"To thee, O Proferpine! this ifle I give," Said Jove, and, as he faid, Smil'd, and bent his gracious head. "And thou, O isle!" faid he, " for ever thrive, " And keep the value of our gift alive! "As Heaven with stars, so let "The country thick with towns be set, "Let all the towns be then "Replenish'd thick with men, "Wife in peace, and bold in wars ! " Of thousand glorious men each town a conftellation! "Nor let their warlike laurel scorn, "With the Olympic olive to be worn, " Whose gentler honours do so well the brows of peace " adorn!" Go to great Syracuse, my Muse, and wait When thy lyre's voice shall but begin; And feaft more upon thee, than thou on it. So he by nature loves, and does by nature fight. C Nature Nature herself, whilst in the womb he was, • And carv'd the members out with wondrous art. For the great dower which Fortune made to it. Fame and public love to gain : How early has young Chromius begun And borne the noble prize away, 'Twas ripe at first, and did disdain The flow advance of dull humanity. When, lo! by jealous Juno's fierce commands, Rolling and hiffing loud, into the room; Forth Forth from their flaming eyes dread lightnings went, Their gaping mouths did forked tongues, like thunder bolts, prefent. Some of th' amazed women dropt down dead About the room, some 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 feem'd well pleas'd At his gay gilded foes; And, as their spotted necks up to the cradle rofe, And angry circles caft about; Black blood, and fiery breath, and poisonous foul, he squeezes out! With their drawn fwords In ran Amphitryo and the Theban lords; 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 eafe the things t' enfue; From what monsters he should free How much at Phlægra's field the distrest Gods should owe And how his club should 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 paft, Heaven, which he sav'd, should to him give; Where, marry'd to eternal youth, he should for ever live; Drink nectar with the Gods, and all his senses please In their harmonious, golden palaces; Walk with ineffable delight Through the thick groves of never-withering light, Bull, centaur, fcorpion, all the radiant monsters there. THE PRAISE OF PINDAR. In imitation of HORACE's second Ode, B. IV. " Pindarum quisquis studet æmulari, &c." PINDAR is imitable by none; 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 i PRAISE OF PINDAR. 21 What could he who follow'd claim, But of vain boldness the unhappy fame, Like a fwoln flood from fome steep mountain pours along; From his enlarged mouth, as drowns the ocean's noife. So Pindar does new words and figures roll Which in no channel deigns t' abide, In a no less immortal strain, Whether at Pifa's race he please To carve in polish'd verse the conqueror's images; Such mournful, and fuch pleasing words, |