His hidden fires now Cepheus shows,

Now Procyon's star with heat is fraught; The raging Lion's ardour glows,

And suns bring back the days of drought.

Tired shepherds with their weary flocks
The river's cooling shades explore,
And leafy groves and wooded rocks;
The gales have ceased to stir the shore.

'Tis thine the empire's helm to sway,
And counsel how we best can save
The state from Cyrus and Cathay,
And tribes who arm by Tanais' wave.

The gods all knowing hide in night

Our future doom, and mock the fond Attempts of those who seek to fight Against their fate, and look beyond.

Enjoy the present wisely thou;

The future's like a stream that flows

To meet the sea, unruffled now

In peace between the banks it goes ;

Now swoll'n by rains a torrent strong,

Stones wrenched from rock, trunks torn from

ground,

Houses and herds it whirls along,

Whilst echoing hills and woods resound.

Ah! blest and master of his fate

Is he who cries, 'I've had my hour;

I'm far beyond Jove's love or hate;
To-morrow may be shine or shower.

'Whate'er I've had, come cloud or sun, Not Heaven itself can render vain ; The past can never be undone,

Nor moments fled return again.'

Her fickle task still Fortune plies,
Still keeps her wanton sport in view,
In turn her favourites fall and rise,
Now kind to me and now to you.

I praise her while she stays, and when
She flies I all her gifts resign;

I wrap me warm in virtue then,
And, poor but honest, ne'er repine.

When storms excite the raging wave
I never groan in tearful prayers,
Nor bargain with the gods to save
From loss my merchandise and wares.

I heed not if to Ocean's store

They add their wealth, for Castor's care, And Pollux and soft gales to shore

My humble bark shall safely bear.

XXX.

THE IMMORTALITY OF HORACE.

I've raised a pillar that shall last
Longer than bronze by founder cast;
It stretches till in clouds 'tis hid,
Taller than royal Pyramid ;

No storms shall hurt, no winds shall dare
To sap its strength, no time impair.

I shall not perish with my breath,

I've much that ne'er shall yield to death;
And long in after years I know

Fresh in men's mouths my praise shall grow,

While priest and Vestal climb above,
To shrine of Capitolian Jove.

Where Aufidus rolls, torrent strong,
Where Daunus ruled his rustic throng,
An arid realm, they'll tell my fame-
How from a humble source I came,
The first the lyre of Greece to use
In concert with the Latin Muse.
Then take, oh, take, Melpomene,
The honours justly due to thee;
Choose for my brow a chaplet fair,
With Delphic laurel crown my hair.

109

BOOK IV.

I.

TO VENUS.

Ah, Venus! dost renew a war
Suspended? Cease, I pray !
I am not, as I was of yore,

Beneath dear Cinara's sway.

Stern mother of sweet loves, refrain,
My heart is hard and old :
Away! invoked by younger men,
To them thy charms unfold.

Would'st wake a sympathetic flame?

On purple pinions fly;

Where Paulus dwells thy arrows aim,

And revel fittingly.

Of noble birth is he, and fair,

Nor tongue-tied at the bar,

And wide the accomplished youth will bear

The ensigns of thy war.

And when his rival's gifts to see
Disdained his mirth shall wake,
He'll raise a marble bust to thee
Beside the Alban Lake.

There will we offer incense sweet,

And there shall sound the strain
That Phrygian lute and lyre repeat,
And the pipe's soft refrain.

There twice a day shall youths be found
For thee proclaiming passion,

And dancing maids shall shake the ground
Three times in Salian fashion.

Nor girl nor boy delights me now,
For no one's love I pine;

I care no more to wreathe my brow,
Nor vie with friends at wine.

But why, ah! Ligurina, why

Do tears bedew my cheek? Why do my faltering accents die In silence as I speak?

Ah! cruel maid! 'tis but in dreams

A glimpse of thee I gain;

'Tis then I chase thy charms thro' streams, And o'er the grassy plain.

II.

TO ANTONIUS IULUS.

He who would Pindar emulate
Will meet with Dædalus's fate;
Will spread his wings to fall again,
And christen where he falls the main.