our national affairs, the actions or the fortunes of some men, and the opinions of others, may have changed. Prose and other human things may take what turn they can, but poetry, which pretends to have something of divinity in it, is to be more permanent. Odes once printed cannot well be altered, when the author has already said that he expects his works should live for ever; and it had been very foolish in my friend Horace, if, some years after his exegi monumentum, he should have desired to see his building taken down again.

The Dedication likewise is reprinted to the Earl of Dorset in the foregoing leaves without any alteration, though I had the fairest opportunity. and the strongest inclination to have added a great deal to it. The blooming hopes which I said the world expected from my then very young patron have been confirmed by most noble and distinguished first fruits, and his life is going on towards a plentiful harvest of all accumulated virtues. He has in fact exceeded whatever the fondness of my wishes could invent in his favour: his equally good and beautiful lady enjoys in him an indulgent and obliging husband; his children a kind and careful father; and his acquaintance a faithful, generous, and polite friend. His fellowpeers have attended to the persuasion of his eloquence, and have been convinced by the solidity of his reasoning. He has long since deserved and

ON THE

MARRIAGE OF GEORGE PRINCE OF DENMARK AND THE LADY ANNE*. By Mr. Prior, 1683.

CONJUNCTUM Veneri Martem, Danosque Britannis

Dum canit altisonis docta caterva modis,
Affero sincerum culto pro carmine votum,
Quod minus ingenii, plus pietatis habet.
Vivant Ambo diu, vivant feliciter, opto;
Diligat hic Sponsam, diligat illa Virum.
Junctos perpetuâ teneas, Hymenæe, catenâ;
Junctos, Juno, die protege; nocte, Venus!
Exultent simili felices prole Parentes,

Ut petat hinc multos natio bina duces!
Cumque senes pariter cupiant valedicere terris,
Nè mors augustum dividat atra jugum :
Sed qualis raptum transvexit currus Elijam,
Transvehat ad superas talis utrumque domos !

A. PRIOR, Coll. Div. Joh. Alumn.

*From the Hymenæus Cantabrigiensis. Cantabrigiæ, 1683.' This copy, notwithstanding the signature, is beyond a doubt the property of the facetious MATT. PRIOR. The distant imitation of Martial's admirable lines on the HAPPY MARRIED PAIR--or rather the ALLUSION to that excellent little piece (for it can hardly be called an IMITATION of it), shows the TASTE of a MASTER, at the YEARS of a BOY, and is not unworthy the NAME or the FAME of PRIOR. Kynaston.

ODES.

AN ODE

ON EXODUS iii. 14. I AM THAT I AM*.

MAN! foolish man!

I.

Scarce know'st thou how thyself began,

Scarce hast thou thought enough to prove thou art;
Yet, steel'd with study'd boldness, thou dar'st try
To send thy doubting Reason's dazzled eye
Thro' the mysterious gulf of vast immensity:
Much thou canst there discern, much thence impart.
Vain wretch! suppress thy knowing pride,
Mortify thy learned lust:

Vain are thy thoughts, while thou thyself art dust

II.

Let Wit her sails, her oars let Wisdom lend,
The helm let politic Experience guide;

Yet cease to hope thy short-liv'd bark shall ride
Down spreading Fate's unnavigable tide.

What tho' still it further tend?

Still 'tis further from its end,

And in the bosom of that boundless sea

Still finds its error lengthen with its way.

* Written in 1688, as an exercise at St. John's college, Cambridge.

III.

With daring pride and insolent delight,

Your doubts resolv'd you boast, your labours crown'd,
And "EYPHKA! your God, forsooth, is found
Incomprehensible and infinite:

But is he therefore found? Vain searcher! no:
Let your imperfect definition show

That nothing you, the weak, definer know.

IV.

Say, why should the collected main

Itself within itself contain?

Why to its caverns should it sometimes creep,
And with delighted silence sleep

On the lov'd bosom of its parent deep?

Why should its num'rous waters stay,
In comely discipline and fair array,

Till winds and tides exert their high command?
Then, prompt and ready to obey,

Why do the rising surges spread

Their op'ning ranks o'er earth's submissive head, Marching thro' diff'rent paths to diff'rent lands?

V.

Why does the constant sun

With measur'd steps his radiant journies run?
Why does he order the diurnal hours

To leave earth's other part and rise in ours?
Why does he wake the correspondent moon,
And fill her willing lamp with liquid light,
Commanding her, with delegated pow'rs,
To beautify the world and bless the night?