Ennius ut noster cecinit, qui primus amæno
Detulit ex Helicone perenni fronde coronam,
Per genteis Italas hominum quæ clara clueret,
Et si præterea tamen esse Acherusia templa
Ennius æternis exponit versibus, edens:
Quo neque permanent animæ, neque corpora nostra;
Sed quædam simulacra modis pallentia miris
Unde sibi exortam semper-florentis Homeri
Commemorat speciem, lacrumas et fundere salsas
Cœpisse, et rerum naturam expandere dictis.
Yet doubtful is the doctrine, and unknown
Whether, coeval with th' external frame,
The soul first lives when lives the body first,
Or boasts a date anterior: whether doom'd
To common ruin and one common grave,
Or thro' the gloomy shades, the lakes, the caves
Of Erebus to wander: or, perchance,
As Ennius taught, immortal Bard! whose brows
Unfading laurels bound, and still whose verse
All Rome recites entranc'd, perchance condem'd
The various tribes of brutes, with ray divine,
To animate and quicken: tho' the bard,
In deathless melody has elsewhere sung
Of Acherusian temples, where nor soul
Nor body dwells, but images of men.
Mysterious shap'd, in wond'rous measure wan.
Here Homer's spectre roam'd, of endless fame
Possest: his briny tears the bard survey'd,
And drank the dulcet precepts from his lips.
Quorum Acragantinus cum primis Empedocles est:
Insula quem Triquetris terrarum gessit in oris :
Quam fluitans circum magnis amfractibus æquor
Ionium glaucis aspergit virus ab undis :
Angustoque fretu rapidum mare dividit undis
Italiæ terraï oras á finibus ejus:
Hîc est vasta Charybdis, et hîc Ætnæa minantur
Murmura flammarum rursum se conligere iras,
Faucibus eruptos iterum ut vis evomat igneis:
Ad cœlumque ferat flammaï fulgura rursum;
Quæ cùm magna modis multis miranda videtur
Gentibus humanis regio, visendaque fertur,
Rebus opima bonis, multa munita virûm vi:
Nil tamen hoc habuisse viro præclarius in se,
Nec sanctum magis, et mirum, carumque videtur.
Carmina quin etiam divini pectoris ejus
Vociferantur, et exponunt præ clara reperta;
Ut vix humana videatur stirpe creatus.
Thus sung Empedocles—in honest fame
First of his sect; whom Agrigentum bore
In cloud-capt Sicily. Its sinuous shores
Th' Ionian main, with hoarse, unwearied wave
Surrounds, and sprinkles with its briny dew:
And, from the fair Italian fields, divides
With narrow frith that spurns th' impetuous surge.
Here vast Charybdis raves: here Etna rears
His infant thunders, his dread jaws unlocks,
And heaven, and earth with fiery ruin threats.
Here many a wonder, many a scene sublime,
As on he journeys, checks the traveller's steps;
And shews, at once, a land in harvests rich,
And rich in sages of illustrious fame.
But nought so wond'rous, so illustrious nought,
So fair, so pure, so lovely, can it boast,
Empedocles, as thou! whose song divine,
By all rehears'd, so clears each mystic lore,
That scarce mankind believ'd thee born of man.
So numerous are the passages in which the descriptive powers of our poet are called forth, that the task of selection becomes difficult. I have chosen, however, a couple of scenes whose leading features are perfectly opposed, the first displaying the utmost sweetness, amenity, and repose, the second the turbulence and fury of elemental war.
-pereunt imbres, ubi eos pater Æther
In gremium matris Terraï precipitavit;
At nitidæ surgunt fruges, ramique virescunt
Arboribus; crescunt ipsæ, fœtuque gravantur:
porro nostrum genus, atque ferarum:
Hinc lætas urbeis pueris florere videmus,
Frondiferasque novis avibus canere undique sylvas,
Hinc fessæ pecudes pingues per pabula lœta
Corpora deponunt, et candens lacteus humor
Uberibus manat distentis; hinc nova proles
Artubus infirmis teneras lascivaper herbas
Ludit, lacte mero menteis percussa novellas.
When on the bosom of maternal earth,
His showers reduntant genial Ether pours,
The dulcet drops seem lost: but harvests rise
Jocund and lovely; and with foliage fresh,
Smiles every tree, and bends beneath it's fruit.
Hence man, and beast are nourish'd: hence o'erflow
Our joyous streets with crowds of frolic youth,
And with fresh songs th' umbrageous groves resound.
Hence the herds fatten, and repose at ease,
O'er the gay meadows, their unweildy forms;
While from each full-distended udder drops
The frequent milk spontaneous: and hence, too,
Fed from the same pure fount, their own wild
young,
With tottering footsteps, print the tender grass,
Joyous at heart, unwearied in their sport.
The artubus infirmis in the above quotation throw forcibly on the eye a minute but very natural and pleasing circumstance, and which has escaped the attention of every preceding
english translator. Mr. Good has well preserved the beauty of the image
With tottering footsteps print the tender grass.
In the nervous lines which follow, and which breathe the inexorable spirit of the storm they describe, the powers of the poet have been exerted with peculiar energy.
Venti vis verberat incita pontum,
Ingenteisque ruit naveis, et nubila differt:
Interdum rapido percurrens turbine campos
Arboribus magnis sternit, monteis que supremos
Silvifragis vexat flabris: ita perfurit acri
Cum fremitu, sœvitque minaci murmure pontus.
Sunt igitur Venti nimirum corpora cœca,
Quæ mare, quæ terras, quæ denique nubila cœli
Verrunt, ac subito vexantia turbine raptant.
Nec ratione fluunt alia, stratagemque propagant
Ac cum mollis aquæ fertur natura repente
Flumine abundanti, quod largis imbribus auget
Montibus ex altis magnus decursus aquaï :
Fragmina conjiciens sylvarum, arbustaque tota;
Nec validi possunt pontes venientes aquaï
Vim subitam tolerare: ita magno turbidus imbri
Molibus incurrens validis cum viribus amnis
Dat sonitu magno stragem; volvitque sub undis
Grandia saxa, ruit quà quidquid fluctibus obstat,
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