While the deep hold is tempest-tost,

We'll strain bright nectar from the lees:
For, tho' our freedom here be lost,

We drink no water on the seas.

V. (9.)

A PAIR OF MILITARY PORTRAITS. M.

BOAST me not your valiant captain,

strutting fierce with measur'd stride,
Glorying in his well-trimm'd beard, and
wavy ringlets' cluster'd pride.

Mine be he that's short of stature,
firm of foot, with curved knee;
Heart of oak in limb and feature,
and of courage bold and free.

VI. (10.) RICHES AND POWER.

FOR Gyges' wealth let others care,

Gold is nothing to me;
Envy of another's share

Never shall undo me.

Nothing that the Gods decree

Moves my special wonder;
And as for boastful tyranny―
We're too far asunder.

M.

VII. (11.) THE MIND OF MAN.

THE mind of man is such as Jove

Ordains by his immortal will,
Who moulds it in his courts above,
His heav'nly purpose to fulfil.

VIII. (13.) THE STORM.

BEHOLD, my Glaucus! how the deep

Heaves, while the sweeping billows howl,

And round the promontory steep

The big black clouds portentous scowl, With thunder fraught and lightning's glare, While Terror rules, and wild Despair.

IX. (14, 15.) MORAL.

SOUL! O Soul! when round thee whelming

cares like mountain surges close,

Patient bear their mighty rage, and

with thy strength their strength oppose.

Be a manly breast your bulwark,

your defence firm-planted feet;

So the serried line of hostile

spears with calm composure meet.

Yet in Vict'ry's golden hour,

raise not your proud vaunts too high;

M.

M.

M.

Nor, if vanquish'd, meanly stooping
pierce with loud lament the sky :
But in prosp❜rous fortune so re-
joice, and in reverses mourn,
As well knowing what is destin'd
for the race of woman born.

Leave the gods to order all things:
often from the gulf of woe
They exalt the poor man grov❜ling
in the gloomy shades below;
Often turn again, and prostrate
lay in dust the loftiest head,
Dooming him thro' life to wander,
reft of sense, and wanting bread.

X. (16.) THE ECLIPSE.

NEVER man again may swear

things still shall be as erst they were; Never more in wonder stare,

since Jove the Olympian thunderer Bade the sun's meridian splendour

hide in shades of thickest night; While th' affrighted nations started, trembling at the fearful sight. Who shall dare to doubt hereafter whatsoever man may say?

Who refuse with stupid laughter

credence to the wildest lay?

M.

Tho' for pasture dolphins ranging,

leap the hills, and scour the wood,
And fierce wolves, their nature changing,
dive beneath th' astonish'd flood.

XI. (17, 18, 19.) ON LIFE AND DEATH.
JOVE sits in highest Heav'n, and opes the springs,
To man, of monstrous and forbidden things.
Death seals the fountains of reward and fame :
Man dies, and leaves no guardian of his name.
Applause awaits us only while we live,
While we can honour take, and honour give:
Yet were it base for man, of woman born,
To mock the naked ghost with jests or scoin.

M.

XII. (21, 22.) THE ISLAND THASOS.
LIKE the sharp back-bone of an ass it stood,
That rugged Isle, o'ergrown with shaggy wood.
No verdant grot, no lawn for poet's dream,
Is there, like those by Siris' pleasant stream.

M.

ARION,*

THE fabulous history of Arion, and his preservation on the back of a dolphin, is familiar to every reader. The following Hymn is quoted and attributed to him by Ælian (de Nat. Anim. xii. 45), who has also preserved a distich on the same subject, which he affirms to have been inscribed on a statue of the poet. Great doubt has been thrown on its authenticity, by the circumstance of the statue having been mentioned, without notice of any inscription, by Herodotus and others; and neither inscription nor hymn can well be regarded in any other light than apocryphal. The principal poem, however, is at least deserving of the reverence due to great, though uncertain, antiquity; and we have followed Jacobs in the chronological order here assigned to it.

THE HYMN OF ARION.

HAIL, Neptune, greatest of the gods!

Thou ruler of the salt sea floods :

Thou with the deep and dark-green hair,
That dost the golden trident bear :

* Jacobs, tom. i. P. 48.

C. M.