sing to Memmius an immortal lay Of Heav'n and Earth and every where thy wond'rous pow'r display To Memmius under thy sweet influence born Whom thou with all thy gifts and graces dost adorn The rather then assist my Muse and me Infusing Verses worthy him and thee Mean time on Land and Sea let barb'rous discord cease And lull the listning world in universal peace To thee Mankind their soft repose must owe For thou alone that blessing canst bestow Because the brutal business of the War Is manag'd by thy dreadful Servant's care Who oft retires from fighting fields to prove The pleasing pains of thy eternal Love And panting on thy breast supinely lies While with thy heavenly form he feeds his famish'd eyes Sucks in with open lips thy balmy breath By turns restor'd to life and plung'd in pleasing death There while thy curling limbs about him move Involv'd and fetter'd in the links of Love When wishing all he nothing can deny Thy Charms in that auspicious moment try With winning eloquence our peace implore And quiet to the weary World restore LUCRETIUS The beginning of the Second Book Suave Mari magno c. 'T Is pleasant safely to behold from shore The rowling Ship and hear the Tempest roar Not that anothers pain is our delight But pains unfelt produce the pleasing sight 'T is pleasant also to behold from far The moving Legions mingled in the War But much more sweet thy lab'ring steps to guide To Vertues heights with wisdom well supply'd And all the Magazins of Learning fortifi'd From thence to look below on humane kind Bewilder'd in the Maze of Life and blind To see vain fools ambitiously contend For Wit and Pow'r their lost endeavours bend T'outshine each other waste their time and health In search of honour and pursuit of wealth O wretched man in what a mist of Life Inclos'd with dangers and with noisie strife He spends his little Span And overfeeds His cramm'd desires with more than nature needs For Nature wisely stints our appetite And craves no more than undisturb'd delight Which minds unmix'd with cares and fears obtain A Soul serene a body void of pain So little this corporeal frame requires So bounded are our natural desires That wanting all and setting pain aside With bare privation sence is satisfi'd If Golden Sconces hang not on the Walls To light the costly Suppers and the Balls If the proud Palace shines not with the state Of burnish'd Bowls and of reflected Plate If well tun'd Harps nor the more pleasing sound Of Voices from the vaulted roofs rebound Yet on the grass beneath a poplar shade By the cool stream our careless limbs are lay'd With cheaper pleasures innocently blest When the warm Spring with gawdy flow'rs is drest Nor will the ragâ—ing Feavours fire abate With Golden Canopies and Beds of State But the poor Patient will as soon be sound On the hard mattress or the Mother ground Then since our Bodies are not cas'd the more By Birth or Pow'r or Fortunes wealthy store T is plain these useless â—oyes of every kind As little can relieve the lab'â—ing mind Unless we cou'd suppose the dreadful sight Of marshall'd Legions moving to the fight Cou'd with their sound and terrible array Expel our fears and drive the thoughts of death away But since the supposition vain appears Since clinging cares and trains of inbred fears Are not with sounds to be affrighted thence But in the midst of Pomp pursue the Prince Not aw'd by arms but in the presence bold Without respect to Purple or to Gold Why shou'd not we these pageantries despise Whose worth but in our want of reason lies For life is all in wandring errours led And just as Children are surpriz'd with dread And tremble in the dark so riper years Ev'n in broad day light are possest with fears And shake at shadows fanciful and vain As those which in the breasts of Children reign These bugbears of the mind this inward Hell No rayes of outward sunshine can dispel But nature and right reason must display Their beames abroad and bring the darksome soul to day TRANSLATION OF THE Latter Part of the Third Book OF LUCRETIUS Against the Fear of Death WHat has this Bugbear death to frighten Man If Souls can die as well as Bodies can For as before our Birth we felt no pain When Punique arms infested Land and Mayn When Heav'n and Earth were in confusion hurl'd For the debated Empire of the World Which aw'd with dreadful expectation lay Sure to be Slaves uncertain who shou'd sway â—o when our mortal frame shall be disjoyn'd The lifeless Lump uncoupled from the mind â—rom sense of grief and pain we shall be free We shall not feel because we shall not Be. Though Earth in Seas and Seas in Heav'n were lost VVe shou'd not move we only shou'd be tost Nay ev'n suppose when we have suffer'd Fate The Soul cou'd feel in her divided state VVhat 's that to us for we are only we VVhile Souls and bodies in one frame agree Nay tho' our Atoms shou'd revolve by chance And matter leape into the former dance Tho' time our Life and motion cou'd restore And make our Bodies what they were before