EXERCISE XXV.

POETÆ AD PICTOREM GRATULATIO.

I.

O thou skilled in the pencil of Apelles

To whom Venus has given (power) to be judge3

Of beautiful form,2 Phoebus himself has given to know The powers of light;

II.

Hence you skilfully bestow a new grace

On fair maiden, and rescue3 the face

2

From wrinkles, able to arrest the wings of

Swift3 old-3age.

III.

How-oft it delights2 me2 to see (your)

Beautiful' toil, how an empty shadow gradually
Depicts-the-wholed frame,' (how) at-the-same-time life itself
Growing3 gains-warmth. [gradually

IV.

You, imitating, snatch Promethean

Fires from-heaven with a cleverer theft:

And if voice were not wantinge to your figures,

The rest lives.

EXERCISE XXVI.

Ad C. Julium Cæsarem, post Pharsalicam

Victoriam.

I.

No fury of Gradivus rages:2

Over the world reigns

The Julian star: Eases refreshes the

Blood-stained earth.

b Calamus. * Apellæus. d Expleo, subj. e Pres.

11.

Now sacred Laws and Rights akin to
Laws restrain civil riots,

And Faith, and Religion, and Courtesy with

Joyous countenance.

III.

Rights prevail in the peaceful fields,

Rights control the voicek of

Trumpets, and the cars, and the

Thunderbolts of war.

IV.

Where Peace rules the cities,

Benign, she ministers at the wreathed1 altars.

She studies to rival the stars with

Temples.

V.

Among Italy's cities walks

A host of Virtues and Prosperity allied
To snow-white Peace gathers lilies in

The tranquilm plains.

VI.

Come," ye Virtues,3 partners of Pharsalian triumphs,

Come, bind your chosen flowers:

Come, weave fresh garlands with

Trophies entwined.

VII.

Thee Ceres crowned with wheaten-stalks,

Mighty Ruler of the world,

Thee the oak of Jove, and the shade

Of Apollo's cluster.

VIII.

Thee the laurels reverence: Latin

Alcides' tree bows itself to thee with

Bendings leaf, and creeps around

Thy temples.

IX.

Delay not to bind your hair

With any (1) wreath you please: let

The poplar twine" around your2v neck like Hercules,
With welcome2 shade.

EXERCISE XXVII.

E PSALMO LXV.

I.

Thee, O God, praises await in Sion:

Here the peoplew ministering to chaste rites.
Shall pay (their) vows to Thee, heaping altars

With Sabæan incense.*

II.

O fourfold, O more than fourfold blessed they [Thy friends, Whom Thou shalt choose, [whom] chosen Thou shalt make That they may inhabit the thresholdy of the temple

Dedicated to Thee.

III.

Thou shalt readily grant our prayers,"

O God, of earth's utmost bounds

The hope, and of the sea encirclinga remotest

IV.

Then shall terror shake the minds of those who see,b

O Thou pillar of our salvation,

Thee, stern to the wicked, kind to the miserable,

Just to all.

V.

Thou dost calm the sea's surface tossed
With dark gusts, restraining rebellious
Movements of nations, and changing

Riotsd for peace.

VI.

Thou dost visit Earth's soil thirsting-for
Showers, and from bosom of pregnant
Cloud pourest the genial rille on the

Slothful fields.

VII.

At Thy-word the channel swelling with the stream ever
Renews the waste1 fields with joyous crop,
The plains with flowers, recesses of groves

With leaves.g

VIII.

The poor tenant of the cottageh shall rejoice,
Attending his she-goats distended with milk:
The hill shall echo, and the wood friendly

To wearied oxen.

IX.

The rich-harvest waving with gold
Shall cherish the ploughman's hopes,
While he sings to Thee in-holiday-timek
A song in the shade.

EXERCISE XXVIII.

Ad Caium Prudentium, Poetam
Laureatum.

I.

See you not with how great applause,

Learned Prudentius, the crowded people1 resounded,
As soon as you struck the strings

With golden quill?

II.

Clio hears, and, meditating with herself,

Echoes the song heard;

The lofty laurels around tremble with

Their highest spray.P

III.

He echoes it, reposing in shady groves,
Either who tenants the fields of Calpe,
Or who drinks the wandering streams of

Fabled Ganges.

IV.

You it becomes to celebrate the soft

Whispers of fickle virgins in song:

Or the rewards furtively snatched [from]

The nymph feigning-resistance.

V.

You it becomes (to sing of) cups, and Bacchus

Himself, graced with the vine-leaf,

You (it becomes) to sing in humble strain