Atque ibi dum vacuus queror illætabilis horæ
Tædia, prorepens subit implacabile monstrum,

Creditor! aëriam gradibus qui scandit ad arcem
Composito vultu catus, incessuque silenti.

Calce ter insultans, sævo ferit impete portam,
Voce ter inclamat dira; mala verbera nosco,
Pestiferosque sonos, et flebilis omina chartæ!

Heu! quid agam? quo terga dabo? qua parte latescam,
Mentis inops ærisque simul? me cella tenebris

Eripit in fœdis, carbonibus apta repostis.

Egelidos subitus manat mihi sudor in artus,

Stantque payore comæ, et tremulis vox faucibus hæret,

Tanta viri macies, rugosaque pallet imago!

Dextra minax tabulas longa ratione notatas,

(Dî nobis meliora, horroremque hostibus illum !) Porrigit: huic similis succedit pone minister,

Fronte truci, dictus mortali nomine Lictor:

Cui digitos mira Superi virtute tenaces

In

genus armarunt nostrum ; quos

debitor uncos

Sentiat infixos humero si forte sequaci,

It comes infelix (eques incantatus ut olim,)

To some enchanted castle is conveyed,
Where gates impregnable, and coercive chains,
In durance strict detain him; 'till, in form

Of money, Pallas sets the captive free.

J. Philips, Ch. Ch. Oxford, 1703.

XXXII.

The Redbreast.

THE Redbreast, sacred to the household gods,
Wisely regardful of the embroiling sky,
In joyless fields and thorny thickets leaves
His shivering mates, and pays to trusted man
His annual visit. Half-afraid, he first

Against the window beats; then, brisk, alights
On the warm hearth; then, hopping o'er the floor,
Eyes all the smiling family askance,

And pecks, and starts, and wonders where he is;
Till, more familiar grown, the table crumbs.

Attract his slender feet.

Thomson.

In magicas clausis munitas turribus ædes :
Nec miser e duro labi custode valebit,

Quam prius aut Maiæ proles, inopumve misertus
Jupiter aurifero vindex descenderit imbri.

XXXII.

Rubecula.

INGENUÆ mentis, pulcræque Rubecula formæ,
Conviva, et nostris hospes amica focis,
Quæ patrios olim campos saltusque relinquis,
Frigus ubi et brumæ sævior hora venit;
Et rostro primum pulsans alaque fenestram,
Exiguo fundis gutture dulce melos:
Jamque ipso trepidans hæres in limine, jamque
Perlustras dubio lumine cauta domum;
Frustula tum raptim excipiens furtiva recedis,
Mox repetis tenuem non satiata cibum;
Hospitium donec certosque experta Penates,
Lascivis nostros fortior ante pedes.

Huc iterum, (hiberno frigent namque omnia cœlo,
Et glacie, et posita stat nive canus ager,)

Huc fidenter ades: non te mala vincla manebunt,

Sed domus et simplex, et sine fraude Lares.

G.

B.

XXXIII.

The Occan.

ROLL on, thou deep and dark blue ocean, roll.
Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain,
Man marks the earth with ruin; his control
Stops with the shore; upon the watery plain
The wrecks are all thy deed; nor doth remain
A shadow of man's ravage, save his own,
When, for a moment, like a drop of rain,

He sinks into thy depths with bubbling groan, Without a grave, unknelled, uncoffined, and unknown.

Byron.

XXXIV.

The Rainbow.

My heart leaps up when I behold

A rainbow in the sky!

So was it, when my life began;

So is it now I am a man;

So let it be, when I grow old,

Or let me die.

The child is father of the man,
And I would wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety.

Wordsworth.

XXXIII.

ΘΑΛΑΣΣΑ.

ΚΛΥΖΕΟ, κυανέη βαθυδινήεσσα θάλασσα, μυρίαι ἦν τ' ἄλλως νηῶν στίχες ἐκπερόωσιν. ἔφθαρται μὲν γαῖ ̓ ὑπ ̓ ὀλοῇσι φρεσὶν ἀνδρῶν, ἄνδρας δ' αἰγιαλὸς περί περ κρατέοντας ἐέργει. ὑγρῷ δ ̓ ἐν πεδίῳ εἴ τις φθόρος αἰνὸς ἐτύχθη, ἐκ σέθεν εὔχεται εἶναι· ἐφάνθη δ ̓ οὐδέ τι τέκμαρ ἀνδρῶν, ὅσσον ὄνειρος, ὀλέθρια ἔργα πυθέσθαι, πλὴν αὐτῶν τινὸς ὀλλυμένου, ὅς τ ̓ εἴκελος ὄμβρῳ σοῖς φάνη ἐν βένθεσσι μίνυνθά περ οὔ τι μάλα δήν, αἶψά τ ̓ ἀνεβρόχθη, περὶ δ ̓ ἔστενε κῦμα χανόντα, οὐ τάφῳ οὐδὲ γόοισι κεκαδμένον οὐδὲ λέβητι.

J. R.

XXXIV.

Frís.

PECTUS exultat trepidum, videnti
Iridis septemgeminos honores:

Hoc erat dudum puero, hoc viriles
Fluxit in annos,

Hoc seni detur precor,―aut perire :

Nam virum gignit puer; inde nostræ
Mutua vellem pietate nexa

Tempora vitæ.

W. B. J.