But what are past or future joys?
The present is our own;
And he is wise who best employs
The passing hour alone.
To crown with knightly wreath the king,
(A grateful task,) be mine,
And on the smooth Eolian string
Resound his lofty line.
For ne'er shall wandering poet find
A chief so just, a host so kind;
With every grace of fortune blest,
The mightiest, wisest, bravest, best.
God, who beholdeth thee, and all thy deeds,
Have thee in charge king Hiero!-so again
The bard may sing thy horny-hoofed steeds,
In frequent triumph o'er th' Olympian plain.
Nor will the bard awake a lowly strain
His wild notes flinging o'er the Cronian steep,
Whose ready Muse, and not invok'd in vain,
For such high mark her strongest shaft will keep.
Each hath his proper eminence,
To kings indulgent providence
(No farther seek the will of heaven)
The glories of the earth hath given.
Still may'st thou reign! enough for me
To dwell with heroes like to thee,
Myself the chief of Grecian minstrelsy.
TO THERON OF AGRAGAS, VICTOR IN THE RACE OF CHARIOTS.
OLYMP. II.
Oh song, to whom the harp obeys,
Accordant, aye, with answering string,
What God, what Hero, wilt thou praise,
What man of godlike prowess sing?
Lo, Jove himself is Pisa's king;
And Jove's strong son was first to raise
The barrier of the Olympic ring
And now, victorious on the wing
Of sounding wheels, our bards proclaim
The stranger Theron's honour'd name,
The flower of no ignoble race,
And prop of ancient Agragas:
Whose patient sires for many a year,
Where that blue river rolls his flood,
'Mid fruitless war and civil blood,
Essay'd their sacred home to rear;
Till time adorn'd in fated hour
Their native worth with wealth and power,
And made them from their low degree
The eye of warlike Sicily.
And may the God of ancient birth,
From Saturn sprung and parent earth,
Of tall Olympus Lord;
Who marks with still benignant eye
The game's long splendour sweeping by,
And Alpheus' holy ford;
Appeas'd by anthems chaunted high,
To Theron's late posterity
A happier doom accord!
Or good, or ill, the past is gone;
Nor Time himself, the parent one,
Can make the former deeds undone:
But who would these recall,
When happier days would fain efface
Remembrance of the past disgrace,
And from the Gods on Theron's race
Unbounded blessings fall?
Example meet for such a song
The sister queens of Cadmus' blood, Who sorrow's smart endured long,
Made keener by remember'd good. Yet now, she breathes the air of heaven, On earth by smouldering thunder riven, Long haired Semele.
To Pallas dear is she,
Dear to the Sire of Gods, and dear
To him her son, in festal glee
Who shakes the ivy-wreathed spear.
And thus, they tell, that deep below
The sounding ocean's ebb and flow,
Amid the daughters of the sea
A sister nymph must Ino be,
And dwell in bliss eternally.
But, ignorant and blind,
We little know the coming hour;
Or if the latter day shall lower,
Or if to nature's kindly power
Our life in peace resign'd,
Shall sink like fall of summer eve
And on the face of darkness leave
A ruddy smile behind.
For grief and joy in fitful gale crazy bark by turns assail;
And, whence our blessings flow,
That same tremendous providence
Will oft a varying doom dispense,
And lay the mighty low.
To Theban Laïus that befell,
Whose son, with murder died,
Fulfill'd the former oracle,
Unconscious parricide!
Unconscious!-yet avenging hell
Pursued the dark offender's pace;
And heavy, sure, and hard it fell,
The curse of blood on all his race!
Spar'd from their kindred strife,
The young Thersander's life,
Stern Polynices' heir was left alone:
In every martial game,
And in the field of fame
For early force, and matchless prowess known;
Was left the pride and prop to be
Of good Adrastus' pedigree.
And hence, through loins of ancient kings,
The warrior blood of Theron springs:
Exalted name! to whom belong
The minstrel's harp, the poet's song;
In fair Olympia crown'd;
And where, 'mid Pythia's olives blue,
An equal lot his brothers drew;
And where his twice twain coursers flew
The isthmus twelve times round.
