TRANSLATIONS.

THE FIFTH ODE OF HORACE, LIB. I.

WHAT slender youth bedew'd with liquid odours,
ourts 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 my vow'd

Picture, the sacred wall declares to have hung

My dank and dropping weeds

To the stern god of sea.

FROM GEOFFREY OF MONMOUTH.

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 bidd'st 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 received of thee!

FROM DANTE.

FOUNDED in chaste and humble poverty,

'Gainst them that raised thee dost thou lift thy horn,
Impudent whore? where hast thou placed 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 publick, may speak free;
Which he who can and will deserves high praise:
Who neither can, nor will, may hold his peace:
What can be 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.

FROM SENECA.

THERE can be slain

No sacrifice to God more acceptable,

Than an unjust and wicked king.

PSALM I. a

Done into verse, 1653.

BLESS'D is the man who hath not walk'd astray
In counsel of the wicked, and in 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.

PSALM II.

Done August 8, 1653. Terzette.

WHY do the Gentiles tumult, and the nations
Muse a vain thing, the kings of the earth upstand
With power, and princes in their congregations
Lay deep their plots together through each land
Against the Lord and his Messiah dear?

Let us break off, say they, by strength of hand
Their bonds, and cast from us, no more to wear,

Their twisted cords: He, who in heaven doth dwell,
Shall laugh; the Lord shall scoff them; then, severe,

Speak to them in his wrath, and in his fell
And fierce ire trouble them; but I, saith he,
Anointed have my king (though ye rebel)
A firm decree

On Sion, my holy hill.

I will declare the Lord to me hath said,
Thou art my son, have begotten thee

This day ask of me, and the grant is made;
As Thy possession I on thee bestow

The heathen; and as thy conquest to be sway'd,

Earth's utmost bounds, them shalt thou bring full low
With iron sceptre bruised, and them disperse
Like to a potter's vessel shiver'd so.

a Metrical psalmody was much cultivated in this age of fanaticism. Milton's father is a composer of some of the tunes in Ravencroft's Psalms.-T. WARTON.

"A literal version of the Psalms may boldly be asserted impracticable; for, if it were not, a poet so great as Milton would not, even in his earliest youth, have proved himself so very little of a formidable rival, as he has done, to Thomas Sternhold." Mason's 'Essays on English Church Music," 1795, p. 177. In the last of these translations, however, as Mr. Warton observes, are some very poetical expressions.-TODD.

And now be wise at length, ye kings averse;
Be taught, ye judges of the earth; with fear
Jehovah serve and let your joy converse
With trembling: kiss the Son, lest he appear
In anger, and ye perish in the way.

If once his wrath take fire like fuel sere,
Happy all those who have in him their stay.

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PSALM III. AUGUST 9, 1653.-When he fled from Absalom.

LORD, how many are my foes!

How many those,

That in arms against me rise!

Many are they,

That of my life distrustfully thus say;
No help for him in God there lies.

But thou, Lord, art my shield, my glory,
Thee, through my story,

The exalter of my head I count:
Aloud I cried

Unto Jehovah: He full soon replied,
And heard me from His holy mount.

I lay and slept; I waked again;

For my sustain

Was the Lord. Of

The populous rout

many

millions

I fear not, though, encamping round about,

They pitch against me their pavilions.

Rise, Lord; save me, my God; for Thou

Hast smote ere now

On the cheek-bone all my foes;

Of men abhorr'd

Hast broke the teeth. This help was from the Lord;
Thy blessing on thy people flows.

PSALM IV. AUGUST 10, 1653.

ANSWER me when I call,
God of my righteousness;
In straits, and in distress,
Thou didst me disenthrall

And set at large; now spare,

Now pity me, and hear my earnest prayer.

Great ones, how long will

ye

My glory have in scorn?
How long be thus forlorn
Still to love vanity?

b My sustain.

The verb converted into a substantive.-TODD.

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To love, to seek, to prize,

Things false and vain, and nothing else but lies?

Yet know, the Lord hath chose,

Chose to himself apart,

The good and meek of heart;

(For whom to choose He knows)

Jehovah from on high

Will hear my voice, what time to him I cry. Be awed and do not sin;

Speak to your hearts alone,

Upon your

beds each one,

And be at peace within.

Offer the offerings just

Of righteousness, and in Jehovah trust.

Many there be that say,

Talking like this world's brood:

Who yet will show us good?

But, Lord, thus let me pray;

On us lift up the light,

Lift up

the favour of thy countenance bright.

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Into my heart more joy

And gladness thou hast put,

Than when a year of glut

Their stores doth overcloy,

And from their plenteous grounds

Thou, Lord, alone, in safety makest me dwell.

PSALM V. AUGUST 12, 1653.

JEHOVAH, to my words give ear,

My meditation weigh;

The voice of my complaining hear,

My King and God; for unto thee I pray.
Jehovah, thou my early voice.

Shalt in the morning hear;

In the morning I to thee with choice

Will rank my prayers, and watch till thou appear.

For thou art not a God that takes

In wickedness delight;

Evil with thee no biding makes;

Fools or mad men, stand not within thy sight.
All workers of iniquity

Thou hatest, and them unblest

Thou wilt destroy that speak a lie;

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The bloody and guileful man God doth detest.