42.

41. This is my rule, and to this rule I'll hold,

To choose my wife by merit, not by gold ;
For on that one election must depend,
Whether I wed a fury or a friend,

I saw sweet beauty in her face
Such as the daughter of Agenor had,
That made great Jove to humble him to her hand,

When with his knees he kissed the Cretan strand. 43. The wise with prudent thought provide

Against misfortune's coming tide :
The valiant, when the surge beats high,

Undaunted brave its tyranny.
44. Necessity enforceth every wight

To love his native seat with all his might.
A happie quarrell is it and a good

For country's cause to spend our dearest blood. 45. Still wind your way, ye mystic votaries,

To Ceres' shrine, nor dread the wintry tide ;
For you the Lindian stranger Xenocles

· Hath built this causeway o'er Cephisus wide. 46. Happen whate'er there can, I will be just.

My fortune may forsake me, not my virtue :
That shall go with me and before me still,

And glad me doing well, though I hear ill. 47. Justice and truth I never will omit

To praise : the liberty of speech inbred
In Pallas' citizens and Theseus' city

'Tis right to keep in lawful exercise.
48. The suppliant bull, to Jove's high altar led,

Bellows a pray'r for his devoted head.
Spare him, Saturnius! His the form you wore

When fair Europa through the waves you bore. 49. Be well advis'd and wary counsel take,

Ere thou dost any action undertake :

Having undertaken, thy endeavours bend

To bring thy actions to a perfect end. 50. Qui ne craint point la mort ne craint point les menaces:

J'ai le cour au dessus des plus fières disgraces ;
Et l'on peut me réduire à vivre sans bonheur,

Mais non pas me résoudre à vivre sans honneur. 51. I knew her not, how wretched and how fair,

When here I wafted her. Poor child of earth,
Shall I forsake thee, seeing thee so fair,
So wretched ? O my father, let the maid

Dwell in the sacred grove.
52. Silence befits the wise man when he comes

Amidst associates of superior rank;
But may I never be the friend or comrade
Of him, who trusting in his own discretion

As all-sufficient, treats his friends like slaves! 53. The man who ne'er hath felt the barb of love

Knows not necessity's strong law, which forc'd me
To enter on the perilous path I tread.
He is the god who makes the weak man strong,

And to the helpless points the way of help. 54. All things in human life tend to grow old,

And come unto their destined goal at last,
Save, as it seemeth, Impudence alone.
She, as the race of mortals makes increase,

So much the mightier grows from day to day. 55. The god of battles is not always wont

To be propitious ; with delight he views
The fall of many a valiant youth, but hates
All cowards: this disaster will affect

The city, but prove glorious to the dead.
56. Assembling all our friends, we should bewail

The new-born child who comes into a world
Where mischiefs swarm around him; but bear forth

Amidst rejoicings and auspicious songs

One who is dead, and ceases from his toil. 57. He to the gods, upon whose altars now

His life he offers, will exalt his fame,
And live immortal in the sight of men :
We, who sit idle on the field, must lose

Our native land, and haughty lords obey. 58. I am the mother of an only son,

Whom for these many days I have not seen.
I know right well nought is concealed from you
Of what concerns him; let me know, I pray you,

Where I may find my child.
59. There is one law which all mankind obey,

Which I assert is common to the gods,
And even savage beasts, – for every mother
To love her progeny: in other points

We by our separate usages are guided.
60. What tracks of earth, Achates, are not full

Of our sad tale? See Priam. Even here
Has merit its reward. Woe wakens tears,
And mortal sufferings touch the heart of man.

Banish thy fear. This fame shall be our guard. 61. But what is there in man's precarious life

To be relied on? O'er the foamy deep
Rides the swift vessel by the wind impelld :
But as to human fortunes, Time reduces

The great to nothing, and augments the small. 62. He who delights to fill his house with treasure,

Though to his craving stomach he deny
E’en necessary food, is ripe to plunder
The statues of the gods, I deem, and wage

Against his dearest friends unnatural war.
63. What boots it to provoke the unheeding dead,

And heap vain insults upon voiceless earth ?
For, when the cunning sense is gone that knows.

The pleasant and the painful to discern,

'Tis a mute stone — the body — nothing more. 64. Q. O mother, I have been a thoughtless child :

I've given thee hoary hairs before thy time;
And added weight to thy declining years,
Who should have been their stay.

C. Be calm, my son, for I do not upbraid thee. 65. Since thou wert born a man, thou from the air,

Whence all receive their nourishment, and draw
Their vital breath, those evils that attend
On life, hast caught: frail mortal as thou art,

Endure what to mortality belongs.
66. Look, Son of Iasus, the seas themselves

Thy fleet are carrying, steady breezes blow,
The hour is given to rest; recline thy head,
Thy weary watchful eyes from labour steal :

I will myself awhile thy task perform. 67. By the keen eye of Heaven's immortal Power

Are all things seen; full plainly it appears
That, though by us frail mortals undiscern'd,
And seldom look'd for, there's a God at hand,

Who o’er each action of our lives presides. 68. Alas both for the deed, and for the cause !

But have I now seen death? Is this the way
I must return to native dust ? O sight
Of terror, foul and ugly to behold,

Horrid to think, how terrible to feel ! 69. Asterope, my sister, happy thou

In thy espousals. Can then Æsacus
Be brother unto Paris ? But the one
The mild Arisbe bore, the other sprang

From Hecuba, a violent river's child. 70. But he who late possessed that vigorous frame,

Like a refulgent star which falls from heaven,
Hath been extinguish'd ; to the skies ascends

His kindred spirit, but a breathless corse

His body lies, that image of the gods.
71. B. A feast we make thy first delight: ’tis ready.

V. And what shall be thy second charm to please me?
B. With fragrant oil will I anoint thy body.
V. Giv'st thou not water first to wash the hands ?

B. Aye; and the table shall be cleared away. 72. The gods in bounty work up storms about us

That give mankind occasion to exert
Their hidden strength, and throw out into practice
Virtues that shun the day and lie conceal'd

In the smooth seasons and the calms of life. 73. And now to thee, for healing of thy care,

Secrets through long futurities I show.
Great wars thy son in Italy shall wage,
Shall crush ferocious tribes, and found for men

Their towns, their customs, and their social laws. 74. In exile every man or bond or free,

Of noble race or meaner parentage,
Is not in this unlike unto the slave,
That must of force obey to each man's will,

And praise the peevishness of each man's pride. 75. Spare, Cytherea, spare thy vain alarm.

Thy people's destinies unmov'd remain ;
My will unchang’d. Lavinium thou shalt view,

The promis'd city's walls. Thou shalt exalt

Magnanimous Æneas to the stars. 76. Too true that tyrant Dionysius

Did picture out the image of a king,
When Damocles was placed in his throne,
And o'er his head a threat'ning sword did hang,

Fastened up only by a horse's hair.
77. Hear those wild cries of terror and despair

Mix'd with the din of carnage. Now those cowards,
Who let the brave man sink for lack of aid,