Such honour, earn'd by toil and care,
May well his ancient wrongs repair;
And wealth unstain'd by pride
Can laugh at fortune's fickle power
And blameless in the tempting hour
Of dangerous ease abide,
Led by that star of heavenly ray
Which best in life's bewilder'd way
Our erring feet may guide.
For, whoso holds in righteousness the throne,
He in his heart hath known
How the foul spirits of the sinful dead,
In chambers dark and dread
Of nether earth abide and penal flame;
Where he whom none may name
Lays bare the soul with stern necessity;
Seated in judgment high,
The minister of God, whose arm is there,
In heaven alike and hell, almighty every where!
But ever bright, by day, by night,
Exulting in eternal light,
From labour free and long distress,
The good enjoy their happiness.
No more the stubborn soil they cleave,
Nor stem for scanty food the wave,
But with the venerable Gods they dwell,
No tear bedims their thankful eye,
Nor mars their long tranquillity,
While those accursed howl in pangs unspeakable!
But who the thrice-renew'd probation
Of either world can well endure,
And keep, with righteous destination,
The soul from all transgression pure;
To such and such alone is given
To walk the rainbow paths of heaven,
To that tall city of Eternal Time,
Where ocean's balmy breezes play;
And flashing to the western day,
The gorgeous blossoms of such blessed clime,
Now in the happy isles are seen
To sparkle through the groves of green;
And now, all glorious to behold,"
Tinge the wave with floating gold.
Hence are their garlands woven, hence their hands
Fill'd with triumphal palm, the righteous doom
Of Rhadamanthus; whom o'er these his lands,
A blameless judge in every age to come,
Chronos, old Chronos, Sire of Gods hath placed;
Who with his consort dear
Dread Rhea, reigneth here,
On cloudy throne with deathless honour graced.
And still, they say, in high communion, :-
Peleus and Cadmus here abide;
And with the blest in blessed union,
(Nor Jove has Thetis' prayer denied,)
The daughter of the ancient sea
Hath brought her warrior boy to be;
Him whose stern avenging blow
Laid the prop of Ilium low;
Hector, trained to slaughter fell,
By all but him invincible;
And sea-born Cygnus tam'd, and slew
Aurora's knight of Ethiop hue.
Beneath my rattling belt I bear
A sheaf of arrows keen and clear;
Of vocal shafts that wildly fly,
Nor ken the base their import high,
Yet to the wise they breathe no vulgar melody.
Yes! he is wise whom nature's power
Hath rais'd above the crowd;
But, train'd in study's formal hour,
There are who hate the minstrel's power,
As daws who mark the eagle tower,
And croak in envy loud.
So let them rail!-but thou, my heart,
Rest on the bow thy levell'd dart;
Nor seek a worthier aim“
For arrow sent on friendship's wing,
Than him, the Agragantine king
Who best thy song may claim.
For by eternal truth I swear,
His parent town shall scantly bear
A soul to every friend so dear,
A life so void of blame:*"*
Though twenty lustres rolling round,
4. With rising youth her nation crown'd,
In heart in hand should none be found
Like Theron's honour'd name.
Yes we have heard the factious cry,
But let the babbling vulgar try
To blot his praise with tyranny:
Seek thou the ocean strand;
And when thy soul would fain recórd
The bounteous deeds of yonder Lord,
Go, reckon up the sand!
ART. X Reflections on the Nature and Extent of the Licence Trade. pp. 78. Budd. 1811.
An Enquiry into the State of our Commercial Relations with the Northern Powers, with reference to our Trade with them under the Regulation of Licences. pp. 110. Hatchard. 1811. THE subject of the licence trade did not, we believe, till late
ly, begin to attract any considerable share of public curiosity. It was, indeed, notorious that our accustomed commerce with the shores of Northern Europe had long since been interrupted by the enemy; that for the purpose of diminishing the inconveniences which might result to this country from such interruption, an indirect intercourse, protected by licences, had been opened by our government; and that the policy of this measure was by no means universally admitted by those who are best acquainted with the commercial relations of this country. But the minds of men have been long engrossed by questions of great and immediate importance to the community; and the disorders alleged to exist in a
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