There while you reft in Amaranthine bowers,
Or from thofe meads felect unfading flowers,
Behold us kindly, who your name implore,
Daphne, our Goddess, and our grief no more!

LYCIDAS.

How all things liften, while thy Mufe complains! Such filence waits on Philomela's ftrains, In fome ftill evening, when the whispering breeze Pants on the leaves, and dies upon the trees. To thee, bright goddess, oft a lamb shall bleed, If teeming ewes increase my fleecy breed.

75

80

While plants their fhade, or flowers their odours give, Thy name, thy honour, and thy praise, shall live!

THYRSIS.

But fee, Orion fheds unwholesome dews; Arife, the pines a noxious shade diffuse ; Sharp Boreas blows, and Nature feels decay,

Time conquers all, and we must Time obey.

Adieu, ye vales, ye mountains, ftreams, and groves,
Adieu, ye fhepherds' rural lays and loves;
Adieu, my flocks; farewell, ye fylvan crew;
Daphne, farewell; and all the world adieu!

VARIATION.

Ver. 83. Originally thus in the MS.

85

90

MES

While vapours rife, and driving fnows defcend,
Thy honour, name, and praife, fhall never end.

NOTE.

Ver. 89, &c.] Thefe four laft lines allude to the feveral fubjects of the four Pafterals, and to the feveral fcenes of them particularized before in each.

1

I

MESSIAH.

A

SACRED ECLOGUE.

IN IMITATION OF

VIRGIL's POLLI O.

Advertisement.

IN reading feveral paffages of the prophet Ifaiah, which foretell the coming of Chrift, and the felicities attending it, I could not but observe a remarkable parity between many of the thoughts, and thofe in the Pollio of Virgil. This will not feem furprising, when we reflect, that the Eclogue was taken from a Sibylline prophecy on the fame subject. One may judge that Virgil did not copy it line for line; but felected fuch ideas as beft agreed with the nature of pastoral poetry, and difpofed them in that manner which ferved most to beautify his piece. I have endeavoured the fame in this imitation of him, though without admitting any thing of my own; fince it was written with this particular view, that the reader, by comparing the feveral thoughts, might fee how far the images and descriptions of the Prophet are fuperior to thofe of the Poet. But as I fear I have prejudiced them by my management, I shall subjoin the paffages of Ifaiah, and those of Virgil, under the fame difadvantage of a literal translation.

M ESSI A H.

A

SACRED ECLOGUE,

IN IMITATION OF VIRGIL'S POLLIO.

Y

E Nymphs of Solyma! begin the fong:

To heavenly themes fublimer ftrains belong.
The moffy fountains, and the fylvan shades,
The dreams of Pindus and th' Aonian maids,
Delight no more-O thou my voice inspire
Who touch'd Ifaiah's hallow'd lips with fire.!

Rapt into future times, the Bard begun :
A Virgin fhall conceive, a Virgin bear a Son!

IMITATIONS.

From

Ver. 8. A Virgin fhall conceive-All crimes fhall cease, &c.] Virg. Ecl. iv. ver. 6.

Jam redit et Virgo, redeunt Saturnia regna;
Jam nova progenies cœlo demittitur alto.
Te duce, fi qua manent fceleris veftigia noftri,
Irrita perpetua folvent formidine terras —
Pacatumque reget patriis virtutibus orbem.

"Now the Virgin returns, now the kingdom of Sa"turn returns, now a new progeny is fent down from "high heaven. By means of thee, whatever reliques of "our crimes remain, fhall be wiped away, and free the "world from perpetual fears. He fhall govern the earth "in peace, with the virtues of his Father."