Then, more than blest, I fondly swear, "No pow'r can with love's pow'r compare! "None in the starry court of Jove "Is greater than the god of love! "If any can yet greater be, "Yes, my Neæra! yes, 'tis Thee !" BASIUM VI. DE meliore notá bis basia mille paciscens Explêsti numerum, fateor, jucunda Neæra! Quis laudet Cererem numeratis surgere aristis? Quis tibi, Bacche, tulit pro centum vota racemis? Sic quoque, cùm ventis concussus inhorruit aër, Sumpsit et iratá Juppiter arma manu, [Agricolumve Deum, &c.] Aristæus, one of the rural deities, who is said to have first discovered the use of honey; vide Pausanias, in Arcadicis. A pretty history of him may be found in Virgil, Georg. iv. KISS. VI. TWO thousand Kisses of the sweetest kind, The clust'ring grapes, when Bacchus loads the vine? Grandine confusá terras et cærula pulsat, Seu bona, seu mala sunt, veniunt uberrima cœlo: Tu quoque cùm dea sis, diva formosior illa, Nec lachrymas numeras, quæ per faciemque si numque, Duxerunt rivos semper-euntis aquæ? [Concha per æquoreum, &c.] The shell of Venus has been celebrated by classics, both ancient and modern; Et faveas conchâ Cypria vecta tuâ TIBULL LIB. III. EL. 3. And aid me, Venus! from thy pearly car. And thus Hercules Strozza: GRAINGER. Nabat Erythreâ materna per æquora conchâ, Qualis erat spumis edita, nuda Venus. HERC. STROZ. AMO. L. II. EL. 5. In Erythrean shell the sea-born Queen Rode on her native waves, her native beauties seen. [Duxerunt rivos semper-euntis, &c.] Sidronius Hosschius, a Latin poet, of Marke, in Germany, who flourished The God ne'er heeds what harvests he may spoil, So, when its blessings bounteous Heav'n ordains, Which in my lab'ring breast incessant rise; in the beginning of the 17th century, in like manner expresses Love's perpetual sorrow. Utque per attritas rivum sibi ducit arenas, Quæ riguo manat fonte perennis aqua; Sic exesa tibi sulcos duxere per ora Ex oculis imbres qui tibi semper eunt. S. P. HOSSCH. LACRIM. ELEG. X. As wears the furrow'd sands, with ceaseless wave, So show'rs thy tear-worn beauties ever lave, Sad show'rs, that stream incessant from thine eyes! D |