-The listening crowd admire the lofty sound;
A present deity! they shout around:

A present deity! the vaulted roofs rebound.
With ravished ears

The monarch hears,

Assumes the god,

Affects to nod,

And seems to shake the spheres.

The praise of Bacchus then the sweet musician

sung,

Of Bacchus ever fair and ever young.

The jolly god in triumph comes;
Sound the trumpets, beat the drums!
Flushed with a purple grace

He shows his honest face:

Now give the hautboys breath; he comes, he comes! Bacchus, ever fair and young,

Drinking joys did first ordain;

Bacchus' blessings are a treasure,

Drinking is the soldier's pleasure:

Rich the treasure,

Sweet the pleasure,

Sweet is pleasure after pain.

Soothed with the sound, the King grew vain,

Fought all his battles o'er again,

And thrice he routed all his foes, and thrice he slew the slain !

The master saw the madness rise,

His glowing cheeks, his ardent eyes;
And while he Heaven and Earth defied
Changed his hand and checked his pride.
He chose a mournful Muse

Soft pity to infuse:

He sung Darius great and good
By too severe a fate

Fallen, fallen, fallen, fallen,
Fallen from his high estate,
And weltering in his blood;

Deserted at his utmost need
By those his former bounty fed;
On the bare earth exposed he lies
With not a friend to close his eyes.

-With downcast looks the joyless victor sate,
Revolving in his altered soul

The various turns of Chance below;
And now and then a sigh he stole,
And tears began to flow.

The mighty master smiled to see
That love was in the next degree;
'Twas but a kindred sound to move,
For pity melts the mind to love.
Softly sweet, in Lydian measures,
Soon he soothed his soul to pleasures.
War, he sung, is toil and trouble,
Honour but an empty bubble,
Never ending, still beginning,
Fighting still, and still destroying;
If the world be worth thy winning,
Think, oh think, it worth enjoying :
Lovely Thais sits beside thee,

Take the good the gods provide thee!

-The many rend the skies with loud applause;

So love was crowned, but music won the cause. The Prince, unable to conceal his pain,

Gazed on the fair

Who caused his care,

And sighed and looked, sighed and looked,
Sighed and looked, and sighed again:

At length with love and wine at once opprest
The vanquished victor sunk upon her breast.

Now strike the golden lyre again: A louder yet, and yet a louder strain! Break his bands of sleep asunder

And rouse him like a rattling peal of thunder.

Hark, hark! the horrid sound
Has raised up his head,
As awaked from the dead
And amazed he stares around.

Revenge, revenge, Timotheus cries,

See the Furies arise!

See the snakes that they rear

How they hiss in their hair,

And the sparkles that flash from their eyes!
Behold a ghastly band,

Each a torch in his hand!

Those are Grecian ghosts, that in battle were slain And unburied remain

Inglorious on the plain :

Give the vengeance due
To the valiant crew!

Behold how they toss their torches on high,
How they point to the Persian abodes

And glittering temples of their hostile gods.
-The princes applaud with a furious joy:

And the King seized a flambeau with zeal

destroy;

Thais led the way

To light him to his prey,

And like another Helen, fired another Troy!

-Thus, long ago,

Ere heaving bellows learned to blow,

While organs yet were mute,

Timotheus, to his breathing flute

And sounding lyre,

Could swell the soul to rage, or kindle soft desire.

At last divine Cecilia came,

Inventress of the vocal frame;

The sweet enthusiast from her sacred store

Enlarged the former narrow bounds,

And added length to solemn sounds,

to

With Nature's mother-wit, and arts unknown

before.

-Let old Timotheus yield the prize
Or both divide the crown;

He raised a mortal to the skies;

She drew an angel down!

John Dryden.

55

THE TRIUMPH OF DULNESS

(The Dunciad.)

IN vain, in vain-the all-composing hour
Resistless falls: the Muse obeys the power.
She comes! she comes! the sable throne behold
Of Night primeval, and of Chaos old!
Before her Fancy's gilded clouds decay,
And all its varying rainbows die away.
Wit shoots in vain its momentary fires,
The meteor drops, and in a flash expires.
As one by one, at dread Medea's strain,
The sickening stars fade off th' ethereal plain;
As Argus' eyes, by Hermes' wand opprest,
Closed one by one to everlasting rest;
Thus at her felt approach, and secret might,
Art after art goes out, and all is night.
See skulking Truth to her old cavern fled,
Mountains of casuistry heaped o'er her head!
Philosophy, that leaned on Heaven before,
Shrinks to her second cause, and is no more.
Physic of Metaphysic begs defence,
And Metaphysic calls for aid on Sense!
See Mystery to Mathematics fly!

In vain! they gaze, turn giddy, rave, and die.
Religion blushing veils her sacred fires,
And unawares Morality expires.

Nor public flame nor private dares to shine;
Nor human spark is left, nor glimpse divine!

G

Lo, thy dread empire, Chaos, is restored!
Light dies before thy uncreating word;

Thy hand, great Anarch, lets the curtain fall,
And universal darkness buries all !

Alexander Pope.

56

THE FORTUNE OF WAR

(The Vanity of Human Wishes.)

ON what foundation stands the warrior's pride, How just his hopes, let Swedish Charles decide; A frame of adamant, a soul of fire,

No dangers fright him, and no labours tire;
O'er love, o'er fear, extends his wide domain,
Unconquered lord of pleasure and of pain.
No joys to him pacific sceptres yield,

War sounds the trump, he rushes to the field;
Behold surrounding kings their powers combine,
And one capitulate, and one resign.

Peace courts his hand, but spreads her charms in vain;

'Think nothing gained,' he cries, 'till nought remain,

On Moscow's walls till Gothic standards fly,

And all be mine beneath the polar sky.'

The march begins in military state,

And nations on his eye suspended wait;
Stern Famine guards the solitary coast,
And Winter barricades the realms of Frost;
He comes, nor want nor cold his course delay;—
Hide, blushing Glory, hide Pultowa's day!
The vanquished hero leaves his broken bands,
And shows his miseries in distant lands;
Condemned a needy supplicant to wait,
While ladies interpose, and slaves debate.