This Menelaus knows; expos'd to share

And let dull Ajax bear away my right With me the rough preludium of the war.

When all his days out-balance this one night. “ Endless it were to tell what I have done, “ Nor fought I darkling still: the Sun beheld In arms, or counsel, since the siege begun: With slaughter'd Lycians when I strew'd the field: The first encounters past, the foe repell’d,

You saw and counted, as I pass'd along, They skulk'd within the town, we kept the field, Alastor, Crumius, Ceranos the strong, War seem'd asleep for nine long years; at length, Alcander, Prytanis, and Halius, Both sides resolvd to push, we try'd our strength, Noemon, Charopes, and Ennomus, Now what did Ajax while our arms took breath, Choon, Chersidamas; and five beside, Vers'd only in the gross mechanic trade of death? Men of obscure descent, but courage try'd: If you require my deeds, with ambush'd arms All these this hand laid breathless on the ground; I trapp'd the foe, or tir'd with false alarms; Nor want I proofs of many a manly wound : Secur'd the ships, drew lines along the plain, All honest, all before: believe not me; The fainting cheer'd, chastis'd the rebel-train, Words may deceive, but credit what you see.” Provided forage, our spent arms renew'd;

At this be bar'd his breast, and show'd his scars, Employ'd at home, or sent abroad, the common

As of a forrow'd field, well plough'd with wars; cause pursued.

“ Nor is this part unexercis'd,” said he; “ The king, deluded in a dream by Jove, " That giant bulk of his from wounds is free : Despair'd to take the town, and orderd to remove. Safe in his shield he fears no foe to try, What subject durst arraign the power supreme,

And better manages bis blood than I: Producing Jove to justify his dream?

But this avails me not; our boaster strove Ajax might wish the soldiers to retain

Not with our foes alone, but partial Jove, Froin shameful fight, but wishes were in vain; To save the feet: this I confess is true, As wanting of effect had been his words,

(Nor will I take from any man his due) Such as of course his thundering tongue affords. But thus assuming all, he robs from you. But did this boaster threaten, did he pray, Some part of honour to your share will fall, Or by his own example urge their stay?

He did the best indeed, but did not all. None, none of these, but ran himself away.

Patrocles in Achilles' arms, and thought I saw him run, and was asham'd to see ;

The chief he seem'd, with equal ardour fought; Who ply'd bis feet so fast to get aboard as he? Preserv'd the fleet, repell’d the raging fire, Then, speeding through the place, I made a And forc'd the fearful Trojans to retire. stand,

“ But Ajax boasts, that he was only thought And loudly cry'd, “O base degenerate band, A match for Hector, who the combat sought: To leave a town already in your hand,

Sure he forgets the king, the chiefs, and me; After so long expense of blood, for fame,

All were as eager for the fight as he ; To bring home potbing but perpetual shamne!' He, but the ninth, and, not by public voice, These words, or what I have forgotten since, Or ours preferr'd, was only Fortune's choice: (For grief inspird me then with eloquence) They fought; nor can our hero boast th' event, Reduc'd their minds, they leave the crowded port, For Hector from the field unwounded went. And to their late forsaken camp resort;

“ Why am I forc'd to name that fatal day, Dismay'd the council met: this man was there, That snatch'd the prop and pride of Greece away? But mute, and not recover'd of his fear :

I saw Pelides sink, with pious grief, Thersites tax'd the king, and loudly raild, And ran in vain, alas ! to his relief; But his wide-opening mouth with blows I seald. For the brave soul was fled: full of my friend, Theo, rising, I excite their souls to fame,

I rush'd amid the war, his relics to defend : And kindle sleeping virtue into flame.

Nor ceas'd my toil till I redeem'd the prey, From thence, whatever he perform'd in fight And, loaded with Achilles, march'd away: ks justly mine who drew him back from flight.

