Siders vexabunt? An et insatiabile Tempus
Esuriet cælum, rapietque in viscera patrem?
Heu, potuitne suas imprudens Jupiter arces
Hoc contra munisse nefas, et Temporis isto
Exemisse malo, gyrosque dedisse perennes ?
Ergo erit ut quandoque sono dilapsa tremendo
Convexi tabulata ruant, atque obvius ictu
Stridat uterque polus, superaque ut Olympius aula
Decidat, horribilisque retecta Gorgone Pallas ;
Qualis in Ægæam proles Junonia Lemnon
Deturbata sacro cecidit de limine cæli?
Tu quoque, Phæbe, tui casus imitabere nati;
Præcipiti curru, subitaque ferere ruina
Pronus, et extincta fumabit lampade Nereus,
Et dabit attonito feralia sibila ponto.
Tunc etiam aërei divulsis sedibus Hæmi
Dissultabit apex, imoque allisa barathro
Terrebunt Stygium dejecta Ceraunia Ditem,
In superos quibus usus erat, fraternaque bella.

At Pater Omnipotens, fundatis fortius astris,
Consuluit rerum summæ, certoque peregit
Pondere fatorum lances, atque ordine summo
Singula perpetuum jussit servare tenorem.
Volvitur hinc lapsu mundi rota prima diurno;
Raptat et ambitos socia vertigine cælos.
Tardior haud solito Saturnus, et acer ut olim
Fulmineum rutilat cristata casside Mavors.
Floridus æternum Phæbus juvenile coruscat,
Nec fovet effætas loca per declivia terras
Devexo temone deus ; sed semper amica
Luce potens, eadem currit per signa rotarum.
Surgit odoratis pariter formosus ab Indis,
Æthereum pecus albenti qui cogit Olympo,
Mane vocans, et serus agens in pascua cæli;
Temporis et gemino dispertit regna colore.
Fulget, obitque vices alterno Delia cornu,
Cæruleumque ignem paribus complectitur uluis.
Nec variant elementa fidem, solitoque fragore
Lurida perculsas jaculantur fulmina rupes :
Nec per inane furit leviori murmure Corus,
Stringit et armiferos æquali horrore Gelonos
Trux Aquilo, spiratque hyemem, nimbosque volutat.
Utque solet, Siculi diverberat ima Pelori
Rex maris, et rauca circumstrepit æquora concha
Oceani tubicen, nec vasta mole minorem
Ægæona ferunt dorso Balearica cete.
Sed, neque, Terra, tibi sæcli vigor ille vetusti
Priscus abest, servatque suum Narcissus odorem,
Et puer ille suum tenet, et puer ille, decorem,

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Phæbe, tuusque, et, Cypri, tuusy; nec ditior olim
Terra datum sceleri celavit montibus aurum
Conscia, vel sub aquis gemmas. Sic denique in ævum
Ibit cunctarum series justissima rerum ;
Donec flamma orbem populabitur ultima, late
Circumplexa polos, et vasti culmina cæli;
Ingentique rogo flagrabit machina mundi.

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DE IDEA PLATONICA QUEMADMODUM ARISTOTELES INTELLEXIT 2.

DICITE, sacrorum præsides nemorum deæ ;
Tuque, O, noveni perbeata numinis
Memoria mater, quæque in immenso procul
Antro recumbis, otiosa Æternitas,
Monumenta servans, et ratas leges Jovis,
Cælique fastos, atque ephemeridas deum ;
Quis ille primus, cujus ex imagine
Natura solers finxit humanum genus,
Æternus, incorruptus, æquævus polo,
Unusque et universus, exemplar Dei ?
Haud ille Palladis gemellus innubæ a
Interna proles insidet menti Jovis ;
Sed quamlibet natura sit communior,
Tamen seorsus extat ad morem unius,
Et, mira, certo stringitur spatio loci :
Seu sempiternus ille siderum comes
Coli pererrat ordines decemplicis,
Citimumve terris incolit lunæ globum :
Sive, inter animas corpus adituras sedens,
Obliviosas torpet ad Lethes aquas :
Sive in remota forte terrarum plaga
Incedit ingens hominis archetypus gigas,
Et diis tremendus erigit celsum caput,
Atlante major portitore siderum.
Non, cui profundum cæcitas lumen dedit ,

Dircæus augur vidit hunc alto sinu ; 5 Hyacinth the favourite boy of Phæbus, Adonis of Venus : both, like Narcissus, converted into flowers.-T. Warton.

