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The Perfian's promis'd glory, when the realms
Of Indus and the foft Ionian clime,

When Lybia's torrid champain and the rocks
Of cold Imaüs join'd their fervile bands,
To sweep the fons of liberty from earth.
In vain : Minerva on the brazen prow
Of Athens ftood, and with the thunder's voice
Denounc'd her terrours on their impious heads,
And fhook her burning Ægis. Xerxes faw :
From Heracleum, on the mountain's height
Thron'd in his golden car, he knew the fign
Cœleftial; felt unrighteous hope forsake

His faltering heart, and turn'd his face with fhame.
Hail, ye who fhare the ftern Minerva's power;
Who arm the hand of liberty for war!
And give, in fecret, the Britannic name
To awe contending monarchs: yet benign,
Yet mild of nature: to the works of peace
More prone, and lenient of the many ills
Which wait on human life. Your gentle aid
Hygeia well can witness; fhe who faves,
From poisonous cates and cups of pleafing bane,
The wretch devoted to the entangling fnarés
Of Bacchus and of Comus. Him fhe leads

To

To Cynthia's lonely haunts. To fpread the toils,

To beat the coverts, with the jovial horn

At dawn of day to fummon the loud hounds,

She calls the lingering fluggard from his dreams:

And where his breast may drink the mountain breeze,

And where the fervour of the funny vale

His

May beat upon his brow, through devious paths
Beckons his rapid courfer. Nor when ease,
Cool eafe and welcome flumbers have becalm'd
eager bofom, does the queen of health
Her pleafing care withhold. His decent board
She guards, prefiding; and the frugal powers
With joy fedate leads in: and while the brown
Ennæan dame with Pan prefents her stores;
While changing ftill, and comely in the change,
Vertumnus and the Hours before him spread
The garden's banquet; you to crown his feast,
To crown his feaft, O Naiads, you the fair
Hygeia calls and from your fhelving feats,
And groves of poplar, plenteous cups ye bring,
To flake his veins: 'till foon a purer tide
Flows down thofe loaded channels; wafheth off
The dregs of luxury, the lurking feeds

Of crude disease; and through the abodes of life

Sends

་་

Sends vigour, fends repofe. Hail, Naiads: hail,
Who give, to labour, health; to stooping age,
The joys which youth had squander'd. Oft your urns
Will I invoke; and, frequent in your praise,
Abash the frantic Thyrfus with my fong.

For not estrang'd from your benignant arts
Is he, the God, to whofe mysterious shrine
My youth was facred, and my votive cares
Are due; the learned Pæon. Oft when all
His cordial treasures he hath fearch'd in vain;
When herbs, and potent trees, and drops of balm
Rich with the genial influence of the fun,

(To rouze dark fancy from her plaintive dreams,
To brace the nerveless arm, with food to win
Sick appetite, or hufh the unquiet breast
Which pines with filent paffion) he in vain
Hath prov'd; to your deep manfions he defcends.
Your gates of humid rock, your dim arcades,
He entereth; where impurpled veins of ore
Gleam on the roof; where through the rigid mine
Your trickling rills infinuate. There the God
From your indulgent hands the streaming bowl
Wafts to his pale-ey'd fuppliants; wafts the feeds
Metallic and the elemental falts

Wash'd

Wash'd from the pregnant glebe. They drink: and foon Flies pain; flies inaufpicious care: and foon

The focial haunt or unfrequented shade

Hears Io, Io Pæan; as of old,

When Python fell. And, O propitious Nymphs,

Oft as for hapless mortals I implore

Your falutary springs, through every urn
O fhed felected atoms, and with all

Your healing powers inform the recent wave.

My lyre fhall pay your bounty. Nor difdain
That humble tribute. Though a mortal hand
Excite the strings to utterance, yet for themes
Not unregarded of cœleftial powers

I frame their language; and the Muses deign
To guide the pious tenour of my lay.
The Mufes (facred by their gifts divine)
In early days did to my wondering sense
Their fecrets oft reveal: oft my rais'd ear
In flumber felt their mufic: oft at noon
Or hour of funfet, by fome lonely stream,

In field or fhady grove, they taught me words

Of

power from death and envy to preferve

The good man's name. whence yet with grateful mind, And offerings unprofan'd by ruder eye,

VOL. VI.

B

My

My vows I fend, my homage, to the feats

Where you

Of rocky Cirrha, where with you they dwell:
their chafte companions they admit
Through all the hallow'd fcene: where oft intent,
And leaning o'er Caftalia's moffy verge,
They mark the cadence of your confluent urns, "
How tunefull, yielding gratefullest repofe
To their conforted measure: 'till again,
With emulation all the founding choir,
And bright Apollo, leader of the fong,
Their voices through the liquid air exalt,

And fweep their lofty ftrings: those aweful ftrings,
That charm the minds of Gods: that fill the courts
Of wide Olympus with oblivion sweet

Of evils, with immortal reft from cares;
Affuage the terrours of the throne of Jove;
And quench the formidable thunderbolt
Of unrelenting fire. With flacken'd wings,
While now the folemn concert breathes around,
Incumbent o'er the fceptre of his lord

Sleeps the ftern eagle; by the number'd notes,
Poffefs'd; and fatiate with the melting tone:

Sovereign of birds. The furious God of war,
His darts forgetting and the rapid wheels

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