Those arms,

which on these shoulders then I bore, “Which of the Grecian chiefsconsorts with thee? 'Tis just you to these shoulders should restore, But Diomede desires my company,

You see I want not nerves, who could sustain
And still communicates his praise with me. The ponderous ruins of so great a man:
As guided by a god, secure he goes,

Or if in others equal force you find,
Armd with my fellowship, amid the foes : None is endued with a more grateful mind.
And sure no little merit I may boast,

“ Did Thetis then, ambitious in her care, Whom such a man selects from such an host;

These arms thus labour'd for her son prepare, Unforc'd by lots, I went without affright,

That Ajax after him the heavenly gift should wear? To dare with him the dangers of the night :

For that dull soul to stare with stupid eyes, On the same errand sent, we met the spy

On the learn'd unintelligible prize! Of Hector, double-tongued, and us’d to lie; What are to him the sculptures of the shield, Him I dispatch’d, but not till, undermin'd, Heaven's planets, Earth, and Ocean's watery field ? I drew him first to tell what treacherous Troy. The Pleiads, Hyads; less and greater Bear, desigo'd:

Undipp'd in seas; Orion's angry star; My task perform'd, with praise I had retird, Two differing cities, gravid on either hand ? But, no content with this, to greater praise aspir'd; Would he wear arms he cannot understand? lavaded Rhesus, and his Thracian crew,

“ Beside, what wise objections he prepares And him, and his, in their own strength, 1 slew; Against my late accession to the wars ! Return'd a victor, all my vows complete,

Does not the fool perceive his argument With the king's chariot, in bis royal seat: Is with more force against Achilles bent? Refuse m now his arms, whose fiery steeds For if dissembling be so great a crime, Were promis’d to the spy for his nocturnal deeds: The fault is common, and the same in bim:

And if he taxes both of long delay,

“ Why point'st thou to my partner of the My guilt is less, who sooner came away.

war? His pious mother, anxious for his life,

Tydides had indeed a worthy share Detain'd her son; and me, my pious wife.

In all my toil and praise ; but when thy might To them the blossoms of our youth were due: Our ships protected, didst thou singly fight? Our riper manhood we reserv'd for you.

All join'd, and thou of many wert but one; But grant me guilty, 'tis not much my care, I ask'd no friend, nor had, but him alone: When with so great a man my guilt I share: Who, had he ot been well assur'd, that art My wit to war the matchless hero brought, And conduct were of war the better part, But by this fool he never had been caught. And more avail'd than strength, my valiant “ Nor need I wonder, that on me he threw

friend Such foul aspersions, when he spares not you : Had urg'd a better right, than Ajax can pretend : If Palamede unjustly fell by me,

As good at least Eurypylus may claim, Your honour suffer'd in th' unjust decree;

And the more moderate Ajax of the name: I but accus'd, you doom'd: and yet he dy'd, The Cretan king, and his brave charioteer, Convinc'd of treason, and was fairly try'd: And Menelaus bold with sword and spear: You heard not he was false; your eyes beheld All these had been my rivals in the shield, The traitor manifest ; the bribe reveal’d.

And yet all these to my pretensions yield. " That Philoctetes is on Lemnos left,

Thy boisterous hands are then of use, when I Wounded, forlorn, of human aid bereft,

With this directing head those hands apply. Is not my crime, or not my crime alone;

Brawn without brain is thine: my prudent care Defend your justice, for the fact's your own : Foresees, provides, adıninisters the war: 'Tis true, th' advice was mine; that staying there Thy province is to fight, but when shall be He might his weary limbs with rest repair, The time to fight, the king consults with me: From a long voyage free, and from a longer war. No dram of judgment with thy force is join'd; He took th' counsel, and he lives at least; Thy body is of profit, and my mind. Th’event declares I counsell'd for the best : By bow inuch more the ship of safety owes Though faith is all, in ministers of state; To him who steers, than him that only rows; For who can promise to be fortunate?

