded, univerfal lord.

For nor in earth, nor earth-encircling floods,
Nor yon æthereal pole, the feat of gods,

Is aught perform'd without thy aid divine;
Strength, wisdom, virtue, mighty Jove, are thine !!
Vice is the act of man, by paffion toft,
And in the fhorelefs fea of folly loft.
But thou, what vice disorders, canst compose;
And profit by the malice of thy foes

So blending good with evil, fair with foul,
As hence to model one harmonious whole:
One univerfal law of truth and right;

But wretched mortals fhun the heavenly light;
And, though to bliss directing still their choice,
Hear not, or heed not, reafon's facred voice,
That common guide ordain'd to point the road
That leads obedient man to folid good.
Thence quitting Virtue's lovely paths they rove,
As various objects various paffions move.
Some through oppofing crowds and threatening war
Seek power's bright throne, and fame's triumphal car.

Some,

Some, bent on wealth, pursue with endless pain
Oppreffive, fordid, and dishonest gain :
While others, to foft indolence refign'd,
Prown in corporeal fweets th' immortal mind.
But, O great father, thunder-ruling god!
Who in thick darkness mak'ft thy dread abode !
Thou, from whofe bounty all good gifts defcend, .
Do thou from ignorance mankind defend!

The clouds of vice and folly, O control;

And fhed the beams of wisdom on the foul!
Those radiant beams, by whofe all-piercing flame-
Thy juftice rules this univerfal frame.

That, honour'd with a portion of thy light,
We may effay thy goodness to requite
With honorary fongs and grateful lays,

And hymn thy glorious works with ceafelefs praise,
The proper task of man: and fure to fing
Of nature's laws, and nature's mighty king,
Is blifs fupreme. Let gods with mortals join!
The fubject may transport a breast divine.

THE

"Tollere nodofam nefcit medicina podagram." OVID.