Behold us kindly, who your name implore, 75 Daphne, our Goddess, and our grief no more!

LYCIDAS.

How all things liften, while thy Muse complains! Such filence waits on Philomela's ftrains,

In some still ev'ning, when the whisp'ring breeze
Pants on the leaves, and dies upon the trees. 80
To thee, bright goddess, oft a lamb shall bleed,
If teeming ewes encrease my fleecy breed.
While plants their shade, or flow'rs their odours give,
Thy name, thy honour, and thy praise shall live!

THYRSIS.

But fee, Orion fheds unwholesome dews; 85 Arife, the pines a noxious fhade diffuse; Sharp Boreas blows, and Nature feels decay, Time conquers all, and we muft Time obey.

VARIATIONS.

VER. 83. Originally thus in the MS.

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

IMITATIONS.
illius aram

VER. 81.

Sæpe tener noftris ab ovilibus imbuet agnus. Virg. P. VER. 86. folet effe gravis cantantibus umbra, Juniperi gravis umbra. Virg. P.

VER. 88. Time conquers all, etc.

Omnia vincit amor, et nos cedamus amori. Vid. etiam Sannazarii Ecl. et Spencer's Calendar.

90

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

REMARKS.

VER. 89, etc.] Thefe four laft lines allude to the feveral' fubjects of the four Paftorals, and to the feveral scenes of them, particularized before in each. P.

MESSIAH.

A

Sacred Eclogue,

In Imitation of

VIRGIL'S POLLIO.

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IN

N reading feveral paffages of the Prophet Ifaiah, which foretell the coming of Chrift and the felicities attending it, I could not but obferve a remarkable parity between many of the thoughts, and thofe in the Pollio of Virgil. This will not feem furprifing, when we reflect, that the Eclogue was taken from a Sibylline prophecy on the fame fubject. One may judge that Virgil did not copy it line by line, but felected fuch ideas as beft agreed with the nature of paftoral 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 deferiptions of the Prophet are fuperior to those of the Poet. But as I fear I have prejudiced them by my management, I fhall fubjoin the paffages of Ifaiah, and thofe of Virgil, under the fame disadvantage of a literal translation. P.