By how much more the captain merits praise Now since his arrows are the fate of Troy,

Than he who fights, and fighting but obeys;
Do not my wit, or weak address, employ;

By so much greater is my worth than thine,
Sand Ajax there, with his persuasive sense, Who canst but execute what I design.
To mollify the man, and draw him thence:

What gain'st thou, brutal man, if I confess
But Xanthus shall run backward ; lda stand Thy strength superior, when thy wit is less?
A leafless mountain; and the Grecian band Mind is the man: I claim my whole desert
Shall fight for Troy; if, when my counsels fail, From the mind's vigour, and th' immortal part.
The wit of heavy Ajax can prevail.

“ But you, O Grecian chiefs, reward my carc, “Hard Philoctetes, exercise thy spleen

Be grateful to your watchman of the war: Against thy fellows, and the king of men; For all my labours in so long a space, Curse my devoted head, above the rest,

Sure I may plead a title to your grace: And wish in arms to meet me breast to breast:

Enter the town; I then unbarr'd the gates, Yet I the dangerous task will undertake,

When I remov'd their tutelary fates. And either die myself, or bring thee back.

By all our common hopes, if hopes they be “ Nor doubt the same success, as when before Which I bave now reduc'd to certainty; The Phrygian prophet to these tents 1 bore, By falling Troy, by yonder tottering towers, Surpriz'd by night, and forc'd him to declare And by their taken gods, which now are ours; In what was plac'd the fortune of the war; Or if there yet a farther task remains, Heaven's dark decrees and answers to display, To be perform'd by prudence or by pains; And how to take the town, and where the secret If yet some desperate action rests behind, lay:

That asks high conduct, and a dauntless mind; Yet this I compass'd, and from Troy convey'd If ought be wanting to the Trojan doom, The fatal image of their guardian maid :

Which none but I can manage and o'ercome; That work was mine; for Pallas, though our friend, Award those arms I ask, by your decree: Yet while she was in Troy, did Troy defend. Or give to this what you refuse to me." Now what has Ajax done, or what design'd?

He ceas'd: and ceasing with respect he bow'd, A noisy nothing, and an empty wind.

And with his hand at once the fatal statue show'd, If he be what he promises in show,

Heaven, air, and ocean rung, with loud applause, Why was I sent, and why fear'd he to go?. And by the general vote he gain’d his cause. Our boasting champion thought the task not light Thus conduct won the prize, when courage faild, To pass the guards, commit himself to night : And eloquence o'er brutal force prevail’d. Not only through a hostile town to pass, But scale, with steep ascent, the sacred place;

THE DEATH OF AJAX. With wandering steps to search the citadel, And from the priests their patroness to steal : He who could often, and alone, withstand Then through surrounding foes to force my way, The foe, the fire, and Jove's own partial hand, And bear in triumph home the heavenly prey; Now cannot bis unmaster'd grief sustain, Which had I not, Ajax in vain had held,

But yields to rage, to madness, and disdain ; Before that monstrous bulk, his sevenfold shield. Then snatching out his fauchion, “ Thou," said That night to conquer Troy I might be said,

he, When Troy was liable to conquest made,

" Art mine; Ulysses lays no claim to thee,

THE STORY OF

O often try'd, and ever trusty sword,

Thus, warn’d in vain, with stalking pace he'st ode, Now do thy last kind office to thy lord :

And stamp'd the margin of the briny ficod 'Tis Ajax who requests thy aid, to show

With heavy steps; and, weary, sought again None but himself, himself could overthrow.” The cool retirement of his gloomy den. He said, and, with so good a will to die,

A promontory, sharpening by degrees, Did to his breast the fatal point apply,

Ends in a wedge, and overlooks the seas : It found his heart, a way till then unknown, On either side, below, the water flows: Where never weapon enter'd but his own :

This airy walk the giant-lover chose; No hands could force it thence, so fixt it stood, Here on the midst he sate; his flocks, unled, Till out it rish'd, expelld by streams of spouting Their shepherd follow'd, and securely fed. blood.