This poem is replete with fanciful and ingenious allusions : it has also a vigour of expression, a dignity of sentiment, and elevation of thought, rarely found in very young writers.-T. Warton.

? I find this poem inserted at full length, as a specimen of unintelligible mataphysics, in a scarce little book of universal burlesque, much in the manner of Tom Brown, seemingly published about the year 1715, and intitled “ An Essay towards the Theory of the intelligible world intuitively considered."-T. W'arton.

a Haud ille Palladis gemellus innubæ, &C. " This aboriginal man, the twin brother of the virgin Pallas, does not remain in the brain of Jupiter where he was generated ; but, although partaking of man's common nature, still exists somewhere by himself, in a state of singleness and abstraction, and in a determinate place. Whether among the stars," &c.-T. Warton.

b Tiresias of Thebes.-T. WARTON.

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Non hunc silente nocte Plëiones nepos
Vatum sagaci præpes ostendit choro;
Non hunc sacerdos novit Assyrius ", licet
Longos vetusti commemoret atavos Nini,
Priscumque Belon, inclytumque Osiridem ;
Non ille, trino gloriosus nomine,
Ter magnus Hermes e, ut sit arcani sciens,
Talem reliquit Isidis cultoribus.
At tu, perenne ruris Academi decus',
(Hæc monstra si tu primus induxti scholis)
Jam jam poetas, urbis exules tuæ,
Revocabis, ipse fabulator maximus ;
Aut institutor ipse migrabis foras.

AD PATREM B.
Nuno mea Pierios cupiam per pectora fontes
Irriguas torquere vias, totumque per ora
Volvere laxatum gemino de vertice rivum ;
Ut, tenues oblita sonos, audacibus alis
Surgat in officiuni venerandi Musa parentis.
Hoc utcunque tibi gratum, pater optime, carnen
Exiguum meditatur opus; nec novimus ipsi
Aptius a nobis quæ possint munera donis
Respondere tuis, quamvis nec maxima possint
Respondere tuis, nedum ut par gratia donis
Esse queat, vacuis quæ redditur arida verbis.
Sed tamen hæc nostros ostendit pagina census,
Et quod habemus opum charta numeravimus ista,
Quæ mihi sunt nullæ, nisi quas dedit aurea Clio,
Quas mihi semoto somni peperere sub antro,
Et nemoris laureta sacri Parnassides umbræ.
Nec tu vatis opus divinum despice carmen,

c Plčiones nepos. Mercury.-T. WARTON.

d Non hunc sacerdos novil Assyrius. Sanchoniathon, the eldest of the profane historians.-T. Warton.

e Trino gloriosus nomine,

Ter magnus Hermes. Hermes Trismegistus, an Egyptian philosopher, who lived soon after Moses, as Mr. Warton observes : “ Thrice-great Hermes,"_“Il Pens." v. 88. Suidas says he was so called, because he was a philosopher, a priest, and a king.–TODD.

! At tu, perenne ruris Academi decus, &c. • You, Plato, who expelled the poets from your republic, must now bid them return," &c. Plato and bis followers communicated their notions by emblems, fables, synıbols, parables, allegories, and a variety of mystical representations.-T. WARTON.

& According to Aubrey's manuscript “ Life of Milton,” Milton's father, although a scrivener, was not apprenticed to that trade ; he says he was bred a scholar, and of Christchurch Oxford, and that he took to trade in consequence of being disinherited : Milton was therefore writing to his father in a language which he understood. Aubrey adds, that he was very ingenious, and delighted in music, in wbich be instructed his son John : that he died about 1647, and was interred in Cripplegate-church, from his house in Barbican. -T. WARTON.

