On Adamant our Wrongs we all engrave,
But write our Benefits upon the Wave. King, Ovid.
It wounds indeed,
To bear Affronts too great to be forgiven,
And not have Power to punish.
That traverses the vast Numidian Defarts
In Quest of Prey, and lives upon his Bow:
Coarfe are his Meals, the Fortune of the Chafe ;
Amidst the running Stream he flakes his Thirft;
Toils all the Day, and, at th'Approach of Night,
On the first friendly Bank he fits him down,
Or refts his Head upon a Rock till Morn;
Then rifes fresh, purfues his wonted Game,
And if, the following Day, he chance to find
A new Repaft, or an untafted Spring,
Bleffes his Stars, and thinks it Luxury. Add: Cato..
Ev'n he, the King of Men, the foremost Name
Of all the Greeks, and most renown'd by Fame;
The proud Revenger of another's Wife;
Yet by his own Adult'refs loft his Life:
Fell at his Threshold, and the Spoils of Troy
The foul Polluters of his Bed enjoy. Dryd. Virg.
The four AGES of the World.
A beauteous Scene adorns the foremost Page,
Where Nature's Bloom prefents the Golden Age:
The Golden Leaf to Silver foon refigns,
And fair the Sheet, but yet more faintly fhines:
Of bafer Brafs the next denotes the Times;
An impious Page, deform'd with deadly Crimes:
The fourth yet wears a worfe and browner Face,
And adds to gloomy Days an Iron Race.
The Golden Age to Silver was debas'd;
To Copper that; our Metal came at last.
The laft great Age, foretold by facred Rhymes,
Renews its finifh'd Courfe: Saturnian Times
Rowl round again; and mighty Years, begun
From their firft Orb, in radiant Circles run:
The bafe degen'rate Iron Offspring ends:
A Golden Progeny from Heav'n defcends.
Dryd. Virg..
The fharpen'd Share fhall vex the Soil no more,
But Earth unbidden fhall produce her Store:
The Land fhall laugh; the circling Ocean (mile;
And Heav'ns Indulgence blefs the holy Isle.
AJAX killing himself.
The Mafter of the fevenfold Shield:
He, who could often, and alone, withstand
The Foe, the Fire, and Jove's own partial Hand,
Now cannot his unmafter'd Grief fuftain,
But yields to Rage, to Madness, and Difdain:
Then fnatching out his Fauchion, Thou, said he,
Art mine: Ulyffes lays no Claim to thee.
Ooften try'd, and ever trusty Sword,
Now do thy laft kind Office to thy Lord..
Tis Ajax who requests thy Aid, to fhow,
None but himself himself could overthrow.
He faid; and, with fo good a Will to die,
Did to his Breaft the fatal Point apply,
It found his Heart, a Way till then unknown,
Where never Weapon enter'd but his own.
No Hand could force it thence, fo fix'd it ftood,
Till out it rufh'd, expell'd by Streams of fpouting Blood;
The fruitful Blood produc'd a Flow'r, which grew
On a green Stem; and of a purple Hue:
Like his, whom unaware Apollo flew.
Infcrib'd in both, the Letters are the fame;
But thofe exprefs the Grief, and thefe the Name. Dryd. Ovid.
Transformation of ALCYONE and CETX.
She faid, and to the neighb'ring Mole fhe ftrode,, Rais'd there to break th' Incurfions of the Flood:
Headlong from thence to plunge her felf the springs;
Bur fhoots along, fupported on her Wings.
A Bird, new-made, about the Banks fhe plies,
Not far from Shore, and fhort Excurfions tries:
Nor feeks in Air her humble Flight to raise,
Content to skim the Surface of the Seas:
Her Bill, tho' flender, fends a creaking Noife,
And imitates a lamentable Voice.
Now, lighting where the bloodless Body lies,
She, with a fun'ral Note, renews her Cries:
At all her Stretch her little Wings she spread,
And with her feather'd Arms embrac'd the Dead.
Then, flick'ring to his pallid Lips, the ftrove
To print a Kifs, the laft Effay of Love.
Whether the vital Touch reviv'd the Dead,
Or that the moving Waters rais'd his Head
To meet the Kifs, the Vulgar doubt alone:
For fure a prefent Miracle was fhewn.
The Gods their Shapes to Winter-Birds tranflate,
But both obnoxious to their former Fate.
Their conjugal Affection ftill is ty'd;
And ftill the mournful Race is multiply'd.
They bill, they tread; Alcyone, comprefs'd,
Sev'n Days fits brooding on her floating Neft.
A wintry Queen: Her Sire at length is kind,
Calms ev'ry Storm, and hushes ev'ry Wind;
Prepares his Empire for his Daughter's Eafe,
And for his hatching Nephews smooths the Seas. Dryd. Ovid.
The Daughter of the Night.
