"To thee, O Proferpine! this ifle I give," Said Jove, and, as he said,

Smil'd, and bent his gracious head.

"And thou, O ifle!" faid he, " for ever thrive, "And keep the value of our gift alive!

"As Heaven with stars, fo let

"The country thick with towns be fet,
"And numberlefs as ftars!

"Let all the towns be then

"Wife in peace, and bold in wars! "Of thousand glorious towns the nation, "Of thousand glorious men each town a conftellation! "Nor let their warlike laurel fcorn,

"With the Olympic olive to be worn,

Whose gentler honours do fo well the brows of peace " adorn!"

Go to great Syracufe, my Mufe, and wait
At Chromius' hofpitable gate;
'Twill open. wide to let thee in,

When thy lyre's voice fhall but begin;
Joy, plenty, and free welcome, dwells within..
The Tyrian beds thou shalt find ready drest,
The ivory table crowded with a feast :
The table which is free for every guest,
No doubt will thee admit,

And feast more upon thee, than thou on it.
Chromius and thou art met aright,

For, as by nature thou doft write,

So he by nature loves, and does by nature fight.

VOL. II.

C

Nature

Nature herself, whilst in the womb he was,

Sow'd strength and beauty through the forming mafs;

They mov'd the vital lump in every part,

And carv'd the members out with wondrous art.
She fill'd his mind with courage, and with wit,

And a vast bounty, apt and fit

For the great dower which Fortune made to it.
'Tis madness fure treasures to hoard,
And make them useless, as in mines, remain,
To lofe th' occafion Fortune does afford
Fame and public love to gain :
Ev'n for felf-concerning ends,

'Tis wifer much to hoard-up friends. Though happy men the present goods poffefs, Th' unhappy have their share in future hopes no lefs.

How early has young Chromius begun
The race of virtue, and how swiftly run,
And borne the noble prize away,

Whilft other youths yet at the barriers stay!

None but Alcides e'er fet earlier forth than be: The God, his father's, blood nought could restrain, 'Twas ripe at firft, and did difdain

The flow advance of dull humanity.

The big-limb'd babe in his huge cradle lay,
Too weighty to be rock'd by nurfe's hands,
Wrapt in purple fwadling-bands;

When, lo! by jealous Juno's fierce commands,
Two dreadful ferpents come,

Rolling and hiffing loud, into the room;

To the bold babe they trace their bidden way;

Forth

F

Forth from their flaming eyes dread lightnings went, Their gaping mouths did forked tongues, like thunderbolts, prefent.

Some of th' amazed women dropt down dead

With fear, fome wildly fled

About the room, fome into corners crept,

Where filently they shook and wept :

All naked from her bed the paffionate mother leap'd,
To fave or perish with her child;

She trembled, and the cry'd; the mighty infant fmil'd:
The mighty infant seem'd well pleas'd
At his gay gilded foes;

And, as their spotted necks up to the cradle rofe,
With his young warlike hands on both he feiz'd;
In vain they rag'd, in vain they hifs'd,
In vain their armed tails they twist,

And angry circles cast about;

Black blood, and fiery breath, and poisonous foul, he fqueezes out!

With their drawn fwords

In ran Amphitryo and the Theban lords s;
With doubting wonder, and with troubled joy,
They faw the conquering boy

Laugh, and point downwards to his prey,
Where, in death's pangs and their own gore, they fold-

ing lay.

When wife Tirefias this beginning knew,

He told with ease the things t' enfue;

From what monfters he should free
The earth, the air, and fea;

What mighty tyrants he should slay,
Greater monsters far than they ;

How much at Phlægra's field the diftreft Gods fhould owe
To their great offspring here below;

And how his club fhould there outdo Apollo's filver bow, and his own father's thunder too.

And that the grateful Gods, at last, The race of his laborious virtue past,

Heaven, which he fav'd, should to him give; Where, marry'd to eternal youth, he should for ever live;

Drink nectar with the Gods, and all his fenfes please In their harmonious, golden palaces ;

Walk with ineffable delight

Through the thick groves of never-withering light,
And, as he walks, affright

The lion and the bear,

Bull, centaur, fcorpion, all the radiant monsters there.

THE PRAISE OF PINDAR. In imitation of HORACE's fecond Ode, B. IV. "Pindarum quifquis ftudet æmulari, &c.”

INDAR is imitable by none;

PIN

The Phoenix Pindar is a vast species alone.

Who e'er but Dædalus with waxen wings could fly, And neither fink too low nor foar too high?

What

What could he who follow'd claim, But of vain boldness the unhappy fame, And by his fall a fea to name?

Pindar's unnavigable fong

Like a fwoln flood from fome steep mountain pours along; The ocean meets with fuch a voice,

From his enlarged mouth, as drowns the ocean's noife.

So Pindar does new words and figures roll
Down his impetuous dithyrambic tide,

Which in no channel deigns t' abide,
Which neither banks nor dykes control:
Whether th' immortal Gods he fings,
In a no lefs immortal strain,

Or the great acts of God-defcended kings,
Who in his numbers ftill furvive and reign;
Each rich-embroider'd line,

Which their triumphant brows around,
By his facred hand is bound,
Does all their ftarry diadems outfhine.

Whether at Pifa's race he pleafe

To carve in polifh'd verfe the conqueror's images;
Whether the fwift, the fkilful, or the ftrong,
Be crowned in his nimble, artful, vigorous fong;
Whether fome brave young man's untimely fate,
In words worth dying for, he celebrate→

Such mournful, and fuch pleafing words,
As joy to his mother's and his miftrefs' grief affords-