Attend the strains; and should some meaner phrase Hang on the style and clog the nobler lays, Excuse what we with trembling hand supply, To give his beauties to the public eye: His the pure essence, ours the grosser mean Thro' which his spirit is in action seen. Observe the force, observe the flame divine That glows, breathes, acts, in each harmonious line. Great objects only strike the gen'rous heart; Praise the sublime, o'erlook the mortal part: Be there your judgment, here your candour shewn ; Small is our portion—and we wish 'twere none.

COMUS.

ACT I.

The SCENE discovers a wild Wood.

The first Attendant Spirit enters.

BEFORE the starry threshold of Jove's court "My mansion is, where those immortal shapes "Of bright aerial spirits live inspher'd

"In regions mild of calm and serene air,
"Above the smoke and stir of this dim spot
"Which men call earth, and with low-thoughted care
"Confin'd and pester'd in this pinfold here
"Strive to keep up a frail and fev'rish being,
“ Unmindful of the crown that virtue gives,
"After this mortal change, to her true servants
"Amongst the enthron'd gods on sainted seats.
"Yet some there are that by due steps aspire
"To lay their just hands on that golden key
"That opes the palace of Eternity;

"To such my errand is; and but for such
"I would not soil these pure ambrosial weeds

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"With the rank vapours of this sin-worn mould
"But whence yon' slanting stream of purer light
"Which streaks the midnight gloom, and hither darts
"Its beamy point? Some messenger from Jove
"Commission'd to direct or share my charge,
“And if I ken him right a spirit pure

"As treads the spangled pavement of the sky,
"The gentle Philadel: but swift as thought
"He comes-

"The second Attendant Spirit descends. "Declare on what strange errand bent "Thou visitest this clime to me assign'd, "So far remote from thy appointed sphere.

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3°

S. Spi. "On no appointed task thou seest me now; "But, as returning from Elysian bow'rs "(Whither from mortal coil a soul I wafted) "Along this boundless sea of waving air

"I steer'd my flight, betwixt the gloomy shade “Of these thick boughs thy radiant form I spy'd, "Gliding as streams the moon thro' dusky clouds; "Instant I stoop'd my wing, and downward sped "To learn thy errand, and with thine to join "My kindred aid, from mortals ne'er withheld "When Virtue on the brink of peril stands.

F. Spi. "Then mark th' occasion that demands it here.

"Neptune, I need not tell, besides the sway
"Of ev'ry salt flood and each ebbing stream,
"Took in by lot, 'twixt high and nether Jove,

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