Huge Ophiuchus holds his hiss suppressed,
Orion, softened, drops his ardent blade,
And Atlas stands unconscious of his load.
Verse graced of old the feasts of kings ere yet
Luxurious dainties, destined to the gulph

45

Immense of gluttony, were known, and ere

Lyæus deluged yet the temperate board.
Then sat the bard a customary guest

50

To share the banquet, and, his length of locks

With beechen honours bound, proposed in verse
The characters of heroes, and their deeds

To imitation, sang of Chaos old, sword, belt, and club; 55
Of nature's birth, of gods that crept in search

Of acorns fallen, and of the thunder bolt
Not yet produced from Etna's fiery cave.
And what avails, at last, tune without voice,
Devoid of matter? Such may suit perhaps
The rural dance, but such was ne'er the song
Of Orpheus, whom the streams stood still to hear
And the oaks followed. Not by chords alone
Well touched, but by resistless accents more
To sympathetic tears the ghosts themselves
He moved; these praises to his verse he owes.

60

65

Nor thou persist, I pray thee, still to slight
The sacred Nine, and to imagine vain
And useless, powers by whom inspired thyself
Art skilful to associate verse with airs
Harmonious, and to give the human voice

70

A thousand modulations, heir by right
Indisputable of Arion's fame.

Now say, what wonder is it if a son

Of thine delight in verse, if so conjoined

75

In close affinity, we sympathize

In social arts and kindred studies sweet?

Such distribution of himself to us

Was Phoebus' choice; thou hast thy gift and I

Mine also; and between us we receive,
Father and son, the whole inspiring god.
No! howsoe'er the semblance thou assume
Of hate, thou hatest not the gentle Muse,
My Father! for thou never bad'st me tread

80

The beaten path and broad that leads right on

85

To opulence, nor didst condemn thy son
To the insipid clamours of the bar,
To laws voluminous and ill observed;
But, wishing to enrich me more, to fill

My mind with treasure, ledṣt me far away

90

From city din to deep retreats, to banks

And streams Aonian, and, with free consent,
Didst place me happy at Apollo's side.

I speak not now, on more important themes

Intent, of common benefits and such
As nature bids, but of thy larger gifts,

95

My Father! who, when I had opened once

The stores of Roman rhetoric, and learned

The full-toned language of the eloquent Greeks,
Whose lofty music graced the lips of Jove,

100

Thyself didst counsel me to add the flowers

That Gallia boasts, those, too, with which the smooth
Italian his degenerate speech adorns,

That witnesses his mixture with the Goth;

And Palestine's prophetic songs divine.

105

To sum the whole, whate'er the heaven contains,
The earth beneath it, and the air between,

The rivers and the restless deep, may all

Prove intellectual gain to me, my wish
Concurring with thy will; Science herself,

All cloud removed, inclines her beauteous head,
And offers me the lip, if, dull of heart,

I shrink not and decline her gracious boon.

Go now and gather dross, ye sordid minds
That covet it; what could my Father more?
What more could Jove himself, unless he gave
His own abode, the heaven, in which he reigns?
More eligible gifts than these were not
Apollo's to his son, had they been safe,
As they were insecure, who made the boy
The world's vice-luminary, bade him rule
The radiant chariot of the day, and bind

To his young brows his own all-dazzling wreath.
I, therefore, although last and least, my place
Among the learned in the laurel grove

125

Will hold, and where the conqueror's ivy twines,
Henceforth exempt from the unlettered throng
Profane, nor even to be seen by such.

Away then, sleepless Care, Complaint away,
And Envy, with thy 'jealous leer malign!'
Nor let the monster Calumny shoot forth
Her venomed tongue at me.

130

Detested foes!

Ye all are impotent against my peace,

For I am privileged, and bear my breast

Safe, and too high for your viperean wound.

135

But thou, my Father! since to render thanks
Equivalent, and to requite by deeds

Thy liberality, exceeds my power,

Suffice it that I thus record thy gifts,

And bear them treasured in a grateful mind!

140

Ye, too, the favourite pastime of my youth,
My voluntary numbers, if ye dare

To hope longevity, and to survive

Your master's funeral, not soon absorbed
In the oblivious Lethæan gulph

Shall to futurity perhaps convey

This theme, and by these praises of my sire
Improve the Fathers of a distant age!

145

An English letter to a friend (unknown), who, it appears, had been calling him to account for his apparent indifference as to his work in life

This letter has an exceptional autobiographic value. The sonnet, which is inserted, appears to have been independently written some time before, and was originally published in 1645, with the heading 'On his having arrived at the age of twentythree.'

'SIR, Besides that in sundry respects I must acknowledge me to profit by you whenever we meet, you are often to me, and were yesterday especially, as a good watchman to admonish that the hours of the night pass on (for so I call my life, as yet obscure and unserviceable to mankind), and that the day with me is at hand, wherein Christ commands all to labor, while there is light. Which, because I am persuaded you do to no other purpose than out of a true desire that God should be honoured in every one, I therefore think myself bound, though unasked, to give you an account, as oft as occasion is, of this my tardy moving, according to the precept of my conscience, which I firmly trust is not without God. Yet now I will not strain for any set apology, but only refer myself to what my mind shall have at any time to declare herself at her best ease.

But if you think, as you said, that too much love of learning is in fault, and that I have given up myself to dream away my years in the arms of studious retirement, like Endymion with the moon, as the tale of Latmus goes, yet consider that, if it were no more but the mere love of learning, whether it proceed from a principle bad, good, or natural, it could not have held out thus long against so strong opposition on the other side of every kind. For, if it be bad, why should not all the fond hopes that forward youth and vanity are fledge with, together with gain, pride, and ambition, call me forward more powerfully than a poor, regardless, and unprofitable sin of curiosity should be able to withhold me; whereby a man cuts himself off from all action, and becomes the most helpless, pusillanimous, and unweaponed creature in the world, the most unfit and unable to do that which all mortals most aspire to, either to be useful to his friends or to offend his enemies? Or, if it be to be thought a natural proneness, there is against that a much more potent inclination inbred, which about this time of a man's life solicits most- the desire of house and family of his own; to which nothing is esteemed more helpful than the early entering into credible employment, and nothing hindering than this affected solitariness. And, though this were enough, yet there is another act, if not of pure, yet of refined nature, no less available to dissuade prolonged obscurity — a desire of honour and repute and immortal fame, seated in the breast of every true scholar; which all make haste to by the readiest ways of publishing and divulging conceived merits—as well those that shall, as those that never shall, obtain it. Nature, therefore, would presently work the more prevalent way, if there were nothing but this inferior bent of herself to restrain her. Lastly, the love of learning, as it is the pursuit of something good, it would sooner follow the more excellent and supreme good