TO LEUCONO E.

He advifes Leuconoe to indulge in pleasure, regardless of all care for the morrow, by deducing his arguments from the brevity and fleetness of life.

*

SEEK not, what we're forbid to know,

The date the Gods decree

To you, my fair Leuconoe,

Or what they fix for me.
Nor your Chaldean books confult,
But chearfully fubmit,

(How much a better thought it is ?)
To what the Gods think fit.
Whether more winters on our head
They fhall command to low'r,

Or this the very laft of all

Shall bring our final hour.

E'en this, whose rough tempestuous rage
Makes yon Tyrrhenian roar,

And all his foamy breakers dash
Upon the rocky fhore.

Be wife and broach your mellow wine,
Which carefully decant,

And your defires proportionate

To life's compendious grant.

E'en while we speak the moments fly,
Be greedy of to-day;

Nor truft another for thofe pranks
Which we may never play.

* In order to imitate the metre of the original, the longeft meafure in the English tongue (much in ufe aVOL. I.

mong ft our old poets) is here introduced: but, for convenience of printing, one line is fevered into two.

E

AD AUGUSTU M.

Collaudatis diis, heroibus, virifque aliquot claris, tandem ad divinas Augufti laudes defcendit.

QUEM virum aut heroa lyrâ vel acri

Tibiâ fumes celebrare Clio?

Quem deum? cujus recinet jocofa
Nomen imago.

Aut in umbrofis Heliconis oris,
Aut fuper Pindo, gelidove in Hæmo?
Unde vocalem temerè infecutæ
Orphea fylvæ.

Arte materna rapidos morantem
Fluminum lapfus, celerefque ventos,
Blandum & auritas fidibus canoris

Ducere quercus.

Quid prius dicam folitis parentis
Laudibus? qui res hominum ac deorum,
Qui mare & terras, variifque mundum
Temperat horis ?

Unde nil majus generatur ipfo,

Nec vigit quicquam fimile aut fecundum:
Proximos illi tamen occupavit

Pallas honores.

PROSE INTERPRETATION.

O Clio, what man, what hero will you effay to blazon on your lyre or fhrill pipe? What God, whose name the jocofe echo fhall refound either in the fhady borders of Helicon, or on Pindus, or the cool Hamus? Whence the woods followed at random the vocal Orpheus, who, by his maternal art, retarded the rapid flow of rivers and the swift winds; fo blandishing alfo as to draw the ear-gifted oaks with his melodious

TO AUGUSTUS.

Having celebrated the Gods, heroes, and certain famous men, at laft he comes to the divine bonours of Auguftus.

CLIO,

to fing on pipe or lyre,

What man, what hero is your choice,
And with what God will you infpire
Glad echo's mimic voice?

Or in the Heliconian fhade,

Or Pindus or cool Hamus fped,

Where the vague woods at random stray'd
With Orpheus at their head?

E'en he who, by his mother's art,

The loud cascade, the rapid wind
Cou'd ftop and ears to oaks impart,
To his foft airs inclin'd?

First then the ufual form of praise
Is his, who men and Gods impow'rs,
The earth, the fea, the world he fways,
The seasons and the hours.

From whom no greater can proceed,
To whom no being's like or near;
Yet Pallas challenges the mead
Of secondary fear,

PROSE INTERPRETATIO N.
melodious ftrings. What can I mention preferable to the
ufual praises of the universal parent, who regulates the affairs
of men and Gods; who governs the fea, the land, and the
world in general with variety of seasons? from whom nothing
proceeds greater than himself, nor flourishes any being fimi-
lar or even fecond to him: nevertheless Pallas has feized
upon thofe honours that are the neareft to his. Neither will
I pafs

E 2

་

Præliis audax, neque te filebo

Liber, & fævis inimica virgo

Belluis: nec te metuende certâ
Phæbe fagittâ.

Dicam & Alciden, puerofque Ledæ,
Hunc equis, illum fuperare pugnis
Nobilem, quorum fimul alba nautis
Stella refulfit.

Defluit faxis agitatus humor:
Concidunt venti: fugiuntque nubes:
Et minax (quod fic voluere) ponto
Unda recumbit.

Romulum poft hos priùs, an quietum
Pompili regnum memorem, an fuperbos
Tarquinî fafces, dubito, an Catonis
Nobile lethum.

Regulum, & Scauros animæque magnæ
Prodigum Paulum, fuperante Pœno,
Gratus infigni referam Camoenâ,
Fabriciumque.

Hunc, & incomptis Curium capillis
Utilem bello tulit, & Camillum
Sæva paupertas, & avitus apto
Cum lare fundus.

PROSE INTERPRETATION.

I pafs by thee in filence, O Bacchus, bold in battle, nor thee, O Virgin, that art at enmity with the wild beafts: nor thee, O Phoebus, dreadful with your unerring dart. I will mention alfo Hercules and the children of Leda; the one noble to furpafs in chivalry; the other in boxing; whose white conftellation, as foon as it has fhone out to the failors, the troubled furge flows down from the rocks, the winds fall,

and

Nor thee, brave Liber, will I flight,
Nor thee, fair Forrefter, the foe

Of beasts, nor thee which aim'ft fo right,
Dread Phoebus, with thy bow.

Alcides next, and Leda's twins,
In chivalry and ceftus too

I praise, whofe ftar, when it begins
To bless the seaman's view,

Its brightness makes the waves fubfide,
The winds are ftill, the clouds difperfe,
And smooth at their command's the tide,
That roar'd but now fo fierce.

Now fhall I Rome's first founder fing,
Or Numa's peaceful reign commend,
Or Prifcus great and mighty king,
Or Cato's glorious end?

Great Regulus I will enroll,

The house of Scaurus, Paulus write,
So lavish of his godlike soul,
And grateful thee recite,

Fabricius, with rough Curius join'd;
Him and Camillus too for arms
A hardy poverty defign'd

In their paternal farms.

PROSE INTERPRETATION.

and the clouds disperse, and the menacing billows fubfide in the main, because it is their pleasure. I am in doubt, after thefe, whom I fhall first commemorate, whether Romulus or the quiet reign of Numa Pompilius, or the pompous enfigns of Tarquinius Prifcus, or the noble death of Cato. Grateful will I relate, in a felected ftrain, Regulus, and the house of Scaurus, and Paulus Emilius lavish of his great soul, the Carthagenian prevailing; and in the like manner Fabricius.

E 3

Hardy