You parent gods, whose heavenly names I bear, Hear your Hermaphrodite, and grant my pray❜r; Oh! grant that whomsoe'er these streams contain, If man he enter'd, he may rise again Supple, unsinew'd, and but half a man!' The heavenly parents answer'd, from on high, Their two-shap'd son, the double votary; Then gave a secret virtue to the flood, And ting'd its source to make his wishes good. HORACE, BOOK III. ODE III. Augustus had a design to rebuild Troy, and make it the metropolis of the Roman empire: having closeted several Senators on the project, Horace is supposed to have written the following Ode on this occasion. THE man resolv'd, and steady to his trust, May the rude rabble's insolence despise, Their senseless clamours and tumultuous cries; The tyrant's fierceness he beguiles, And the stern brow and the harsh voice defies, And with superior greatness smiles. Not the rough whirlwind that deforms Adria's black gulf, and vexes it with storms, The stubborn virtue of his soul can move, Nor the red arm of angry Jove, That flings the thunder from the sky, And gives it rage to roar, and strength to fly. Should the whole frame of Nature round him break, In ruin and confusion hurl'd, He, unconcern'd, would hear the mighty crack, Where now Augustus, mix'd with heroes, lies, By arts like these did young Lyæus rise, In vain they foam'd, in vain they star'd, He tam'd 'em to the lash, and bent 'em to the yoke Such were the paths that Rome's great founder trod, When in a whirlwind snatch'd on high He shook off dull mortality, And lost the monarch in the god. Bright Juno then her awful silence broke, Troy, (says the goddess) perjur'd Troy, has felt The dire effects of her proud tyrant's guilt; An umpire, partial and unjust, Lay heavy on her head, and sunk her to the dust. 'And now the long-protracted wars are o'er, The soft adulterer shines no more; No more does Hector's force the Trojans shield, That drove whole armies back, and singly clear'd the field. 'My vengeance sated, I at length resign But far be Rome from Troy disjoin'd, Remov'd by seas from the disastrous shore, May endless billows rise between, and storms unnumber'd roar. Still let the curs'd detested place, Where Priam lies, and Priam's faithless race, VOL. XIV. ૨ } Amidst the mighty ruins play, And frisk upon the tombs of kings. "May tigers there, and all the savage kind, Her brinded whelps securely lay, Or, couch'd, in dreadful slumbers waste the day. 'While Troy in heaps of ruins lies, Rome and the Roman Capitol shall rise; The' illustrious exiles unconfin'd Shall triumph far and near, and rule mankind. 'In vain the sea's intruding tide Europe from Afric shall divide, And part the sever'd world in two: Through Afric's sands their triumphs they shall And the long train of victories pursue To Nile's yet undiscover'd head. 'Riches the hardy soldiers shall despise, And look on gold with undesiring eyes, In search of the forbidden ore; [spread, Those glittering ills conceal'd within the mine, To the last bounds that Nature sets, The piercing colds and sultry heats, The godlike race shall spread their arms, Till storms and tempests their pursuits confine, If none his guilty hand employ To build again a second Troy, If none the rash design pursue, Nor tempt the vengeance of the gods anew. Thrice should my favourite Greeks his works confound, And hew the shining fabric to the ground; Thrice should her captive dames to Greece return, And their dead sons and slaughter'd husbands mourn.' But hold, my Muse, forbear thy towering flight, The mighty strains, in lyric numbers bound, |