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Their fit composures to their times doth call;

Weds them together, and preserves this all. Grace then, O far-heard Jove, the grace thou'st given,

Most glorious, and most great of Earth and Heaven.

TO VESTA.

VESTA, that as a servant oversees

Given his fair grought, far from his father's
view,

In caves from whence eternal odours flew.
And in high number of the Deities placed
Yet when the many-hymn-given God had
past

His Nurses' cares, in ivies and in bays
All over thicketed, his varied ways
To sylvan coverts evermore he took
With all his Nurses; whose shrill voices
shook

King Phoebus' hallow'd house, in all de- Thickets, in which could no foot's entry

grees

Of guide about it; on the sacred shore
Of heavenly Pythos; and hast evermore
Rich balms distilling from thy odorous
hair;

Grace this house with thy housewifely
repair.

Enter, and bring a mind that most may

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praises,

O Muse; whose voice all loftiest echoes

raises;

fall;

And he himself made captain of them all.
And so, O grape-abounding Bacchus,

be

Ever saluted by my Muse and me. Give us to spend with spirit our hours out here ;

And every hour extend to many a year.

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Horrors invade earth, and the fishy seas
Impassion'd furies; nothing can appease
The dying brays of beasts; and her
delight

In so much death affects so with affright
Even all inanimate natures. For, while

she

Her sports applies, their general progeny She all ways turns upon to all their banes: And he with all th' illustrious seed of Yet, when her fiery pleasures find their

Jove

Is join'd in honour; being the fruit of

love

To him, and Semele the-great-in-graces:
And from the King his father's kind em-

braces

By fair-hair'd Nymphs was taken to the dales

Of Nyssa, and with curious festivals

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Could not contain her; such impetuous throes

Her birth gave way to, that abroad she flew,

And stood, in gold arm'd, in her Father's view,

Shaking her sharp lance. All Olympus shook

So terribly beneath her, that it took
Up in amazes all the Deities there.

All earth resounded with vociferous fear.
The sea was put up, all in purple waves,
And settled suddenly her rudest raves.
Hyperion's radiant son his swift-hooved
steeds

A mighty time stay'd, till her arming weeds,

As glorious as the Gods', the blue-eyed Maid

Took from her deathless shoulders; but then stay'd

All these distempers; and heaven's counsellor, Jove,

Rejoiced that all things else his stay could

move.

So I salute thee still; and still in praise Thy fame, and others', shall my memory raise.

TO VESTA AND MERCURY.

VESTA I sing, who, in bequest of fate,
Art sorted out an everlasting state
In all th' Immortals' high-built roofs, and
all

Those of earth-dwelling men, as general And ancient honours given thee for thy gift

Of free-lived chastity, and precious thrift. Nor can there amongst mortals banquets be,

In which, both first and last, they give not

thee

Their endless gratitudes in pour'd-out wine,
As gracious sacrifice to thy divine
And useful virtues; being invoked by all,
Before the least taste of their festival
In wine or food affect their appetites.
And thou, that of th' adorn'd with all
delights

Art the most useful angel; born a God
Of Jove and Maia; of heaven's golden rod
The sole sustainer; and hast power to
bless

With all good all men, great Argicides,
Inhabit all good houses; seeing no wants
Of mutual minds' love in th' inhabitants.
Join in kind blessing with the bashful

maid

And all-loved virgin, Vesta; either's aid
Combined in every hospitable house :
Both being best seen in all the gracious
House-works of mortals. Jointly follow
then,

Even from their youths, the minds of dames and men.

Hail then, old Daughter of the oldest God

And thou great bearer of Heaven's golden rod!

Yet, not to you alone my vows belong ; Others as well claim th' homage of my song.

TO EARTH, THE MOTHER OF ALL.

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For the far-famed Hyperion took to wife His sister Euryphaëssa, that life

Of his high race gave to these lovely three:

Aurora, with the rosy wrists, and she

A blaze burns from his golden burgonet
Which to behold exceeds the sharpest set
Of any eyes' intention; beams so clear
It all ways pours abroad. The glorious
cheer

Of his far-shining face up to his crown Casts circular radiance; that comes streaming down

About his temples, his bright cheeks, and all
Retaining the refulgence of their fall.
About his bosom flows so fine a weed
As doth the thinness of the wind exceed
In rich context: beneath whose deep folds

fiv

His masculine horses round about the sky; Till in this hemisphere he renders stay This gold-yoked coach and coursers; and his way,

Let down by heaven, the heavenly coachman makes

Down to the ocean, where his rest he takes.
My salutations then, fair King, receive,
And, in propitious returns relieve
My life with mind-tit means; and then
from thee,

And all the race of complete Deity,
My song shall celebrate those half-God
states,

That yet sad death's condition circulates, And whose brave acts the Gods show men, that they

As brave may aim at, since they can but die.

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All earth she wraps up in her orient rays. A heaven of ornament in earth is raised When her beams rise. The subtle air is saised

Of delicate splendour from her crown gold;

And when her silver bosom is extoll'd, That owns th' enamouring tresses (the Wash'd in the ocean, in day's equall'd

bright Moon)

Together with the never-wearied Sun.

Who (his horse mounting) gives both

mortals light

And all th' Immortals. bright

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weeds,

Even to horror, (The month in two cut; her high-breasted

steeds

of

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TO CASTOR AND POLLUX. JOVE's fair Sons, father'd by th' Oebalian king,

Muses well-worth-all men's beholdings, sing:

The dear birth, that bright-ankled Leda bore;

Horse-taming Castor; and, the conqueror Of tooth-tongued Momus, Pollux; whom beneath

Steep-brow'd Taygetus she gave half-god breath,

In love mix'd with the black-clouds' King of heaven :

Who, both of men and ships (being tempest driven,

When Winter's wrathful empire is in force Upon th' implacable seas), preserve the

course.

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A MAID of brass I am, infixed here
T'eternize honest Midus' sepulchre.
And while the stream her fluent seed
receives,

And steep trees curl their verdant brows with leaves,

While Phoebus raised above the earth gives sight,

And th' humorous Moon takes lustre from

his light,

CUMA

REFUSING HIS OFFER TO ETERNIZE
THEIR STATE, THOUGH BROUGHT
THITHER BY THE MUSES.

O TO what fate hath father Jove given

o'er

My friendless life, born ever to be poor? While in my infant state he pleased to

save me;

Milk on my reverend mother's knees he

gave me ;

In delicate and curious nursery. Æolian Smyrna, seated near the sea, (Of glorious empire, and whose bright

sides

Sacred Meletus' silver current glides), Being native seat to me. Which, in the force

Of far-past time, the breakers of wild horse,

Phriconia's noble nation, girt with towers Whose youth in fight put on with fiery

powers.

From hence, the Muse-maids, Jove's illus

trous seed

Impelling me, I made impetuous speed,
And went with them to Cuma, with intent
T' eternize all the sacred continent
And state of Cuma. They, in proud

ascent

From off their bench, refused with usage fierce

The sacred voice which I aver, is verse. Their follies, yet, and madness borne by

me,

Shall by some Power be thought on futurely;

To wreak of him whoever, whose tongue sought

With false impair, my fall. What fate God brought

Upon my birth I'll bear with any pain; While floods bear waves, and seas shall But undeserved defame unfelt sustain.

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