HORACE, BOOK II. EPIST. I.

IMITATED.

TO AUGUSTUS.

WHILE you, great Patron of mankind! 'sustain
The balanc'd world, and open all the main,
Your country, chief in arms, abroad defend,
At home with morals, arts, and laws amend;
2 How shall the Muse, from such a monarch, steal
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An hour, and not defraud the public weal?

3 Edward and Henry, now the boast of fame,
And virtuous Alfred, a more 4 sacred name,
After a life of gen'rous toils endur'd,
The Gaul subdu'd, or property secur'd,
Ambition humbled, mighty cities storm'd,
Or laws establish'd, and the world reform'd,

HOR. LIB. II. EPIST. I.

AD AUGUSTUM.

CUM tot sustineas et tanta negotia solus,
Res Italas armis tuteris moribus ornes,
Legibus emendes; in 2 publica commoda peccem,
Si longe sermone morer tua tempora, Cæsar.

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3 Romulus, et Liber pater, et cum Castore Pollux, Post ingentia facta, 4 Deorum in templa recepti, Dum terras hominumque colunt genus, aspera bella Componunt, agros assignant, oppida condunt;

1 Clos'd their long glories with a sigh, to find
Th' unwilling gratitude of base mankind!
All human virtue, to its latest breath,

2 Finds Envy never conquer'd but by Death.
The great Alcides, ev'ry labour past,
Had still this monster to subdue at last:
3 Sure fate of all, beneath whose rising ray
Each star of meaner merit fades away!
Oppress'd we feel the beam directly beat;
Those suns of glory please not till they set.
To thee the world its present homage pays,
The harvest early, 4 but mature the praise:
Great friend of liberty! in kings a name
Above all Greek, above all Roman, fame *
Whose word is truth, as sacred and rever'd
5As Heav'n's own oracles from altars heard.
Wonder of kings! like whom, to mortal eyes,
"None e'er has risen, and none e'er shall rise.

'Ploravere suis non respondere favorem
Speratum meritis. diram qui contudit hydram,
Notaque fatali portenta labore subegit,
Comperit invidiam supremo fine domari.
3 Urit enim fulgore suo, qui prægravat artes
Infra se positas: extinctus amabitur idem.
4 Præsenti tibi maturos largimur honores,
5 Jurandasque tuum per nomen ponimus aras,
6 Nil oriturum alias, nil ortum tale fatentes.
Sed tuus hic populus, sapiens et justus in uno,
* Te nostris ducibus, te Graiis anteferendo,

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Just in one instance, be it yet confest
Your people, Sir, are partial in the rest;
Foes to all living worth except your own,
And advocates for folly dead and gone.
Authors, like coins, grow dear as they grow old; 35
It is the rust we value, not the gold.

1 Chaucer's worst ribaldry is learn'd by rote,
And beastly Skelton heads of houses quote.
One likes no language but the Faery Queen;
A Scot will fight for Christ's Kirk o' the Green; 40
And each true Briton is to Ben. so civil,

2 He swears the Muses met him at The Devil.
Tho' justly 3 Greece her eldest sons admires,
Why should not we be wiser than our sires?

Cætera nequaquam simili ratione modoque
Estimat; et, nisi quæ terris semota, suisque
Temporibus defuncta vedet, fastidit et odit ;
' Sic fautor veterum, ut tabulas peccare vetantes.
Quas bis quinque viri sanxerunt, fœdera regum,
Vel Gabiis vel cum rigidis æquata Sabinis,
Pontificum libros, annosa volumina vatum,
2 Dictitet Albano Musas in monte locutas.

Si, quia 4 Græcorum sunt antiquissima quæque. Scripta, vel optima; Romani pensantur eadem Scriptores trutina; non est quod multa loquamur : Nil intra est oleam, nil extra est in nuce duri. Venimus ad summum fortunæ : pingimus atque

In ev'ry public virtue we excel ; :

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We build, we paint, we sing, we dance, as well; And learned Athens to our art must stoop, Could she behold us tumbling thro' a hoop.

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If 3 time improve our wits as well as wine,
Say at what age a poet grows divine?
Shall we or shall we not, account him so
Who dy'd, perhaps, an hundred years ago
End all dispute; and fix the year precise
When British Bards began t' immortalize?
"Who lasts a 4 century can have no flaw;
"I hold that wit a classic good in law."

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Suppose he wants a year, will you compound? And shall we deem him 5 ancient, right, and sound, Or damn to all eternity at once

At ninety-nine a modern and a dunce?

"We shall not quarrel for a year or two; "By courtesy of England he may do."

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'Psallimus, et 2 luctamur Achivis doctius unctis.
Si 3 meliora dies, ut vina, poemata reddit ;
Scire velim, chartis pretium quotus arroget annus.
Scriptor ab hinc annos centum qui decidit, inter
Perfectos veteresque referri debet, an inter
Viles atque novos ? excludat jurgia finis.

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Est vetus atque probus 4 centum qui perficit annos.
Quid? qui deperiit minor uno mense,
vel anno
Inter. quos referendus erit? 5 veteresne poetas,
An quos et præsens et postera respuet ætas ?
Iste quidem veteres enter ponetur honeste,

Then by the rule that made the horse-tail bare, I pluck out year by year, as hair by hair,

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And melt down Ancients like a heap of snow, 65 While you, to measure merits, look in 3 Stowe, And estimating authors by the year,

Bestow a garland only on a 4 bier.

5 Shakespeare(whom you and ev'ry play-house bill Style the Divine, the Matchless, what you will) 70 For gain, not glory, wing'd his roving flight, And grew immortal in his own despight. Ben. old and poor, as little seem'd to heed 6 The life to come in ev'ry poet's creed. Who now reads 7 Cowley? if he pleases yet, His moral pleases, not his pointed wit: Forgot his Epic, nay Pindaric art,

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But still I love the language of his heart.

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"Yet surely, surely these were famous men ! "What boy but hears the sayings of old Ben. ? 10

Qui vel mense brevi, vel toto est junior anno.
Utor permisso, caudæque pilos ut1equinæ,
Paulatim vello, et demo unum, demo etiam unum:
Dum cadat elusus ratione 2 ruentis acervij
Qui redit ad 3 fastos, et virtutem æstimat annis,
Miraturque nihil, nisi quod 4 Libitina sacravit.

5 Ennius et sapiens, et fortis, et alter Homerus, Ut critici dicunt, leviter, curare videtur, Quo promissa cadant, et somnia Pythagorea. 7 Nævius in manibus non est, et mentibus hæret Pene recens: adeo sanctum est vetus omne poema.