VVhat gain to us wou'd all this bustle bring The new made man wou'd be another thing VVhen once an interrupting pause is made That individual Being is decay'd We who are dead and gone shall bear no part In all the pleasures nor shall feel the smart Which to that other Mortal shall accrew Whom of our Matter Time shall mould anew For backward if you look on that long space Of Ages past and view the changing face Of Matter tost and variously combin'd In sundry shapes 't is easie for the mind From thence t' infer that Seeds of things have beeâ— In the same order as they now are seen Which yet our dark remembrance cannot trace Because a pause of Life a gaping space Has come betwixt where memory lies dead And all the wandring motions from the senâ— are fled For who so e're shall in misfortunes live Must Be when those misfortunes shall arrive And since the Man who Is not feels not woe For death exempts him and wards off the blow Which we the living only feel and bear What is there left for us in death to fear When once that pause of life has come between T is just the same as we had never been And therefore if a Man bemoan his lot That after death his mouldring limbs shall rot Or flames or jaws of Beasts devour his Mass Know he 's an unsincere unthinking Ass. A secret Sting remains within his mind The fool is to his own cast offals kind He boasts no sense can after death remain Yet makes himself a part of life again As if some other He could feel the pain â—f while he live this thought molest his head What Wolf or Vulture shall devour me dead He wasts his days in idle grief nor can Distinguish 'twixt
the rest and sole in Triumph ride This to prevent the swift exhausting Wind And radiant Sun 'gainst liquid Force are joyn'd Thus equal in appearance long they mov'd Each others Strength in mighty Wars they prov'd At last the Fire 't is said did win the Field And Earth did once o'erwhelm'd with Waters yield Long since when Phaeton led by vain Desire To drive the Sun 's great Chariot did aspire 'T was then the World was hazarded by fire With head-strong force the winged Horses flew O'er Earth and Heav'n the burning Planet drew What then had been the fate of all things here If angry Iove the daring Charioteer Had not dismounted by swift Lightning's stroke And so at once the flaming Progress broke Thus Phaeton slain was falling to the ground And furious Horses dragg'd the Chariot round When great Apollo reassum'd the Chair Restor'd the Sun that rov'd throughout the Air With dext'rous force reclaim'd his raging Steeds And to this hour in annual course proceeds Greek Poets thus the Truth with Lyes confound To waking men like wandring dreams they sound But though to grace their Morals they romance True fires did then from East to West advance Such Magazines of Sulphur Earth contains That if some stronger Agent not restrains The fuel all inflam'd and raging high Will n'ere be quench'd till all in Ruines lye The Water too did as our Authors tell In Ages past to such proportion swell That spacious Empires wholly were destroy'd The Ocean then had Sov'raign right enjoy'd But that some greater Being soon arose From inf'nite Space t' o'ercome th' invading Foes Bright Heav'ns then triumph'd o'er the vanquish'd showrs And falling Floods proclaim'd prevailing Pow'rs HORACE ODE 7th BOOK 4th By an unknown HAND WInter's dissolv'd behold a Worlds new face How grass the ground how leaves their branches grace That Earth which wou'd not to the plough-share yeild Is softer now and easie to be till'd And frozen streams thaw'd by th' approaching Sun With whispring murmurs in their channels run The naked Nymphs and Graces dance a round And ore the flowry meadows nimbly bound The Months that run on times immortal wheels The seasons treading on each others heels The winged hours that swiftly pass away And spightfully consume the smiling Day Tell us that all things must with them decay The year rowls round us in a constant ring And sultry Summer wasts the milder Spring Whose hot Meridian quickly overpast Declines to Autumn which with bounteous hast Comes crown'd with Grapes but suddainly is crost Cold Winter nips his Vintage with a frost The Moon renews its Orb to shine more bright But when Deaths hand puts out our mortal light With us alas 't is ever ever Night With Tullus and with Ancus we shall be And the brave Souls of vanish'd Heroes see Who knows if God 's above who all things sway Will suffer thee to live another day Then please thy Genius and betimes take care To leave but little to thy greedy Heir When among crouds of Ghosts thou shalt appear And from the Judge thy fatal sentence hear Not Birth nor Eloquence nor Wealth nor all That thou canst plead can the past doom recal Diana though a Goddess cannot take Her chast Hippolitus from Lethe's Lake Perithous bound in fetters must remain Theseus no more can break his adamantine chain HORACE The 2d BOOK ODE the 10th Rectius vives Licini c WE must all live and we would all live well But how to do it