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To share those joys which mutual faith hath seal'd,
Joys to divine Aurora unreveal'd.
Abydos, Sestos, ancient towns, proclaim
Where gentlest bosoms glow'd with purest flame.
I hear Leander dash the foaming tide!
Fix'd high in air, I see the glimmering guide!
The genial flame, the love-enkindling light,
Signal of joy that burn'd serenely bright;
Whose beams, in fair effulgency display'd,
Adorn'd the nuptials of the Sestian maid:
Which Jove, its friendly office to repay,
Should plant, all glorious, in the realms of day,
To blaze for ever 'midst the stars above,
And style it gentle harbinger of love :
For sure on Earth it shone supremely kind,
To sooth the anguish of the love-sick mind,
Till cloth'd in terrours rose the wintry blast,
Impetuous howling o'er the watry waste:
And, O! inspire me, goddess, to resound
The torch extinguish'd, and the lover drown'd.
Against Abydos sea-beat Sestos stood,
Two neighb'ring towns, divided by the flood:
Here Cupid prov'd his bow's unerring art,
And gain'd two conquests with a single dart:
On two fond hearts the sweet infection prey'd,
A youth engaging, and a beauteous maid:
Of Sestos she, fair Hero was her name;
The youth, Leander, from Abydos came.

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23. Against Abydos sea-beat Sestos stood] Abydos was a city of Asia, situated on the Hellespont, over-against Sestos, a city in the Thracian Chersonnesus. Geographers are of opinion, that the castles of the Dardanelles were built on the ruins of these two places: but they are manifestly mistaken; for there are no remains of antiquity to be seen near those castles, but very remarkable ones three miles farther, where the channel is considerably narrower, Le Brun assures us, that the

Their forms divine a bright resemblance bore,
Each was the radiant star of either shore.
Thou, whom the Fates commission here to stray,
Awhile the turret's eminence survey;
Thence Hero held the blazing torch, to guide
Her lover rolling on the boisterous tide;
The roaring Hellespont, whose wave-worn strait
Still in loud murmurs mourns Leander's fate.
Say, heav'nly Muse, had Hero charms to move,
And melt the Abydinian into love?
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Say, with what wiles the amorous youth inspir'd,
Obtain'd the virgin whom his soul admir'd?

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Fair Hero, priestess to th' Idalian queen, Of birth illustrious, as of graceful mien, Dwelt on a high sequester'd tower, that stood Firm on the ramparts, and o'erlook'd the flood: Chaste, and unconscious of loye's pleasing pain, She seem'd a new-born Venus of the main ; But, nice of conduct, prudently withdrew Far from the follies of the female crew: Blest in retreat, she shunn'd the vain delight Of daily visits, and the dance at night, Content in sweet tranquillity to screen Her blooming beauty from malignant spleen; For where superior beauty shines confest, It kindles envy in each female breast. To soften Venus oft with prayer she strove, Oft pour'd libations to the god of love; Taught by th' example of the heavenly dame, To dread those arrows that were tipp'd with flame. 60 Vain all her caution, fruitless prov'd her prayer; Love gains an easy conquest o'er the fair.

strait at these ruins is only half a mile over, and that one of them is still called Sestos, and the other Abydos or Avido. Pliny and Herodotus say, the narrowest part of the channel is about seven stadia, or furlongs.

60. To dread, &c.] In the first idyllium of Moschus, Venus complains of Cupid, that His darts and his arrows are all tipp'd with flame.