Proportion'd to the work; thou seest impartial, How they those means employ. Each monarch rules His different realm, accountable to thee,

Great ruler of the world: these only have

To speak and be obey'd; to those are given
Assistant days to ripen the design;

To some whole months; revolving years to some;
Others, ill-fated, are condemn'd to toil

Their tedious life, and mourn their purpose blasted With fruitless act, and impotence of council.

Hail! greatest son of Saturn, wise disposer Of every good thy praise what man yet born Has sung? or who that may be born shall sing? Again, and often hail! indulge our prayer, Great father! grant us virtue, grant us wealth: For without virtue, wealth to man avails not; And virtue without wealth exerts less power, And less diffuses good. Then grant us, gracious, Virtue and wealth; for both are of thy gift.

THE SECOND HYMN OF CALLIMACHUS. TO APOLLO

HAH! how the laurel, great Apollo's tree,
And all the cavern shakes! far off, far off,
The man that is unhallow'd: for the god,

The god approaches. Hark! he knocks; the gates

Feel the glad impulse: and the sever'd bars Submissive clink against their brazen portals. Why do the Delian palms incline their boughs, Self-mov'd and hovering swans, their throats releas'd,

:

From native silence, carol sounds harmonious?

Begin, young men, the hymn: let all your harps Break their inglorious silence; and the dance, In mystic numbers trod, explain the music. But first by ardent prayer, and clear lustration, Purge the contagious spots of human weakness: Impure no mortal can behold Apollo. So may ye flourish, favour'd by the god, In youth with happy nuptials, and in age With silver hairs, and fair descent of children; So lay foundations for aspiring cities, And bless your spreading colonies' increase. Pay sacred reverence to Apollo's song; Lest wrathful the far-shooting god emit His fatal arrows. Silent Nature stands ; And seas subside, obedient to the sound Of Iö Iö Pean! nor dares Thetis Longer bewail her lov'd Achilles' death; For Phoebus was his foe. Nor must sad Niobe In fruitless sorrow persevere, or weep

mother!

E'en through the Phrygian marble. Hapless
[spring
Whose fondness could compare her mortal off-
To those which fair Latona bore to Jove.

Iö! again repeat ye, Iö Pean!

Against the deity 'tis hard to strive.

He that resists the power of Ptolemy,

Resists the power of heaven, for power from heaven
Derives; and monarchs rule by gods appointed.
Recite Apollo's praise, till night draws on,
The ditty still unfinish'd; and the day
Unequal to the godhead's attributes
Various, and matter copious of your songs.
Sublime at Jove's right hand Apollo sits,
And thence distributes honour, gracious king,
And theme of verse perpetual. From his robe
Flows light ineffable: his harp, his quiver,
And Lictian bow are gold: with golden sandals
His feet are shod; how rich! how beautiful!
Beneath his steps the yellow mineral rises;
And earth reveals her treasures. Youth and beauty
Eternal deck his cheek; from his fair head
Perfumes distil their sweets; and cheerful health,
His duteous handmaid, through the air improv'd,
With lavish hand diffuses scents ambrosial.

The spearman's arm by thee, great god, directed, Sends forth a certain wound. The laurel'd bard, Inspir'd by thee, composes verse immortal. Taught by thy art divine, the sage physician Eludes the urn; and chains, or exiles death.

Thee, Nomian, we adore; for that from Heaven Descending, thou on fair Amphrysus' banks Didst guard Admetus's herds. Sithence the cow Produc'd an ampler store of milk; the she-goat Not without pain dragg'd her distended udder;

And ewes, that erst brought but single lambs,
Now dropp'd their twofold burthens.

cattle,

Blest the

On which Apollo cast his favouring eye!

But Phoebus, thou to man beneficent, Delight'st in building cities. Bright Diana, Kind sister to thy infant deity,

New-wean'd, and just arising from the cradle, Brought hunted wild goats' heads, and branching antlers

Of stags, the fruit and honour of her toil.

These with discerning hand thou knew'st to range, (Young as thou wast) and in the well-fram'd models, With emblematic skill and mystic order,

Thou show'dst, where towers or battlements should

rise;

Where gates should open; or where walls should

compass:

While from thy childish pastime man received
The future strength and ornament of nations.

Battus, our great progenitor, now touch'd
The Libyan strand; when the foreboding crow
Flew on the right before the people, marking
The country, destin'd the auspicious seat
Of future kings, and favour of the god,
Whose oath is sure, and promise stands eternal.

Or Boëdromian hear'st thou pleas'd, or Clarian, Phoebus, great king? for different are thy names, As thy kind hand has founded many cities, Or dealt benign thy various gifts to man.

Carnean let me call thee! for my country
Calls thee Carnean! the fair colony

Thrice by thy gracious guidance was transported,
Ere settled in Cyrene; there w' appointed
Thy annual feasts, kind god, and bless thy altars
Smoking with hecatombs of slaughter'd bulls;
As Carnus, thy high-priest and favour'd friend,
Had erst ordain'd; and with mysterious rites,
Our great forefathers taught their sons to worship.
Iö Carnean Phoebus! Iö Pean!

The yellow crocus there, and fair narcissus
Reserve the honours of their winter-store,
To deck thy temple; till returning spring
Diffuses nature's various pride; and flowers
Innumerable, by the soft south-west

Open'd, and gather'd by religious hands, [ment.
Rebound their sweets from th' odoriferous pave-
Perpetual fires shine hallow'd on thy altars,
When annual the Carnean feast is held:
The warlike Libyans, clad in armour, lead
The dance! with clanging swords and shields they
beat

The dreadful measure: in the chorus join
Their women, brown but beautiful: such rights
To thee well pleasing. Nor had yet thy votaries,
From Greece transplanted, touch'd Cyrene's banks,
And lands determin'd for their last abodes;
But wander'd through Azilis' horrid forest
Dispers'd; when from Myrtusa's craggy brow,
Fond of the maid, auspicious to the city,