Dota cohors, Mufis & Apolline nata fecundis,
Per quam Cecropiis vita refurgit avis,
Cujus luce novum noftra decus additur Urbi,'
Vifit, aretoas mitior aura plagas,
Eja age naturæ penetralia pande latentis,
Invitam excutiens, qua licet ufque Deam.
Fortia languenti præbe medicamina mundo,
Phoebeumq; tuo lumine redde diem.
Lux divina Sophi Titania lumina vincit,
Et penetrat terras, & fuper aftra volat.
Quin pergis victuram in feculæ promere chartam,
Quin Sophiæ fequeris liberioris iter?

Ingens reftat adhuc meffis, novus ordo laborum:
Auxiliatrices fperat Apollo manus.
Barbariem, morefq; feros manus Attica ademit,
Nec fubigenda tibi monftra minora manent.

The fame in English.

TO THE

P. MOTTEUX.

ATHENIAN SOCIETY.

SON

ONS of the Mufes, at whofe welcome Birth
Aufpicious Phoebus cheer'd the drooping Earth.
By whom once more old Learned Athens lives,
Our great Metropolis new Fame receives,

And a more gentle Air our Northern Climes revives.
Go on, defcend to Nature's deepest Cell,

The gloomy Night that veils the bashful Dame dispel :
Help a whole World, which doth your Aid implore,
And featt'ring Beams of Light our golden Days restore.
Learning's diviner Rays the Suns out-vye,
And pierce the Globe, and range the loftiest Skie.
In never-dying Lines your Task renew,

Through Learnings boundless Sea your Courfe purfue;
Vaft undifcover'd Regions wait for you.

}

}

The mighty Work, much Art, much Toyl demands,
And even Apollo wants affifting Hands.
In difmal fhades the ancient World did ftray,
Till Athens Wisdom did its Light difplay;

Athens once more must change our Darkness into Day.

}

P. MOTTEUX.

ATHENIAN SOCIETY.

ERE Science was, or Learning had a Name,

Dilated Memory recorded Fame:

'Twas long before Forgetfulness was born,
Or Wit could find out Ignorance to Scorn:
When Men could back fix hundred Years relate,
And ftill purfu'd their very diftant Fate.
Deeds fooner far than Men did die,
And long-protracted Life forgat Mortality;
Wide as the Heaven their Thoughts did roul
To Actions great as the extenfive Soul,
Letters and Books the Helps We use
To keep expiring Senfe alive,

Needlefs to Them, who could at once perufe,
In their unbounded Knowledge all was known;
Who had with Time their Race begun,
And ftill liv'd on as if they Time it felf furvive.
Nature beftow'd her youthful Store fo well,
That none could want, and therefore none excel;
And fo impartially adorn'd the Mind,
That equal Knowledge did inform Mankind.

Thus when our Fathers (touch'd with Guilt)
That huge ftupendious Stair-cafe built;
We mock indeed the fruitless Enterprize,
Succefslefs Actions never pafs for wife:
But was the dreadful Pile in Being, 'twould show
To what degree that untaught Age did know,
Who Nature's Poize unequally divide,

And turn'd the Globe into a Pyramide,

While Heav'n feem'd more to apprehend it, than deride.

Strange uncouth Dialects from Heaven fucceed,
And Univerfal Clouds of Jargon Spread:
Confufions here, in horrid Squadrons joyn,
And here King Ignorance began his Reign;
Old Knowledge hither bore Imperial Sway,
But found a strange, a fenfible Decay:

And tho' the Old Monarch feem'd to keep the Throne,
The Tyrant Ignorance manag'd as his own.

Two Thousand Years the Ufurper had prevail'd,
And on his Darling Sloth the Crown entail'd;
While the old drooping Monarch faw his Fate,
But wanted Power to fave his ruin'd State.
Two Sons be bad, Youths of Angelic Birth,
That promis'd fair to re-inform the Earth,
Wisdom and Learning, Twins of blooming Hope,
That fink his Fears, and all his Comforts prop.
Of all his numerous Progeny, thefe alone
Remain the Hopes of his declining Throne ;
The rest oppofing his approaching Fate,
Sunk in the Ruins of their Father's State.
But thefe the Darlings of the Parents Age,
He timely refcued from the Tyrant's Rage;
For thefe he car'd; for thefe to Heaven he pray'd,
To Latium one, and one to Greece convey'd ;
Infpir'd by Inftinct with a mutual Rage,
Eternal Wars with Ignorance they wage;
From Athens one, and one from Rome infpire
The gladfome World with their own Genial Fire;
So Form did Chaos, Light the Dark expel,
As Athens Rome, and Rome the World excel:
The Ufurping Troops, by their own Guilt fubdu'd,
Fled from the approaching Dawn, while none parfu'd.
The enlighten'd World new Altars gladly raife,
And form new Triumphs to the Victor's Praife.
Wifdom and Learning, aged with Renown,
Enjoy unenvy'd an Eternal Crown;

Their Empire to the World's Extreams extend,
And Viceroys to remoter Kingdoms fend;
Their faithful Agents through the World difperfe,
And thefe we fing in our immortal Verfe;
Thefe now we fing, and willing Trophies raife,
To their juft Value, and their Master's Praise.

D. F.

то

TO THE

ATHENIAN SOCIETY.

WHEN

HEN the Myfterious Nothing first was burl'd
Into a Chaos, thence into a World,

A

By that great Fiat, (greater much by far
Than the ftrait Bounds of ancient Maxims were,
Which faid, from Nothing nothing can appear)
Methinks in that great Work, that mighty Change,
I saw the Immaterial Beings range,

And crowd towards the Sight, as Mortals gaze
At fome unknown prodigious Comet's Blaze;
But when they saw the feet, the lovely Face,
And curious Harmony the Wonder grace,
Their Admiration loft it felf in Praife.

Thus meaner We, whofe low and humble Birth
Derives its Half at least from Native Earth,
When first the Spreading Fame the Rumour run,
That Athens had another World begun,

And clear'd the gloomy shades of Ignorance,

And form'd new Sparkling Orbs

This foon employ'd each Tongue; all Ears and Eyes
Were full of Athens, and the Enterprize.
But when the Searching Age began to find

The

greater Aim, the Good that was defign'd, Chang'd into Act, and cultivate Mankind; The deep Amazement pall'd, and in its room

Deferv'd Encomiums crowd, and bring their Off'rings home.

D. T.

ΤΟ

TO THE

ATHENIAN SOCIETY.

SOON as our fetter'd Souls from Time are free,
All things in Heaven, just as they are, we see:
No dark Confecture, no obfcure Suppose,

Confounds the Knowledge of each hidden Caufe;
But eafie Nature's beauteous Form appears,
Difrob'd of the thick Veil, which here she wears;
The Chain of Caufes, and their Order fine,
And clearly few they're fram'd by Hands Divine.
Te Great Unknown, this You have aim'd at Now:
And tho' coy Nature flies our fearching View,
Whilft clouded Reafon's coop'd within this Cage,
Yet you have bless'd thus far this happy Age;
Whate'er the fearching Study of the Wife,
In things Divine, and Natural, yet have found;
Whate'er from your own Obfervations rise,
From your fublime Retreat, you scatter all around.
The MANY, who long dead in Ign'rance lay,
Now Speak, and Think, reviv'd by your bright Day.
Before they had a meer Promothean Frame,

Till you inform'd their Souls with the Celestial Flame.
Learning, and folid Truth advance,
They're Noble Subjects, for fuch Noble Pens:

Go on

Let your Oppofers Trifling Jefts pursue,
They write for MINÚTES, but for AGES You.

Charles Richardson.

THE