A pine, so burly, and of length so vast, The fruitful blood produc'd a flower, which grew

That sailing ships requir'd it for a mast, On a green stem; and of a purple bue;

He wielded for a staff, his steps to guide: Like his, whom, unaware, Apollo slew:

But laid it by, his whistle while he try’d. Inscrib'd in both, the letters are the same,

A hundred reeds, of a prodigious growth,
But those express the grief, and these the name. Scarce made a pipe proportion'd to his mouth :

Which, when he gave it wind, the rocks around,
And watery plains, the dreadfal hiss resound.
I heard the ruflian shepherd rudely blow,
Where, in a hollow cave, 1 sat below;

On Acis' bosom I my head reclin’d:
ACIS, POLYPHEMUS, AND GALATEA. And still preserve the poem in my mind.

“ O lovely Galatea, whiter far
FROM THE THIRTEENTH BOOK OF Than falling snows and rising lilies are;
OVID'S METAMORPHOSES.

More flowery than the meads, as crystal bright;

Erect as alders, and of equal height: Acis, the lovely youth, whose loss I mourn, More wanton than a kid; more sleek thy skin From Faunus, and the nymph Symethis born, Than orient shells, that on the shores are seen: Was both his parents pleasure; but to me

Than apples fairer, when the boughs they lade ; Was all that Love could make a lover be.

Pleasing, as winter suns, or summer shade: The gods our minds in mutual bands did join : More grateful to the sight, than goodly plains ; I was his only joy, and he was mine.

And softer to the touch, than down of swans, Now sixteen summers the sweet youth had seen; Or curds new turn'd; and sweeter to the taste, And doubtful down began to shade his chin: Than swelling grapes, that to the vintage haste: When Polyphemus first disturb’d our joy,

More clear than ice, or running streams, that stray And lord me fiercely, as I lov'd the boy.

Through garden plots, but ah! more swift than Ask not which passion in my soul was higher, “ Yet, Galatea, harder to be broke (they. Vplast aversion, or my first desire :

Than bullocks, unreclaim'd to bear the yoke : or this the greater was, nor that the less; And far more stubborn than the knotted oak: Both were alike, for both were in excess.

Like sliding streams, impossible to hold; Toce, Venus, thee both Heaven and Earth obey; Like them fallacious; like their fountains, cold: Immense thy power, and boundless is thy sway. More warping, than the willow, to decline The Cyclops, who defy'd th' etherial throne, My warm embrace; more brittle than the vine; And thought no thunder louder than his own, Immoveable, and fix'd in thy disdain: The terrour of the woods, and wilder far

Rough, as these rocks, and of a harder grain ; Than wolves in plains, or bears in forests are, More violent, than is the rising flood : TH' inbuman host, who made his bloody feasts And the prais'd peacock is not half so proud : On mangled members of his butcher'd guests,

Fierce as the fire, and sharp as thistles are; Yet felt the force of love and fierce desire, And more outrageous than a mother-bear: And burnt for me, with unrelenting fire :

Deaf as the billows to the vows I make; Forgot his caverns, and his woolly care,

And more revengeful than a trodden snake: Assum'd the softness of a lover's air;

In swiftness Neeter than the flying hind, And combid, with teeth of rakes, his rugged Or driven tempests, or the driving wind. hair.

All other faults with patience I can bear; Now with a crooked scythe his beard he sleeks, But swiftness is the vice I only fear. And mows the stubborn stubble of his cheeks: “ Yet if you knew me well, you would not shun Now in the crystal stream he looks, to try My love, but to my wish'd embraces run: His simagres, and rolls his glaring eye.

Would languish in your turn, and court my stay; His cruelty and thirst of blood are lost;

And much repent of your unwise delay. And ships securely sail along the coast.