very few can tell He sure doth best who a true mean can keep Nor boldly sails too far into the deep Nor yet too fearfully creeps near the Land And runs the danger of the Rocks and Sand. Who to that happy medium can attain Who neither seeks for nor dispises gain Who neither sinks too low nor aims too high He shuns th' unwholsom Ills of Poverty And is secure from envy which attends A sumptuous Table and a croud of Friends Their Treacherous height doth the tall Pines expose To the rude blasts of every Wind that blows And lofty Towers unfortunately high Are near their ruine as they 're near the Sky And when they fall what was their pride before Serves only then t' increase their fall the more Who wisely governs and directs his mind Never dispairs though fortune be unkind He hopes and though he finds he hop'd in vain He bears it patiently and hopes again And if at last a kinder fate conspires To heap upon him more than he desires He then suspects the kindness he enjoy's Takes it with thanks but with such care employ's As if that Fate weary of giving more Would once resume what it bestow'd before He finds Mans life by an Eternal skill Is temper'd equally with good and ill Fate shapes our Lives as it divides the Years Hopes are our Summer and our Winter's fears And 't is by an unerring rule decreed That this shall that alternately succeed Therefore when Fate 's unkind dear Friend be wise And bear its ills without the least surprise The more you are oppress'd bear up the more Weather the Tempest till its rage be o're But if too prosperous and too strong a gale Should rather ruffle than just fill your Sail Lessen it and let it take but so much Wind As is proportion'd to the course design'd For 't is the greatest part of humane skill To use good fortune and to bear our ill HORACE 18th Epistle the 1st BOOK Si bene te novi c. DEar Friend for surely I may call him so Who doth so well the Law 's of Friendship know I 'm sure you mean the kindness you profess And to be loved by you's a happiness Not like him who with Eloquence and pains The specious title of a Friend obtains And the next day to please some Man of sence Break 's jests at his deluded Friends expence As Jilts who by a quick compendious way To gain new Lovers do the old betray There is an other failing of the mind Equal to this of a quite different kind I mean that rude uncultivated skill Which some have got of using all Men ill Out of a zealous and unhewn pretence Of freedom and a virtuous innocence Who 'cause they cannot fawn betray nor cheat Think they may push and justle all they meet And blame what e're they see complain and brawl And think their virtues make amends for all They neither comb their Head nor wash their Face But think their virtuous nastiness a grace When as true virtue in a medium lies And that to turn to either Hand 's a vice Others there are who too obsequious grown Live more for others pleasure than their own Applauding whatsoe're they hear or see By a too nauseous civility And if a Man of Title or Estate Doth some strange story true or false relate Obsequiously they cringe and vouch it all Repeat his Words and catch them as they fall As School Boys follow what the Masters say Or like an Actor prompted
Gifts will please our Master Pow'rs above OF NATVRES CHANGES FROM LUCRETIUS LIB V. By a Person of Quality SInce Earth and Water more dilated Air And active Fire mixt Natures Parts appear These all new form'd and to Destruction brought Why of the World may not the like be thought Reason presents this Maxim to our view What in each Part that in the Whole is true And therefore when you see spring up and fall Natures great Parts conclude the like of all Know Heav'n and Earth on the same Laws depend In time they both began in time shall end But Memmius not t' assume what some deny The Proof on plain Experience shall rely I 'll shew these Elements to Change are prone Rise in new Shapes continue long in none Then first of Earth conclude that all must fail Which diff'ring Parts fermenting can exhale Much the reflected Rays extract from thence And from their burning Heat no less th' expence The Dust and Smoak in flying Clouds appear Which boistrous Winds disperse through liquid Air. Some parts dissolve and flow away in Rain And from their Banks the rapid Rivers gain A Diminution nothing e'er escapes Which new Existence gives to other Shapes Plants Minerals and Concretes owe their Birth And Animals their growth in part to Earth Then since from this all Beings first did spring Time all to this their common Grave does bring In these Examples not to mention more Nature does Earth consume and Earth restore The Springs the Rivers and the Seas are found For Earth's Supply with Waters to abound Renew'd and flowing in continual round Lest these increasing should at last prevail The mighty Ocean fiercer Winds assail Vast Shoals of Atoms thence away they bear And raising them aloft transform to Air. Much is extracted by the pow'rful Sun More does in subterranean