That baleful Fury, who delights in War,
In Envy, Mifchief, Anger, and Despair.
Such horrid Shapes the Hellish Monster takes,
Teeming with crawling Swarms of hiffing Snakes,
Ev'n Pluto and her Sifters hate the Fiend.
Smear'd as fhe was with black Gorgonian Blood,
The Fury fprang above the Stygian Flood;
And, on her wicker Wings, fublime thro' Night
She to the Latian Palace took her Flight:
There fought the Queen's Apartment; ftood before
The peaceful Threshold, and befieg'd the Door.
From her black bloody Locks the Fury fhakes
Her darling Plague, the Fav'rite of her Snakes:
With her full Force fhe threw the pois'nous Dart,
And fix'd it deep within Amata's Heart.
Unfeen, unfelt, the firy Serpent skims
Betwixt her Linnen, and her naked Limbs;
His baleful Breath infpiring, as he glides,
Now, like a Chain, around her Neck he rides;
Now, like a Fillet, to her Head repairs,
And with his circling Volumes folds her Hairs:
At first the filent Venom flid with Eafe,
And feiz'd her cooler Senfes by Degrees:
Then, e're th 'infected Mafs was fir'd too far,
In plaintive Accents fhe began the War.
But when the faw her Reafons idly spent,
She flew to Rage; for now the Snake poffefs'd
Her vital Parts, and poifon'd all her Breaft.
She raves; the runs with a distracted Pace,
And fills, with horrid,Howls, the publick Place. Dryd. Virg.
And now the Goddefs, exercis'd in Ill,
Who watch'd an Hour to work her impious Will,
Afcends the Roof, and to her crooked Horn
Adds all her Breath; the Rocks and Woods around,
And Mountains tremble at th' Infernal Sound.
The facred Lake of Trivia from afar,
The Veline Fountain, and fulphureous Nar,
Shake at the baleful Blaft, the Signal of the War.
Young Mothers wildly ftare, with Fear opprefs'd,
And train their helpless Infant to their Breaft. Dryd. Virg.
The fullen Fiend, her founding Wings display'd; (Virg.
Unwilling left the Light,and fought the neather Shade. Dryd.
To this Infernal Lake the Fury flies,
(Virg.
Here hides her hated Head, and frees the lab'ring Skies. Dryd.
On Death and Wounds Camilla looks with Joy,
Free'd from a Breaft, the fiercer to destroy.
Now, thick as Hail, her fatal Darts fhe flings;
The two-edg'd Ax now on their Helmets rings?
Her Shoulders bore Diana's Arms and Bow;
And if, too ftrongly prefs'd, the fled before the Foe,
Her Shafts, revers'd, did Death and Horrour bear,
And found the Rafh, who durft pursue the Fair.
Near her fierce Tulla and Tarpeia ride,
And bold Larina, conqu❜ring by her Side.
Thefe, above all, Camilla's Breast did share,
For Faith in Peace, and Gallantry in War.
Italians all, in Peace their Queen's Delight;
In War the bold Companions of the Fight. Dryd. Virg.
Such were the Thracian, Amazonian Bands,
When first they dy'd with Blood Thermodoons Sands.
Such Troops Hippolita her self did head,
And fuch the bold Pethefilea led;
When Female Shouts alarm'd the trembling Fields, (Virg. And glaring Beams fhot bright from Maiden Shields. Staff. Above the reft the Volfcian Amazon
Contains an Army in her self alone;
And heads a Squadron terrible in Fight,
With glitt'ring Shields, in brazen Armour bright. Dryd.Virg.
A Golden Belt her naked Breaft fuftains,
With Men, a Maid in Arms a Fight maintains.
With fatal Certainty Thaleftris knew
To fend the Arrow from the twanging Yew:
And, great in Arms, and foremost in the War,
Bonduca brandifh'd high the British Spear. Prior.
But canft thou wield the Sword, and bend the Bow,
With active Force repel the sturdy Foe?
When the loud Tumult fpeaks the Battel nigh,
And winged Deaths in whistling Arrows fly.
Wilt thou, tho' wounded, yet undaunted, stay;
Perform thy Part, and share the dang'rous Day. Prior.
Ambition is the Mind's Immodefty;
For all Ambition is but Hope's Excefs. D'Aven.
What is Ambition, but Defire of Greatness?
And what is Greatnefs, but Extent of Pow'r?
But Luft of Pow'r 's a Dropfy of the Mind,
Whofe Thirst encreases, while we drink to quench it;
Till, fwoll'n, and ftretch'd by the repeated Draught,
We burst, and perish.
Hig. Gen. Conq.
Ambition is an Idol, on whofe Wings
Great Minds are carry'd only to Extreams;
To be fublimely great, or to be Nothing. South. Loy. Broth.
Which in great Souls ftill rages to a Fault;
The Crime of Angels, and of Men like Angels.
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