THE FIFTH ODE OF HORACE,
LIB. I.
WHAT slender youth, bedew'd with liquid odours,
Courts thee on roses in some pleasant cave,
Pyrrha? For whom bind'st thou
In wreaths thy golden hair,
Plain in thy neatness? O, how oft shall he
On faith and changed Gods complain, and seas
Rough with black winds, and storms
Unwonted shall admire!
Who now enjoys thee credulous, all gold,
Who always vacant, always amiable
Hopes thee, of flattering gales
Unmindful. Hapless they,
To whom thou untried seem'st fair! Me, in vow'd
Picture, the sacred wall declares to have hung
My dank and dropping weeds
To the stern God of sea.
BRUTUS thus addresses DIANA in the country of LEOGECIA.
GODDESS of shades, and huntress, who at will Walk'st on the rowling spheres, and through the deep;
On thy third reign, the earth, look now, and tell
What land, what seat of rest, thou bidst me seek,
What certain scat, where I may worship thee
For aye, with temples vow'd and virgin quires.
To whom, sleeping before the altar, DIANA answers in a vision the same night..
BRUTUS, far to the west, in the ocean wide,
Beyond the realm of Gaul, a land there lies,
Sea-girt it lies, where giants dwelt of old ;
Now void, it fits thy people: Thither bend
Thy course there shalt thou find a lasting seat;
There to thy sons another Troy shall rise,
And kings be born of thee, whose dreadful might
Shall awe the world, and conquer nations bold,
FROM DANTE.
Ah Constantine, of how much ill was cause,
Not thy conversion, but those rich domains
That the first wealthy pope receiv'd of thee.
FROM DANTE.
Founded in chaste and humble poverty,
'Gainst them that rais'd thee dost thou lift thy horn, Impudent whore? where hast thou plac'd thy hope In thy adulterers, or thy ill-got wealth?
Another Constantine comes not in haste.
FROM ARIOSTO.
Then pass'd he to a flowery mountain green,
Which once smelt sweet, now stinks as odiously:
This was the gift, if you the truth will have,
That Constantine to good Sylvester gave.
FROM HORACE.
Whom do we count a good man? Whom but he
Who keeps the laws and statutes of the senate,
Who judges in great suits and controversies,
Whose witness and opinion wins the cause?
But his own house, and the whole neighbourhood,
Sees his foul inside through his whited skin.
FROM EURIPIDES.
This is true liberty, when freeborn men,
Having to advise the public, may speak free;
Which he who can, and will, deserves high praise:
Who neither can, nor will, may hold his peace;
What can be a juster in a state than this?
FROM HORACE.
Laughing, to teach the truth,
What hinders? As some teachers give to boys
Junkets and knacks, that they may learn apace.
FROM HORACE.
Joking decides great things,
Stronger and better oft than earnest can.
FROM SOPHOCLES.
'Tis you that say it, not I. You do the deeds, And your ungodly deeds find me the words.
There can be slain
No sacrifice to God more acceptable,
Than an unjust and wicked king.
BLESSED is the man who hath not walk'd astray
In counsel of the wicked, and i' the way
Of sinners hath not stood, and in the seat
Of scorners hath not sat. But in the great
Jehovah's law is ever his delight,
And in his law he studies day and night.
He shall be as a tree which planted grows
By watery streams, and in his season knows
To yield his fruit, and his leaf shall not fall,
And what he takes in hand shall prosper all.
Not so the wicked, but as chaff which fann'd
The wind drives, so the wicked shall not stand
In judgement, or abide their trial then,
Nor sinners in the assembly of just men.
For the Lord knows the upright way of the just,
And the
way of bad men to ruin must.
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