With the foft harp the bard relieves his pain,

For thee, when morning dawns, prolongs the strain,
For thee, when Phoebus feeks the seas again.
Or when the young* Euryalus is kill'd,
And rolls in death along the bloody field ;
Like fome fair flower beneath the share he lies,
His head declin'd, and drooping as he dies;
The reader's foul is touch'd with generous woe,
He longs to rush with Nisus on the foe ;
He burns with friendly pity to the dead,
To raise the youth, and prop his finking head;
And frives in vain to ftop the gushing blood,
That ftains his bofom with a purple flood.

But if the bard fuch images pursues,

That raise the blushes of the Virgin-Mufe;
Let them be slightly touch'd, and ne'er exprest,
Give but an hint, and let us guess the rest.
If Jove commands the gathering ftorms to rife,
And with deep thunders rends the vaulted skies,
To the fame cave together may repair

The Trojan † hero and the Tyrian fair.
The poet's modesty must add no more;

}

Enough, that earth had given the sign before;
The confcious æther was with flames o'erspread,
The nymphs ran fhrieking round the mountain's head.
Nor let young Troilus, unhappy boy,

Meet fierce Achilles in the plains of Troy;

Æneid. Lib. IX. v. 433. + Ibid. Lib. IV. v. 165.

But

But shew th' unequal youth's untimely fall,
To great Æneas on the Tyrian wall;
Supine and hanging from his empty car,

Drag'd by his panting courfers through the war.
This, from our bright examples you may trace,
To write with judgment, decency, and grace;
From others learn invention to encrease,

And fearch in chief the glorious fons of Greece;
For her bright treasures Argos' realms explore,
Bring home triumphant all her gather'd store,
And with her spoils enrich the Latian shore.
Nor is the glory of tranflation lefs,.
To give the Grecian bards a Roman dress,
If Phoebus' gracious fmiles the labour crown,
Than if fome new invention were your own.
Mincio's and Manto's glorious fon behold,
Th' immortal Virgil, sheath'd in foreign gold,
Shines out unfham'd, and towers above the rest,
In the rich spoils of godlike Homer dreft.
Let Greece in triumph boast that she imparts
To Latium's conquering realms her glorious arts;
While Latium's fons improve her best designs,
Till by degrees each polish'd labour shines,
While Rome advances now in arts, as far
Above all cities, as of old in war.

Ye Gods of Rome, ye guardian deities,
Who lift our nation's glory to the skies;
And thou, Apollo, the great source of Troy,
Let Rome at least this fingle palm enjoy,
A a 3

To shine in arts fupreme, as once in power,
And teach the nations the fubdued before;
Since difcord all Aufonia's kings alarms,
And clouds the antient glories of her arms.
In our own breafts we fheath the civil fword,
Our country naked to a foreign lord;

Which lately, prostrate, started from despair,
Burn'd with new hopes, and arm'd her hands for war;
But arm'd in vain ;- -th' inexorable hate
Of envious Fortune call'd her to her fate,
Infatiate in her rage; her frowns oppofe
The Latian fame, and woes are heap'd on woes.
Our dread alarms each foreign monarch took,
Through all their tribes the diftant nation's fhook;
To earth's laft bounds the fame of Leo runs,
Nile heard, and Indus trembled for his fons.
Arabia heard the Medicean line,

The first of men, and sprung from race divine.
The fovereign priest, and mitred king, appears
With his lov'd Julius join'd, who kindly shares
The reins of empire, and the public cares.
To break their country's chains, the generous pair
Concert their schemes, and meditate the war.
On Leo Europe's monarchs turn their eyes,
On him alone the western world relies ;
And each bold chief attends his dread alarms,
While the proud crescent fades before his arms.
High on his fplendid car, immortal Rome,
Thine eyes had feen the holy warrior come,
Lord of the vanquish'd world, in triumph home.

}

Thy

}

Thy ftreams, old Tyber, fwell'd with confcious pride,
Had borne thy kindred warrior down thy tide;
While, crowded up in heaps, thy waves admire
The captive nations, and their strange attire;
Behind his wheels fhould march a numerous train
Of fcepter'd flaves, reluctant to the chain,
Forget their haughty threats, and boast in vain.
Though the proud foe, of Jury's realm poffeft,
Has spread his wide dominion through the Eaft;
Sees his dread ftandard there at large unfurl'd,
And grafps in thought the empire of the world;
And now (ye gods) increas'd in barbarous power,
His armies hover o'er th' Hefperian shore.
To fee the paffing pomp, the ravish'd throng
Through every street should flow in tides along;
The facred father, as the numbers roll'd,
Should his dear citizens again behold,

High o'er the fhouting crowds enthron'd in gold;
Should fhew the trophies of his glorious toils,
And hang the fhrines with confecrated spoils.
Piles of barbaric gold fhould glitter there,
The wealth of kingdoms, and the pomp of war:
But, by your crime, ye gods, our hopes are croft,
And thofe imaginary triumphs loft;

Interr'd with Leo, in one fatal hour,

Our profpects perifh'd, as they liv'd before.

}

VIDA'S ART OF POETRY,

WH

BOOK III.

WHAT ftyle, what language, fuits the poet's lay,
To claim Apollo's and the Mufes' praise,

I now unfold; to this last bound I tend,
And fee my promis'd labours at an end.
First then, with care a juft expreffion chufe,
Led by the kind indulgence of the Muse,
To dress up every subject when you write,
And fet all objects in a proper light.

But left the diftant prospect of the goal

Should damp your vigour, and your firength control,
Rouze every power, and call forth all the foul.
See! how the Nine the panting youth invite,
With one loud voice to reach Parnaffus' height;
See! how they hold aloft th' immortal crown,
To urge the course, and call the victor on;
See! from the clouds each lavish goddess pours,
Full o'er thy head, a fudden spring of flowers,
And roses fall in odoriferous showers;
Celestial scents in balmy breezes fly,

And shed ambrofial spirits from the sky.

In chief avoid obscurity, nor shroud

Your thoughts and dark conceptions in a cloud;
For * fome, we know, affect to fhun the light,
Loft in forc'd figures, and involv'd in night,

* Perfius and Lycophron.

Studious