“My palace, in the living rock, is made
The prophet Telemus (arriv'd by chance By Nature's hand; a spacious pleasing shade;
Where Etna's summits to the seas advance, Which neither heat can pierce, nor cold invade.
Who markd the tracks of every bird that fiew, My garden fill'd with fruits you may behold,
And sure presages from their fiying drew) And grapes in clusters, imitating gold;
Foretold the Cyclops, that Ulysses' hand

Some blushing bunches of a purple hue:
In bis broad eye should thrust a flaming brand. And these, and those, are all reservd for you.
The giant, with a scornful grin, reply'd,

Red strawberries in shades expecting stand,
" Vain augur, thou hast falsely prophesyid; Proud to be gather'd by so white a hand.
Already Love his faming brand has tost; Autumnal cornels latter fruit provide,
Looking on two fair eyes, my sight I lost.” And plums, to tempt you, turn their glossy side:

VOL. II.

Not those of common kinds; but such alone, Thy food, ungrateful nymph; and Fate shall find
As in Phæacian orchards might have grown: That way for thee and Acis to be join'd.
Nor chestnuts shall be wanting to your food, For oh! I burn with love, and thy disdain
Nor garden-fruits, nor wildings of the wood; Augments at once my passion and my pain.
The laden boughs for you alone shall bear; Translated Etna flames within my heart,
And yours shall be the product of the year. And thou, inhuman, wilt not ease my smart.”

“The flocks, you see, are all my own; beside Lamenting thus in vain, he rose, and strode The rest that woods and winding valleys hide, With furious paces to the neighbouring wood: And those that folded in the caves abide.

Restless his feet, distracted was his walk;
Ask not the numbers of my growing store; Mad were his motions, and confus'd his talk:
Who knows how many, knows he has no more. Mad as the vanquish'd bull, when forc'd to yield
Nor will I praise my cattle; trust not me, His lovely mistress, and forsake the field.
But judge yourself, and pass your own decree : Thus far unseen I saw : when, fatal Chance
Behold their swelling duys; the sweepy weight His looks directing, with a sudden glance,
Of ewes, that sink beneath the milky freight : Acis and I were to his sight betray'd :
In the warm folds their tender lambkins lie, Where, nought suspecting, we securely play'd.
Apart from kids, that call with human cry. From bis wide mouth a bellowing cry he cast;
New milk in nut-brown bowls is duly serv'd “ I see, I see, but this shall be your last.”
For daily drink; the rest for cheese reservd. A roar so loud made Etna to rebound;
Nor are these household dainties all my store: And all the Cyclops labour'd in the sound.
The fields and forests will afford us more;

Affrighted with his monstrous voice, I fled,
The deer, the hare, the goat, the savage boar. And in the neighbouring ocean plung'd my head.
All sorts of venison; and of birds the best; Poor Acis turn'd his back, and, "Help,” he cry'd,
A pair of turtles taken from the nest :

“ Hely, Galatea, help, my parent gods,
I walk'd the mountains, and two cubs. I found, And take me dying to your deep abodes."
Whose dam had left them on the naked ground; The Cyclops follow'd; but he sent before
So like, that no distinction could be seen;

A rib, which from the living rock he tore:
So pretty, they were presents for a queen; Though but an angle reach'd himn of the stone,
And so they shall; I took them both away ; The mighty fragment was enough alone
And keep, to be companions of your play.

To crush all Acis; 'twas too late to save,
“ O raise, fair nymph, your beauteous face But what the Fates allowd to give, I gave:
above

That Acis to his lineage should return, The waves; nor scorn my presents, and my love. And roll, among the river gods, his urn. Come, Galatea, come, and view my face;

Straight issued from the stone a stream of blood ; I late beheld it in the watery glass,

Which lost the purple, mingling with the food. And found it lovelier than I fear'd it was.

