Free truly is that pris'ner

who by the prison's freed;

Whom chains themselves unbind

free is indeed.

LX.

Deferebantur a corpore ejus sudaria, dc. Act. xix. 12. Imperiosa premunt morbos, et ferrea fati

Jura ligant, Pauli lintea tacta manu. Unde haec felicis laus est et gloria lini?

Haec, reor, e Lachesis pensa fuere colo.

From his body there were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs,

dc.

They quell disease, and sway Fate's iron bands,
These lordly linen cloths touched by Paul's hands.
Whence rose the glory of their happy fame?
From the Fates' distaff, sure, these kerchiefs came.
R. WI.

LXI.

Christus vitis ad vinitorem Patrem. Joan. xv. 1-6.

En serpit tua, purpureo tua palmite vitis

Serpit, et, ah, spretis it per humum foliis.

Tu viti succurre tuae, mi Vinitor ingens :

Da fulcrum; fulcrum da mihi: quale? crucem.

Christ the Vine to the Vinedresser-Father.

Lo, Thy vine trails, trails with a purple shoot,
Scatt'ring its leaves before it beareth fruit.
Succour Thy vine, great Vinedresser, from loss :

Support, support me, Lord: how? With Thy cross. G.

LXII.

Pene persuades mihi ut fiam Christianus. Act. xxvi. 28. Pene? quid hoc pene est? Vicinia saeva salutis ! O quam tu malus es proximitate boni! Ah, portu qui teste perit, bis naufragus ille est;

Hunc non tam pelagus, quam sua terra premit.
Quae nobis spes vix absunt, crudelius absunt:
Pene sui felix, emphasis est miseri.

Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.
Almost? What word is this we hear?
O doubly lost, with heaven so near!

To perish in the neighbourhood

Of vast but unavailing good!

He shipwreck undergoes twice o'er
Who perishes in sight of shore,
And less by ocean is o'ercome

Than by that hopeless glimpse of home.
The hopes that almost seem our own
Leave all the keener sting when gone;

And just to miss felicity

Is but emphatic misery.

LXIII.

CL.

Lux venit in mundum, sed dilexerunt homines magis tenebras quam lucem. Joan. iii. 19.

Luce sua venit ecce Deus, mundoque refulget;
Pergit adhuc tenebras mundus amare suas.
At Stygiis igitur mundus damnabitur umbris:
Pergit adhuc tenebras mundus amare suas ?

7.8

EPIGRAMMATA SACRA.

But men loved darkness rather than light.

The world's Light shines: shine as it will,
The world will love its darknesse still.
I doubt though, when the world's in hell,
It will not love its darknesse halfe so well.

CR.

ANOTHER VERSION.

Behold the day of Christ! God comes with light;
Yet the world loves the darkness of the night.

Therefore the world to Stygian darkness will

Be damn'd: and doth the world love darkness still? B.

ANOTHER RENDERING.

Lo, God comes girt with light,

and all the world o'ershines:

The world abides in night,

nor watcheth for the signs.

To Stygian darkness hurl'd

on the great Day of Doom,

Shalt thou, night-loving world,

still love thy lightless gloom?

G.

LXIV.

Dives implorat guttam. Luc. xvi. 24.

O mihi si digito tremat et tremat unica summo
Gutta! ô si flammas mulceat una meas!
Currat opum quocunque volet levis unda mearum ;
Una mihi haec detur gemmula, Dives ero.

Quomodo potest homo gigni qui est senex? Joan. iii. 4.
Dic, Phoenix unde in nitidos novus emicat annos,
Plaudit et elusos aurea penna rogos?

Quis colubrum dolus insinuat per secula retro,
Et jubet emeritum luxuriare latus?

Cur rostro pereunte suam praedata senectam
Torva ales, rapido plus legit ore diem?
Immo, sed ad nixus praestat Lucina secundos?
Natales seros unde senex habeat.
Ignoras, Pharisaee? sat est: jam credere disces:
Dimidium fidei, qui bene nescit, habet.

How can a man be born when he is old?

See how new Phoenix into bright life springs,
And fans the unhurting flames with golden wings.

O'er snake what subtle change creeps as months flow,
Bidding its faded frame with beauty glow.
Why, on itself with worn beak having prey'd,
Is raven old more youthful swift array'd?
O'er second birth-throes bears Lucina sway,
Whence an old man may have late natal day?

O vox, 6 Zephyro vel de quoque bulder cani:
Non possam Aut no nebiliore frui.

The tree did up by the vrd f Clinist.

He speaks: hence, leaves; my glory hence, away;
Thon Zephyr mid my leaves no longer play;
Begone: nor grieve: 'ti- not the lightning's writh,
Nor wing of the storm-wind that smit: HE aith.
O voice, than Zephyr sweeter far to me;
More noble autumn-fruit conbl never be.

LXVII.

Zacharias minus credens. Luc. i. 12.

Infantis fore te patrem, res mira videtur;
Infans interea factus es ipse pater.

Et dum promissi signo, nimis anxie, quaeris.
Jam nisi per signum quaerere nulla potes.

Zacharias incredulous,

To have a child thou deem'st so strange a thing,
That thou art made a child for wondering.

G.