HUS, equal fortune holds a while the fcale,
And bids the leading chiefs by turns prevail;
In doubt the goddefs, yet, their fate detains,
And keeps them for Emathia's fatal plains.
And now the fetting Pleiades grew low,
The hills ftood hoary in December's fnow;
The folemn season was approaching near,
When other names renew'd the Fafti wear,
And double Janus leads the coming year.
The confuls, while their rods they yet remain'd,
While, yet, fome fhew of liberty maintain'd,
With miffives round the scatter'd fathers greet,
And in Epirus bid the fenate meet.
There the great rulers of the Roman state,
In foreign feats, confulting, meanly fate.
No face of war the grave affembly wears,
But civil power in peaceful pomp appears :
The purple order to their place resort,
While waiting lictors guard the crouded court.
No faction thefe, nor party, feem to be,
But a full fenate, legal, juft, and free.
Great, as he is, here Pompey ftands confeft
A private man, and one among the reft.
Their mutual groans, at length, and murmurs cease,
And every mournful found is hush'd in peace;
When from the confular diftinguish'd throne,
Sublimely rais'd, thus Lentulus begun.
If yet our Roman virtue is the fame,
Yet worthy of the race from which we came,
And emulates our great forefathers name,
Let not our thoughts, by fad remembrance led,
Bewail thofe captive walls from whence we fled.
This time demands that to ourselves we turn,
Nor, fathers, have we leifure now to mourn;
But let each early care, each honest heart,
Our fenate's facred dignity assert.
To all around proclaim it, wide, and near,
That power which kings obey, and nations fear,
That only legal power of Rome, is here.
For whether to the Northern Bear we go,
Where pale she glitters o'er eternal snow;
Or whether in thofe fultry climes we burn,
Where night and day with equal hours return;
The world fhall ftill acknowledge us its head,
And empire follow wherefoe'er we lead.
When Gallic flames the burning city felt,
At Veiæ Rome with her Camillus dwelt.
Beneath forfaken roofs proud Cæfar reigns,
Our vacant courts, and filent laws constrains;
While flaves obedient to his tyrant will,
Outlaws, and profligates, his fenate fill;
With him a banish'd guilty croud appear,
All that are just and innocent are here.
Difpers'd by war, though guiltless of its crimes,
Our order yielded to these impious times;
At length returning each from his retreat,
In happy hour the scatter'd members meet.
The gods and fortune greet us on the way,
And with the world loft Italy repay.
Upon Illyria's favourable coaft,
Vulteius with his furious band are loft;
While in bold Curio, on the Libyan plain,
One half of Cæfar's fenators lie flain.
March then, ye warriors! fecond fate's design,
And to the leading gods your ardour join,
With equal conftancy to battle come,
As when you shunn'd the foe, and left your native Rome.
The period of the confuls power is near,
Who yield our Fafces with the ending year:
But you, ye fathers, whom we still obey,
Who rule mankind with undetermin'd sway,
Attend the public weal, with faithful care,
And bid our greatest Pompey lead the war.
In loud applaufe the pleas'd affembly join,
And to the glorious task the chief assign:
His country's fate they truft to him alone,
And bid him fight Rome's battles, and his own.
Next, to their friends their thanks are dealt around,
And some with gifts, and fome with praise are crown'd:
Of thefe, the chief are Rhodes, by Phoebus lov'd,
And Sparta rough, in virtue's lore approv'd.
Of Athens much they speak; Maffilia's aid
Is with her parent Phocis' freedom paid.
Deiotarus his truth they much commend,
Their ftill unshaken faithful Afian friend.
Brave Cotys and his valiant fon they grace,
With bold Rhafipolis from stormy Thrace.
While gallant Juba justly is decreed
"To his paternal fceptre to fucceed.
And thou too, Ptolemy, (unrighteous fate!)
Wert rais'd unworthy to the regal state;
The crown upon thy perjur'd temples fhone,
That once was borne by Philip's godlike fon.
O'er Egypt fhakes the boy his cruel fword:
(Oh! that he had been only Ægypt's lord !)
But the dire gift more dreadful mischiefs wait,
While Lagos' fceptre gives him Pompey's fate :
Preventing Cæfar's, and his fifter's hand,
He feiz'd his parricide, and her command.
Th' affembly rose, and all on war intent
Buftle to arms, and blindly wait th' event.
Appius alone, impatient to be taught,
With what the threatening future times were fraught,
With bufy curiofity explores
The dreadful purpose of the heavenly powers.
To Delphos ftraight he flies, where long the god
In filence had poffefs'd his close abode;
His oracles had long been known to cease,
And the prophetic virgin liv'd in peace.
Between the ruddy west and eastern skies,
In the mid-earth Parnaffus' tops arise :
To Phoebus, and the chearful god of wine,
Sacred in common ftands the hill divine.
Still as the third revolving year comes round,
The Mænades, with leafy chaplets crown'd,
The double deity in folemn fongs refound.
When, o'er the world, the deluge wide was spread,
This only mountain rear'd his lofty head;
One rifing rock, preserv'd, a bound was given,
Between the vasty deep, and ambient heaven.
Here, to revenge long-vex'd Latona's pain,
Python by infant Pæan's darts was flain,
While yet the realm was held by Themis' righteous
reign.
But when the god perceiv'd, how from below
The conscious caves diviner breathings blow,
How vapours could unfold th' enquirer's doom,
And talking winds could speak of things to come;
Deep in the hollows plunging he retir'd,
There, with foretelling fury first inspir'd,
From thence the prophet's art and honours he acquir'd.
So runs the tale. And oh! what god indeed
Within this gloomy cavern's depth is hid ?
What power divine forfakes the heaven's fair light,
To dwell with earth, and everlasting night?
What is this fpirit, potent, wife, and great,
Who deigns to make a mortal frame his feat;
Who the long chain of secret causes knows,
Whose oracles the years to come disclose ;
Who through eternity at once forefees,
And tells that fate which he himself decrees?
Part of that foul, perhaps, which moves in all,
Whose energy informs the pendent ball,
Through this dark passage seeks the realms above,
And ftrives to re-unite itself to Jove.
Whate'er the Dæmon, when he stands confest
Within his raging prieftefs' panting breast,
Dreadful his godhead from the virgin breaks,
And thundering from her foamy mouth he speaks.
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