Then like a troubled torrent it appear'd: Survey my towering stature, and my size : The torrent too, in little space, was clear'd. Not Jove, the Jove you dream, that rules the skies, The stone was cleft, and through the yawning chick Bears such a bulk, or is so largely spread : New reeds arose, on the new river's brink. My locks (the plenteous harvest of my head) The rock, from out its hollow womb, disclos'd Hang o'er my manly face; and dangling down, A sound like water in its course oppos'd : As with a shady grove, my shoulders crown, When (wondrous to behold) full in the flood, Nor think, because my limbs and body bear

Up starts a youth, and navel-high he stood.
A thick-set underwood of bristling hair,

Horns from his temples rise; and either horn
My shape deform’d: what fouler sight can be, Thick wreaths of reeds (bis native growth) adorn.
Than the bald branches of a leafless tree?

Were not his stature taller than before,
Foul is the steed without a flowing mane;

His bulk augınented, and his beauty more, And birds, without their feathers and their train. His colour blue, for Acis he might pass : Wool decks the sheep; and man receives a grace And Acis chang'd into a stream he was. From bushy limbs, and from a bearded face.

But, mine no more, he rolls along the plains
My forehead with a single eye is fill’d,

With rapid motion, and his name retains,
Round as a ball, and ample as a shield.
The glorious lamp of Heaven, the radiant Sun,
Is Nature's eye; and she's content with one.
Add, that my father sways your seas, and I,
Like you, am of the watery family.
I make you his, in making you my own :

PYTHAGOREAN PHILOSOPHY.
You I adore, and kneel to you alone :
Jove, with his faded thunder, I despise,
And only fear the lightning of your eyes.

OVID'S METAMORPHOSES.
Frown not, fair nymph; yet I could bear to be
Disdain'd, if others were disdain'd with me,
But to repulse the Cyclops, and prefer

The fourteenth book concludes with the death and The love of Acis, Heavens! I cannot bear.

deification of Romulus: the fifteenth begins But let the stripling please himself; nay more, with the election of Numa to the crown of Rome. Please you, though that's the thing I most abhor; On this occasion, Ovid, following the opinion of The boy shall find, if e'er we cope in fight,

some authors, makes Numa the scholar of PythaThese giant limbs endu'd with giant might:

goras; and to have begun his acquaintance His living bowels from his belly torn,

with that philosopher at Crotona, a town in And scatter'd limbs, shall qu the food be borne, Italy; from thence he makes a digression to the

OF THE

FROM THE FIFTEENTH BOOK OP

moral and natural philosophy of Pythagoras : | He leaves Tarentum, favour'd by the wind, on both which our author enlarges; and which And Thurine bays, and Temises, behind; are the most learned and beautiful parts of the Soft Sibaris, and all the capes that stand Metamorphoses.

Along the shore, he makes in sight of land ;

Still doubling, and still coasting, till he found Axung is sought, to guide the glowing state,

The mouth of Æsaris, and promis'd ground : One able to support the public weight,

Then saw where, on the margin of the flood, And fill the throne where Romulus had sate.

The tomb that held the bones of Croton stood : Renown, which oft bespeaks the public voice, Here, by the god's command, he built and wailid Had recommended Numa to their choice ;

The place predicted; and Crotona call’d: A peaceful, pious prince; who, not content Thus Fame, from time to time, delivers down To know the Sabine rites, his study bent

The sure tradition of th’Italian town." To cultivate his mind : to learn the laws

Here dwelt the man divine whom Samos bore, Of Nature, and explore their hidden cause : But now self-banish'd from his native shore, Urg'd by this care, his country he forsook,

Because he hated tyrants, nor could bear And to Crotona thence his journey took.

