And after short abode fly back with speed, As if to fhow what creatures Heav'n doth breed, To scorn the fordid world, and unto Heav'n afpire? X. But oh why didst thou not stay here below To bless us with thy heav'n-lov'd innocence, 65 To ftand 'twixt us and our deserved smart? But thou canft beft perform that office where thou art. 70 XI. Then thou the Mother of fo fweet a Child And wifely learn to curb thy forrows wild; 68. Or drive away the slaughtering peftilence,] It should be noted that at this time there was 75 This a great plague in London, which gives a peculiar propriety to this whole ftanza. Thefe This if thou do, he will an ofspring give, That till the world's last end fhall make thy name to live. II. Anno Atatis 19. At a Vacation Exercise in the college, part Latin, part English. The Latin fpeeches ended, the English thus began. HAIL native Language, that by finews weak 5 Didst move my first endevoring tongue to speak, And mad❜st imperfect words with childish trips, Half unpronounc'd, slide through my infant-lips, Driving dumb filence from the portal door, Where he had mutely fat two years before: Here I falute thee, and thy pardon ask, That now I use thee in my latter task: Small lofs it is that thence can come unto thee, I know my tongue but little grace can do thee: Thou need'ft not be ambitious to be firft, Believe me I have thither packt the worst: ΙΟ These verses were made in 1627, that being the 19th year of the author's age; and And, they were not in the edition of 1645, but And, if it happen as I did forecast, For this same small neglect that I have made: 15 20 25 Yet I had rather, if I were to chufe, Thy service in fome graver subject use, Such as may make thee fearch thy coffers round, 30 35 How he before the thunderous throne doth lie, To th' touch of golden wires, while Hebe brings Then paffing through the spheres of watchful fire, 40 And hills of fnow and lofts of piled thunder, 37. unborn Apollo] An epithet by which he is diftinguish'd in the Greek and Latin poets. Pindar Pyth. III. 26. axeçσexqua Doilo. Hor. Od. I. XXI. 2. Intonfum pueri dicite Cynthium. 41. And mifty regions of wide air next under, And bills of fnow and lofts of piled thunder, 1 Then So Taffo defcribes the defcent of Michael, Vien poi da campi lieti, e fiammeggianti. Thunder and rain fall down from clouds. 48. Such Then fing of fecret things that came to pass Thou know'ft it must be now thy only bent 45 50 55 Then Ens is reprefented as father of the Predicaments his ten fons, whereof the eldeft ftood for Subftance with his canons, which Ens, thus fpeaking, explains. GOOD OOD luck befriend thee, Son; for at thy birth 48. Such as the wife Demodocus &c] Alluding to the eighth book of the Odyffey, where 60 Thy Alcinous entertains Ulyffes, and the celebrated musician and poet Demodocus fings the |