Channels run In Earth it first excessive Saltness spends Then to our Springs and River heads ascends These in the fruitful Valleys turn and Wind And still to new Productions are inclin'd And next of Air which in its vast extent In Changes infinite each hour is spent For Air 's wide Ocean still requiring more Fill'd with Effluviums should it not restore The perish'd Shapes Time's Ruines to repair Long since had all things been dissolv'd to Air. From others Loss its Being it receives To these again its changing Substance leaves So true it is that Nature ebbs and flows And one Part perishing another grows The Sun the fountain of the glorious Rays Instead of vanish'd Light new Light displays The Brightness of the flying Minute past Is now obscur'd and to new forms does hast From hence it comes that when black Clouds draw near And banish'd Sun-shine strait does disappear The Earth's o'er shadow'd as the Storms are driv'n And Rays new darted are requir'd from Heav'n Vision would cease so soon would Light expire Without Recruits of bright Etherial Fire In our inferiour and sulphureous Light Of Lamps and Tapers chasing shades of Night Continu'd fuel feeds the trembling flame Which gives the Light nor is that Light the same Of Sun of Moon of Stars ne'er think it strange That they are not secure from final Change When what so late did smile this instant dyes And new born Light still shines to mortal Eyes Thus we observe hard Rocks in time decay'd The marble Monuments for Heroes made And stately Tow'rs in humble Ruins laid Do Gods their Images from Age secure Or force their Temples alwayes to endure Thus when you see old Rocks from Mountains fall By this conclude their sure Original For were they from Eternity so plac'd No Chance could ruine them no Time could wast Next raise your eyes to Earth-surrounding Sphears From which say some springs all that now appears To which at last their vanish'd Parts ascend These as they 're form'd to Dissolution tend For all things must in such proportion cease As they to othet Beings give Increase But then if no Beginning do's appear Of Heav'n and Earth but both Eternal were Before the Theban War was e'er proclaim'd Or fatal Siege of Tray by Homer fam'd Why did not far more ancient Poets sing What Revolutions elder times did bring Such Men such Acts how in Oblivion drown'd As with immortal Fame might well be crown'd No great Antiquity the World has prov'd Eternity from this seems far remov'd All Arts and Science else would long ago Have reach'd Perfection not now dayly grow No ancient Sailers e'er like ours did steer No such harmonious Musick charm'd the Ear. This nature of the World not Ages past Was brought to Light retarded for the last And these Discoveries ordain'd by Fate To forraign Climes I with the first translate But still if no Beginning you believe And say 't is easier for us to conceive Such Conflagrations from Sulphureous pow'r As totally did Humane Race devour Or gen'ral Earth-quakes did the World confound Or all in mighty Deluges was drown'd This force of Argument you then increase That Heav'n and Earth in future time must cease For when such dreadful Danger threatned All Though Nature then escap'd a total Fall Grant but the Cause increas'd and 't will not fail As did the less o'er all things to prevail What shews we cannot endless Life enjoy But sence of Ills which others did destroy If you the Worlds Duration would extend To all Eternity you must defend It s solid Substance is so firmly bound No Penetration can it ever wound Minutest Atoms 't is confess'd are so But not the Compound which from these did grow Or that 't is Immaterial you must prove And what no forcing Agent can remove Or else you must all ambient Space deny To which it may dissolv'd and ruin'd fly Thus Universal claims Eternal's place Because it ne'er can pass t' External space But neither is this various Globe so fix'd For much Vacuity is intermix'd Nor is it void of Matter nor can be From threatning Pow'r of Penetration free And Pow'rs unknown from boundless ambient space This present state of Nature may deface With dreadful Huricanes they may invade And turn to Chaos all that e'er was made Or by some other means beyond the reach Of Man's Conception make the fatal Breach Nor wants there space beyond the Spheres of Heav'n To which the ruin'd parts may then be driv'n When e'er these Elements their Mansions leave That vast Abyss lyes open to receive From hence to their Beginning you 're directed What Magick Charms have alwayes so protected That when the finite Parts expiring lye The whole Eternal Ages should defy Then since the World 's great Parts at once engage And Civil Wars in its Dominions rage We may foresee their Strife so long depending At last in general Subversion ending Rivers and Seas consum'd fierce Fires may burn Till all their Ashes meet in Earth's great Urn. Even now they strive the Victory to gain But still the Ocean does the Fight maintain And swell'd with Rivers hopes by Forces try'd To drown