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This scarce I lead, who left on yonder rock
Two tender kids, the hopes of all the flock.
Had we not been perverse and careless grown,
This dire event by omens was foreshown;
Our trees were blasted by the thunder stroke,
And left-hand crows, from an old hollow oak,
Foretold the coming evil by their dismal croak.

TRANSLATION OF HORACE.

BOOK I. ODE XXII.

1 THE man, my friend, whose conscious heart
With virtue's sacred ardour glows,

Nor taints with death the envenom'd dart,
Nor needs the guard of Moorish bows:

2 Though Scythia's icy cliffs he treads,
Or horrid Afric's faithless sands;
Or where the famed Hydaspes spreads
His liquid wealth o'er barbarous lands.

3 For while, by Chloe's image charm'd,
Too far in Sabine woods I stray'd;
Me singing, careless and unarm'd,
A grisly wolf surprised, and fled.

4 No savage more portentous stain'd
Apulia's spacious wilds with gore ;
None fiercer Juba's thirsty land,
Dire nurse of raging lions, bore.

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5 Place me where no soft summer gale

Among the quivering branches sighs; Where clouds condensed for ever veil

With horrid gloom the frowning skies:

6 Place me beneath the burning line,
A clime denied to human race;

I'll sing of Chlöe's charms divine,
Her heavenly voice, and beauteous face.

TRANSLATION OF HORACE.

BOOK II. ODE IX.

1 CLOUDS do not always veil the skies, Nor showers immerse the verdant plain ; Nor do the billows always rise,

Or storms afflict the ruffled main.

2 Nor, Valgius, on the Armenian shores Do the chain'd waters always freeze; Not always furious Boreas roars,

Or bends with violent force the trees.

3 But you are ever drown'd in tears,

For Mystes dead you ever mourn ; No setting Sol can ease your cares, But finds you sad at his return.

4 The wise, experienced Grecian sage
Mourn'd not Antilochus so long;
Nor did King Priam's hoary age
So much lament his slaughter'd son.

5 Leave off, at length, these woman's sighs,
Augustus' numerous trophies sing;
Repeat that prince's victories,

To whom all nations tribute bring.

6 Niphates rolls an humbler wave,

At length the undaunted Scythian yields,
Content to live the Romans' slave,
And scarce forsakes his native fields.

TRANSLATION

OF PART OF THE DIALOGUE BETWEEN HECTOR AND ANFROM THE SIXTH BOOK OF HOMER'S

DROMACHE.

ILIAD.

SHE ceased then godlike Hector answer'd kind,
(His various plumage sporting in the wind):
That post, and all the rest, shall be my care;
But shall I then forsake the unfinish'd war?
How would the Trojans brand great Hector's name,
And one base action sully all my fame,
Acquired by wounds and battles bravely fought!
Oh! how my soul abhors so mean a thought!
Long have I learn'd to slight this fleeting breath,
And view with cheerful eyes approaching death.
The inexorable Sisters have decreed

That Priam's house and Priam's self shall bleed:

The day shall come, in which proud Troy shall yield, And spread its smoking ruins o'er the field;

Yet Hecuba's, nor Priam's hoary age,

Whose blood shall quench some Grecian's thirsty rage,

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Nor my brave brothers that have bit the ground,
Their souls dismiss'd through many a ghastly wound,
Can in my bosom half that grief create,

As the sad thought of your impending fate;
When some proud Grecian dame shall tasks impose,
Mimic your tears, and ridicule your woes :
Beneath Hyperia's waters shall you sweat,
And, fainting, scarce support the liquid weight:
Then shall some Argive loud insulting cry,
Behold the wife of Hector, guard of Troy!

Tears, at my name, shall drown those beauteous eyes,
And that fair bosom heave with rising sighs:

Before that day, by some brave hero's hand,
May I lie slain, and spurn the bloody sand!

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TO MISS *

ON HER PLAYING UPON A HARPSICHORD IN A ROOM HUNG WITH FLOWER-PIECES OF HER OWN PAINTING.

WHEN Stella strikes the tuneful string,

In scenes of imitated Spring,

Where beauty lavishes her powers
On beds of never-fading flowers,
And pleasure propagates around
Each charm of modulated sound;
Ah! think not, in the dangerous hour,
The nymph fictitious as the flower,
But shun, rash youth! the gay alcove,
Nor tempt the snares of wily love.

When charms thus press on every sense,
What thought of flight or of defence?

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Deceitful hope or vain desire,
For ever flutter o'er her lyre,
Delighting, as the youth draws nigh,
To point the glances of her eye,
And forming, with unerring art,
New chains to hold the captive heart.

But on those regions of delight
Might truth intrude with daring flight,
Could Stella, sprightly, fair, and young,
One moment hear the moral song,
Instruction with her flowers might spring,
And wisdom warble from her string.
Mark, when, from thousand mingled dyes,
Thou seest one pleasing form arise,
How active light and thoughtful shade
In greater scenes each other aid ;
Mark, when the different notes agree
In friendly contrariety,

How passion's well accorded strife,
Gives all the harmony of life:

Thy pictures shall thy conduct frame,
Consistent still, though not the same;
Thy music teach the nobler art,
To tune the regulated heart.

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EVENING: AN ODE.

TO STELLA.

EVENING now, from purple wings,
Sheds the grateful gifts she brings;
Brilliant drops bedeck the mead,
Cooling breezes shake the reed-

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