Nothing too difficult for man, He'll scale the skies in folly, if he can ; Will give Jove leave his wrathful bolts to ftay, AD L. SEXTIUM, CONSULAREM. Amanitate veris defcriptâ, & communi moriendi confuetudine propofitâ, tanquam Epicureus ad vitam voluptuofam Sextium bortatur. SOLVITUR acris hyems grata vice veris & Favoni: Trahuntque ficcas machinæ carinas. Ac neque jam ftabulis gaudet pecus, aut arator igni; Jam Cytherea choros ducit Venus, imminente Luna: Alterno terram quatiunt pede: dum graves Cyclopium Nunc decet aut viridi nitidum caput impedire myrto Nunc & in umbrofis Fauno decet immolare lucis, PROSE INTERPRETATION. The rigour of the winter is relaxed by the grateful viciffitude of the spring and the western breezes, and engines hale from fhore the dry fhips. And neither do the cattle any longer rejoice in the ftalls, or the plowman in his fire-fide; nor do the meadows look white with hoary froft. Now Cytherean Venus leads up the dance, while the moon shines over her head, and the decent Graces, joined to the Nymphs, shake the ground with alternate feet; while glowing Vulcan blows up the laborious forges of the Cyclops. Now it is feemly to entwine the fhining head, either with ever-green myrtle, or fuch flowers as the loosened earth brings forth. Now alfo it is feemly to facrifice to Faunus in the fhady groves, whether he require an ewe-lamb, or prefer a kid. Ghaftly TO SEXTIUS, A PERSON OF CONSULAR DIGNITY *. By defcribing the delightfulness of Spring, and urging the common lot of mortality, be exhorts Sextius, as an Epicurean, to a life of voluptuousness. A Grateful change! Favonius, and the spring To the fharp winter's keener blafts fucceed, She, while the moon attends upon the scene, The Nymphs and decent Graces in the set, Shakes with alternate feet the fhaven green, While Vulcan's Cyclops at the anvil sweat. Now we with myrtle fhou'd adorn our brows, Or any flow'r that decks the loofen'd fod; In fhady groves to Faunus pay our vows, Whether a lamb or kid delight the God. Though this Sextius always bad favoured his friend Brutus, and even at this time refpected his memory, infomuch as to preferve bufts of bim in bis boufe, yet Auguftus, in love with fuch fidelity, not without prodigious applause for his generofity, chofe him his colleague, in the year of Rome 713, from whence, I conjecture, (fays Rodellius) that this Ode was written the year following, there being no reafon to call Sextius happy before bis confulate, and the feafon of the confulate itself not being for indulging the genius in matter of festivity. C 3 Pallida mors æquo pulfat pede pauperum tabernas, Vitæ fumma brevis fpem nos vetat inchoare longam. Et domus exilis Plutonia, quo fimul mearis, Nec tenerum Lycidam mirabere, quo calet juventus PROSE INTERPRETATION. Ghaftly death knocks at the hamlets of the poor, and the towers of kings, with an equal foot. O fortunate Sextius, the fum total of fhort life forbids us to set out with hopes of any duration. Anon fhall night and the ghofts, though. efteemed as idle fables, and the fhadowy manfion of Pluto, actually Pale death alike knocks at the poor man's door, O happy Sextius, and the royal dome, The whole of life forbids our hope to foar, Death and the shades anon fhall press thee home. And when into the fhallow grave you run, You cannot win the monarchy of wine, Nor doat on Lycidas, as on a fon, Whom for their spoufe all little maids design. PROSE INTERPRETATION. actually feize you; where, when you fhall once arrive, you fhall neither allot the fovereignty of wine by choice, nor fhall have that fatherly fondnefs for young Lycidas, whom all his play-fellows love at prefent, and whom, ere long, the young damfels fhall defire, |