The chains which none but servile souls will wear: Arriv'd, he first inquir'd the founder's name He, though from Heaven remote, to Heaven could Of this new colony: and whence he came.

move, Then thus a senior of the place replies,

With strength of mind, and tread th' abyss above; (Well read, and curious of antiquities)

And penetrate, with his interior light, “'Tis said, Alcides hither took his way

Those upper depths, which Nature hid from sight: From Spain, and drove along his conquerd prey; And what he had observ'd, and learnt from thence, Then, leaving in the fields his grazing cows,

Lov'd in familiar language to dispense. He sought himself some hospitable house :

The crowd with silent admiration stand, Good Croton entertain'd his godlike guest,

And heard him, as they heard their god's comWhile he repair'd his weary limbs with rest.

mand; The hero, thence departing, bless'd the place;

While he discours'd of Heaven's mysterious laws, * And here,' he said, in Time's revolving race,

The World's original, and Nature's cause ; A rising town shall take its name from thee;' And what was God, and why the fleecy snows Revolving Time fulfill'd the prophecy :

In silence fell, and rattling winds arose; For Myscelos, the justest man on Earth,

What shook the stedfast Earth, and whence begu: Alemon's son, at Argos had his birth :

The dance of planets round the radiant Sun; Him Hereales, arm'd with his club of oak,

If thunder was the voice of angry Jove, Oershadow'd in a dream, and thus bespoke ; Or clouds, with nitre pregnant, burst above : Go, leave thy native soil, and make abode Of these, and things beyond the common reach, Where Æsaris rolls down his rapid food;'

He spoke, and charm'd his audience with his He said; and sleep forsook him, and the god.

speech. Trembling he wakid, and rose with anxious heart; He first the taste of flesh from tables drove, His country laws forbad him to depart :

And argued well, if arguments could move. What should he do? 'Twas death to go away;

“O mortals! from your fellows blood abstain, And the god menac'd if he dar'd to stay:

Nor taint your bodies with a food profane : All day he doubted; and when night came on,

While corn and pulse by Nature are bestow'd, Sleep, and the same forewarning dream, begun :

And planted orchards bend their willing load; Once more the god stood threateuing o'er his While labour'd gardens wholesome herbs produce, bead;

And teeming vines afford their generous juice; With added curses if he disobey'd.

Nor tardier fruits of cruder kind are lost, Twice warnd, he study'd fight; but would convey, But tam'd with fire, or mellow'd by the frost ; At once, his person and his wealth away :

While kine to pails distended udders bring, Thus while he linger'd, his design was heard;

And bees their honey redolent of spring; A speedy process form’d, and death declar'd. While Earth not only can your needs supply, Witness there needed none of his offence,

But, lavish of her store, provides for luxury ; Against himself the wretch was evidence:

A guiltless feast administers with ease, Condemn'd, and destitute of human aid,

And without blood is prodigal to please.
To him, for whom he suffered, thus he pray'd : Wild beasts their maws with their slain brethren

"Opower, who hast deserv'd in Heaven a throne
Not given, but by thy labours made thy own, And yet not all, for some refuse to kill:
Pity thy suppliant, and protect his cause, Sheep, goats, and oxen, and the nobler steed,
Whom thou hast made obnoxious to the laws.' On browz, and corn, the flowery meadows feed.

“A custom was of old, and still remains, Bears, tigers, wolves, the lion's angry brood, Which life or death by suffrages ordains ;

Whom Heaven endued with principles of blood, White stones and black within an urn are cast, He wisely sunder'd from the rest, to yell The first absolve, but fate is in the last :

In forests, and in lonely caves to dwell, The judges to the common urn bequeath

Where stronger beasts oppress the weak by might, Their votes, and drop the sable signs of death; And all in prey and purple feasts delight. The box receives all black; but, pour'd from thence, “ O impious use ! to Nature's laws oppos'd, The stones came candid forth, the hue of inno- Where bowels are in other bowels closd: Thus Alimonides his safety won,

[cence. Where, fattend by their fellows' fat, they thrive; Preserv'd from death by Alcumena's son: Maintain'd by murder, and by death they live. Then to his kinsman god his vows he pays, 'Tis then for nought that mother Earth provides And cuts with prosperous gales th' Ionian seas: The stores of all she sbows, and all she hides,

fill,