TRANSLATIONS.

THE FIFTH ODE OF HORACE, LIB. I.

Quis multo gracilis te puer in rosa, rendered almost word for word, without rhyme, according to the Latin measure, as near as the language will permit.

WHAT slender youth, bedewed with liquid odours,

Courts thee on roses in some pleasant cave,

Pyrrha? for whom bind'st thou

In wreaths thy golden hair,

Plain in thy neatness? O how oft shall he
On faith and changèd Gods complain, and seas
Rough with black winds and storms
Unwonted shall admire !

Who now enjoys thee credulous, all gold;

Who always vacant, always amiable

Hopes thee, of flattering gales

Unmindful. Hapless they

To whom thou untried seem'st fair! Me, in my vowed Picture, the sacred wall declares to have hung

My dark and dropping weeds

To the stern God of sea.

ΙΟ

FROM GEOFFREY OF MONMOUTH.

BRUTUS thus addresses DIANA in the country of Leogecia.

GODDESS of shades, and huntress! who at will
Walk'st on the rolling spheres, and through the deep;

On thy third reign, the earth, look now, and tell
What land, what seat of rest, thou bidst me seek;
What certain seat, where I may worship thee
For aye, with temples vowed and virgin quires.

To whom, sleeping before the altar, DIANA answers in a vision the same night:

Brutus! far to the west, in the ocean wide,
Beyond the realm of Gaul, a land there lies,—
Sea-girt it lies, where giants dwelt of old;
Now void, it fits thy people: thither bend
Thy course; there shalt thou find a lasting seat;
There to thy sons another Troy shall rise,
And kings be born of thee, whose dreadful might
Shall awe the world, and conquer nations bold.

FROM DANTE.

AH, Constantine! of how much ill was cause,
Not thy conversion, but those rich domains
That the first wealthy pope received of thee!

FROM ARIOSTO.

THEN passed he to a flowery mountain green,
Which once smelt sweet, now stinks as odiously:
This was the gift, if you the truth will have,
That Constantine to good Sylvester gave.

FROM HORACE.

WHOM do we count a good man? Whom but he
Who keeps the laws and statutes of the senate,
Who judges in great suits and controversies,
Whose witness and opinion wins the cause?
But his own house, and the whole neighbourhood,
Sees his foul inside through his whited skin.

FROM EURIPIDES.

THIS is true liberty, when freeborn men,
Having to advise the public, may speak free;
Which he who can, and will, deserves high praise,
Who neither can, nor will, may hold his peace:
What can be juster in a state than this?

FROM HORACE.

LAUGHING, to teach the truth,

What hinders? As some teachers give to boys Junkets and knacks, that they may learn apace.

FROM HORACE.

- JOKING decides great things, Stronger and better oft than earnest can.

FROM SOPHOCLES.

'Tis you that say it, not I. You do the deeds, And your ungodly deeds find me the words.

FROM SENECA.

There can be slain

No sacrifice to God more acceptable,

Than an unjust and wicked king.

BLEST is the man who hath not walked astray

In counsel of the wicked, and in the way

Of sinners hath not stood,
Of scorners hath not sat.

and in the seat

But in the great
Jehovah's law is ever his delight,

And in his law he studies day and night.
He shall be as a tree, which planted grows
By watery streams, and in the season knows
To yield his fruit, and his leaf shall not fall;
And what he takes in hand shall prosper all.
Not so the wicked; but as chaff which fanned
The wind drives, so the wicked shall not stand
In judgment, or abide their trial then,
Nor sinners in the assembly of just men.
For the Lord knows the upright way of the just,
And the way of bad men to ruin must.

PSALM II.

Done Aug. 8, 1653.

TERZETTE.

WHY do the Gentiles tumult, and the nations
Muse a vain thing, the kings of the earth upstand
With power, and princes in their congregations
Lay deep their plots together through each land
Against the Lord and his Messiah dear?

Let us break off, say they, by strength of hand

Their bonds, and cast from us, no more to wear

Their twisted cords: He who in Heaven doth dwell Shall laugh; the Lord shall scoff them; then severe Speak to them in his wrath, and in his fell

And fierce ire trouble them; but I, saith he, Anointed have my King (though ye rebel) On Sion, my holy hill. A firm decree

I will declare: the Lord to me hath said,
Thou art my Son, I have begotten thee
This day: ask of me, and the grant is made;
As thy possession I on thee bestow

The Heathen; and as thy conquest to be swayed
Earth's utmost bounds; them thou shalt bring full low
With iron sceptre bruised, and them disperse
Like to a potter's vessel shivered so.
And now be wise at length, ye Kings averse;
Be taught, ye Judges of the earth; with fear
Jehovah serve, and let your joy converse
With trembling; kiss the Son, lest he appear
In anger, and ye perish in the way,

If once his wrath take fire like fuel sere.
Happy all those who have in him their stay!

10

20

PSALM III.

Aug. 9, 1653.

WHEN HE FLED FROM ABSALOM.

LORD, how many are my foes!

How many those

That in arms against me rise!

Many are they

That of my life distrustfully thus say,

No help for him in God there lies.
But thou, Lord! art my shield, my glory,
Thee, through my story,

The exalter of my head I count;
Aloud I cried

Unto Jehovah; he full soon replied

And heard me from his holy mount.

ΤΟ