Fierce as a startled adder, swell'd, and said,
Rattling an ancient sistrum at his head:

Speak'st thou of Syrian Princes? traitor base! Mine, Goddess! mine is all the horned race. 376 True, he had wit to make their value rise; From foolish Greeks to steal them, was as wise; More glorious yet, from barb'rous hands to keep, When Sallee rovers chas'd him on the deep. 380 Then taught by Hermes, and divinely bold, Down his own throat he risk'd the Grecian gold, Receiv'd each demigod, with pious care, Deep in his entrails—I rever'd them there, I bought them, shrowded in that living shrine, 385 And, at their second birth, they issue mine. '

Witness great Ammon! by whose horns I swore,
(Reply'd soft Annius) this our paunch before
Sull bears them, faithful! and that thus I eat,
Is to refund the medals with the meat.

To prove me,
Goddess! clear of all design,
Bid me with Pollio sup as well as dine.
There all the learn'd shall at the labor stand,
And Douglas lend his soft obstetric hand.

390

The Goddess smiling seem'd to give consent; So back to Pollio hand in hand they went.

IMITATIONS.

.383. Receiv'd each demigod.]

Emissumque ima de sede Typhoca terrae

"Coelibus fecisse metum; cunctosque dedisse.
"Terga fugae: donec fessos Egypta tellus
• Coeperit...

396

Orid.

Then thick as locusts black'ning all the ground, A tribe, with weeds and shells fantastic crown'd, Each with some wondrous gift approach'd the Pow't, A nest, a toad, a fungus, or a flow'r. 400 But far the foremost, two, with earnest zeal, And aspect ardent, to the throne appeal.

The first thus open'd: Hear thy suppliant's call, Great Queen, and common mother of us all! Fair from its humble bed I rear'd this flow'r, 405 Suckl'd, and cheer'd, with air, and sun, and show's, Soft on the paper ruff its leaves I spread, Bright with the gilded button tipt its head. Then thron'd in glass, and nam'd it Caroline: Each maid cry'd, Charming! and each youth Divine! Did Nature's pencil ever blend such rays, Such vary'd light in one promiscuous blaze? Now prostrate! dead! behold that Caroline: No maid cries charming! and no youth divine! And lo the wretch whose vile, whose insect last Laid this gay daughter of the Spring in dust, 416

411

IMITATIONS.

.405, &c. Fair from its humble bed, &c...nam'd it Caro

line!

Each maid cry'd, Charming! and each youth Divine! Now prostrate! dead! behold that Caroline: No maid cries charming! and no youth divine!] These verses are translated from Catullus, Epith. 'Ut fios in septis secretus nascitur hortis, 'Quam mulcet aurae, firmat Sol, educat imber Multi illum pueri, multae optavere puellae: Idem quum tenui carptus defloruit ungui, Nulli illum pueri, nullae optávere puellae,' &c 2

425

Oh punish him, or to th' Elysian shades
Dismiss my soul, where no carnation fades.
He ceas'd, and wept. With innocence of mien
Th'accus'd stood forth, and thus address'd the Queen:
Of all th' enamel'd race, whose silv'ry wing 421
Waves to the tepid zephyrs of the spring,
Or swims along the fluid atmosphere,
Once brightest shin'd this child of heat and air.
I saw, and started from its vernal bow'r
The rising game, and chas'd from flow'r to flow'r.
It fled, I follow'd; now in hope, now pain;
It stopt, I stopt; it mov'd, I mov'd again.
At last it fix'd, 'twas on what plant it pleas'd,
And where it fix'd, the beauteous bird I seiz'd:
Rose, or carnation, was below my care;
I meddle, Goddess! only in my sphere.
I tell the naked fact without disguise,
And, to excuse it, need but shew the prize;
Whose spoils this paper offers to your eye, 435
Fair ev'n in death! this peerless butterfly. [parts:
My sons! (she answer'd) both have done your
Live happy both, and long promote our arts.

IMITATIONS.

431

.421. Of all th' enamel'd race.] The Poet seems to have an eye to Spencer, Muiopotmos.

0.427, 428.

Of all the race of silver-winged flies

Which do possess the empire of the air.'

fted, I followed, &c.]

.I started back;

It started back; but pleas'd I soon return'd; "Pleas'd it returil'd as soon.'

P

Milt.

445

But hear a mother when she recommends
To your fraternal care our sleeping friends; 440
The common soul, of Heav'n's more frugal make,
Serves but to keep fools pert, and knaves awake:
A drowzy watchman, that just gives a knock,
And breaks our rest, to tell us what's a-clock.
Yet by some object ev'ry brain is stirr'd,
The dull may waken to a humming-bird;
The most recluse, discreetly open'd, find
Congenial matter in the cockle-kind;
The mind, in metaphysics at a loss,
May wander in a wilderness of moss;
The head that turns at superlunar things,
Poiz'd with a tail, may steer on Wilkins' wings.
O! would the sons of men once think their eyes
And reason giv'n them but to study flies!
See nature in some partial narrow shape,
And let the author of the whole escape:
Learn but to trifle; or, who most observe,
To wonder at their Maker, not to serve.

REMARKS.

450

455

v. 452... Wilkins' wings.] One of the first projectors of the Royal Society, who, among many enlarged and useful notions, entertained the extravagant hope of a possibility to fly to the moon; which has put some volatile geniuses upon making wings for that purpose.

VARIATIONS.

0.441. The common soul, &c.] In the first edit, thus
Of souls the greater part, Heaven's common make,
Serve but to keep fool's pert, and knaves awake;
And most but find that centinel of God,

A drowzy watchman in the land of Ned.

460

465

Be that my task (replies a gloomy clerk, 3worn foe to myst'ry, yet divinely dark; Whose pious hope aspires to see the day When moral evidence shall quite decay, And damns implicit faith, and holy lies, Prompt to impose, and fond to dogmatize :) Let others creep by timid steps, and slow, On plain experience lay foundations low, By common sense to common knowledge bred, And last, to Nature's cause through Nature led. All-seeing in thy mists, we want no guide, Mother of arrogance, and source of pride! We nobly take the high Priory road, And reason downward, till we doubt of God: Make Nature still encroach upon his plan, And shove him off as far as e'er we can: Thrust some mechanic cause into his place, Or bind in matter, or diffuse in space: Or, at one bound o'er-leaping all his laws, Make God Man's Image, Man the final Cause; Find Virtue local, all Relation scorn,

470

475

See all in Self, and but for self be born: 480
Of nought so certain as our Reason still,"

Of nought so doubtful as of Soul and Will.
Oh hide the God still more! and make us see
Such as Lucretius drew, a god like thee:
Wrapt up in self, a god without a thought, 485
Regardless of our merit, or default.

Or that bright image to our fancy draw,
Which Theocles in raptur'd vision saw,`