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Quo nihil æthereos ortus, et semina cæli,
Nil magis humanam commendat origine mentem,
Sancta Promethëæ retinens vestigia flammæ.
Carmen amant superi, tremebundaque Tartara carmen
Ima ciere valet, divosque ligare profundos,
Et triplici duro Manes adamante coercet.
Carmine sepositi retegunt arcana futuri
Phoebades", et tremulæ pallentes ora Sibyllæ :
Carmina sacrificus sollennes pangit ad aras ;
Aurea seu sternit motantem cornua taurum ;
Seu cum fata sagax fumantibus abdita fibris
Consulit, et tepidis Parcam scrutatur in extis.
Nos etiam, patrium tunc cum repetemus Olympum,
Æternæqae moræ stabunt immobilis ævi,
Ibimus auratis per cæli templa coronis ;
Dulcia suaviloquo sociantes carmina plectro,
Astra quibus, geminique poli convexa, sonabunt.
Spiritus et rapidos qui circinat igneus orbes,
Nunc quoque sidereis intercinit ipse choreis
Immortale melos, et inenarrabile carmen ;
Torrida dum rutilus compescit sibila Serpens,
Demissoque ferox gladio mansuescit Orion;
Stellarum nec sentit onus Maurusius Atlas.
Carmina regales epulas ornare solebant,
Cum nondum luxus, vastæque immensa vorago
Nota gulæ, et modico spumabat cæna Lyæo,
Tum, de more sedens festa ad convivia vates,
Æsculea intonsos redimitus ab arbore crines,
Heroumque actus, imitandaque gesta canebat,
Et chaos, et positi late fundamina mundi,
Reptantesque deos, et alentes numina glandes,
Et nondum Ætnæo quæsitum fulmen ab antro.
Denique quid vocis modulamen inane juvabit,
Verborum sensusque vacans, numerique loquacis ?
Silvestres decet iste choros, non Orphea, cantus,
Qui tenuit fluvios, et quercubus addidit aures,
Carmine, non cithara ; simulacraque functa canendo
Compulit in lacrymas : habet has a carmine laudes.

Nec tu perge, precor, sacras contemnere Musas,
Nec vanas inopesque puta, quarum ipse peritus
Munere, mille sonos numeros componis ad aptos ;
Millibus et vocem modulis variare canoram
Doctus, Arionii merito sis nominis hæres.
Nunc tibi quid mirum, si me genuisse poetam

h Phobades. The priestesses of Apollo's temple at Delphi, who always delivered their oracles in verse. -T. WARTON.

Such productions of true genius, with a natural and noble consciousness anticipating its own immortality, are seldom found to fail.-T. Warton.

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Contigerit, caro si tam prope sanguine juncti
Cognatas artes, studiumque affine, sequamur?
Ipse volens Phæbus se dispertire duobus,
Altera dona mihi, dedit altera dona parenti;
Dividuumque deum, genitorque puerque, tenemus.

Tu tamen ut simules teneras odisse Camænas,
Non odisse reor; neque enim, pater, ire jubebas
Qua via lata patet, qua pronior area lucri,
Certaque condendi fulget spes aurea nummi:
Nec rapis ad leges, male custoditaque gentis
Jura, nec insulsis damnas clamoribus aures ;
Sed, magis excultam cupiens ditescere mentem,
Me procul urbano strepitu, secessibus altis
Abductum, Aoniæ jucunda per otia ripæ,
Phæbæo lateri comitem sinis ire beatum.
Officium cari taceo commune parentis ;
Me poscunt majora : tuo, pater optime, sumtu,
Cum mihi Romuleæ patuit facundia linguæ,
Et Latii veneres, et quæ Jovis ora decebant
Grandia magniloquis elata vocabula Graiis,
Addere suasisti quos jactat Gallia flores ;
Et quam degeneri novus Italus ore loquelam
Fundit, barbaricos testatus voce tumultus ;
Quæque Palæstinus loquitur mysteria vates.
Denique quicquid habet cælum, subjectaque cælo
Terra parens, terræque et cælo interfluus aer,
Quicquid et unda tegit, pontique agitabile marmor,
Per te nosse licet, per te, si nosse libebit :
Dimotaque venit spectanda scientia nube,
Nudaque conspicuos inclinat ad oscula vultus,
Ni fugisse velim, ni sit libasse molestum.

I nunc, confer opes, quisquis malesanus avitas
Austriaci gazas, Perüanaque regna, præoptus.
Quæ potuit majora pater tribuisse, vel ipse
Jupiter, excepto, donasset ut omnia, cælo?
Non potiora dedit, quamvis et tuta fuissent,
Publica qui juveni commisit lumina nato,
Atque Hyperionios currus, et fræna diei,
Et circum undantem radiata luce tiaram,
Ergo ego, jam doctæ pars quamlibet ima catervo,
Vietrices hederas inter laurosque sedebo ;
Jamque nec obscurus populo miscebor inerti,
Vitabuntque oculos vestigia nostra profanos.
Este procul, vigiles curæ; procul este, querelæ ;
Invidiæque acies transverso tortilis hirquo;
Sæva ner anguiferos extende, calumnia, rictus :
in me triste nihil, fædissima turba, potestis,
Nee Vrstri sum juris ego ; securaque tutus
Paura, ipereo gradiar sublimis ab ictu.