DECADE X.

So may fucceeding ages, as they roll,

Great Hiero ftill in wealth and bliss maintain,
And, joyous health recalling, on his foul
Oblivion pour of life-confuming pain.
Yet may thy memory with sweet delight

The various dangers and the toils recount,
Which in inteftine wars and bloody fight

Thy patient virtue, Hiero, did furmount;

What time, by heaven above all Grecians crown'd, The prize of fovereign fway with thee thy brother

Then like the fon of Pæan didft thou war,

Smit with the arrows of a fore disease; While, as along flow rolls thy fickly car,

*

Love and amaze the haughtiest bosoms feize. In Lemnos pining with th' envenom'd wound The fon of Pean, Philoctetes, lay:

There, after tedious queft, the heroes found,

And bore the limping archer thence away; By whom fell Priam's towers (fo fate ordain'd) And the long harrafs'd Greeks their wifh'd repofe

obtain'd.

May Hiero too, like Pæan's fon, receive
Recover'd vigour from celestial hands !
And may the healing god proceed to give
The power to gain whate'er his wifh demands.

But now,

O Mufe, addrefs thy founding lays To young Dinomenes, his virtuous heir. Sing to Dinomenes, his father's praise;

His father's praife shall glad his filial ear. For him hereafter shalt thou touch the string, And chant in friendly strains fair Ætna's future king.

Hiero for him th' illuftrious city rear'd,

And fill'd with fons of Greece her ftately towers, Where, by the free-born citizen rever'd,

The Spartan laws exert their virtuous powers.
For by the statutes, which their fathers gave,
Still muft the reftive Dorian youth be led;
Who dwelling once on cold Eurotas' wave,
Where proud Täygetus exalts his head,
From the great flock of Hercules divine
And warlike Pamphilus deriv'd their noble line.

Thefe, from Theffalian Pindus rushing down,
The walls of fam'd Amycle once poffefs'd,
And, rich in fortune's gifts and high renown,
Dwelt near the twins of Leda, while they press'd
Their milky courfers, and the pastures o'er

Of neighbouring Argos rang'd, in arms fupreme. To king and people on the flowery shore

Of lucid Amena, Sicilian ftream,
Grant the like fortune, Jove, with like defert
The fplendor of their race and glory to affert.

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DECADE

And do thou aid Sicilia's hoary Lord
To form and rule his fon's obedient mind;
And ftill in golden chains of sweet accord,
And mutual peace the friendly people bind,
Then grant, O Son of Saturn, grant my prayer!
The bold Phoenician on his fhore detain;
And may the hardy Tuscan never dare

To vex with clamorous war Sicilia's main ;
Remembering Hiero, how on Cuma's coaft
Wreck'd by his ftormy arms their groaning fleets were

What terrors! what deftruction them affail'd!

Hurl'd from their riven decks what numbers dy'd! When o'er their might Sicilia's Chief prevail'd,' Their youth o'erwhelming in the foamy tide; Greece from impending fervitude to fave. Thy favour, glorious Athens! to acquire, Would I record the Salaminian wave

Fam'd in thy triumphs: and my tuneful lyre To Sparta's fons with sweetest praise fhould tell,Beneath Citharon's fhade what Medish archers fell.

But on fair Himera's wide-water'd fhores
Thy fons, Dinomenes, my lyre demand,
To grace their virtues with the various tores
Of facred verfe, and fing th' illuftrious band

Of valiant brothers, who from Carthage won
The glorious meed of conqueft, deathless praise.
A pleafing theme! but cenfure's dreaded frown

Compels me to contract my spreading lays.
In verfe conciseness pleases every guest,
While each impatient blames and loaths a tedious feast,

DECADE XVIII.

Nor lefs diftafteful is exceffive fame

To the four palate of the envious mind; Who hears with grief his neighbour's goodly name, And hates the fortune that he ne'er fhall find. Yet in thy virtue, Hiero, perfevere !

Since to be envied is a nobler fate

Than to be pitied Let ftrict Justice steer

With equitable hand the helm of state,

And arm thy tongue with truth: O King, beware Of every step! a Prince can never lightly err.

O'er many nations art thou fet, to deal
The goods of Fortune with impartial hand ;
And, ever watchful of the public weal,

Unnumber'd witneffes around thee stand.
Then, would thy virtuous ear for ever feast
On the sweet melody of well-earn'd fame,

In generous purposes confirm thy breast,

Nor dread expences that will grace thy name; But, fcorning fordid and unprincely gain,

Spread all thy bounteous fails, and launch into the Main.

f

When in the mouldering uru the monarch lies,
His fame in lively characters remains,

Or grav'd in monumental hiftories,

Or deck'd and painted in Aonian strains.

Thus fresh, and fragrant, and immortal, blooms

The virtue, Crofus, of thy gentle mind:

While fate to infamy and hatred dooms

Sicilia's tyrant, fcorn of human kind; Whofe ruthless bofom fwell'd with cruel pride, When in his brazen bull the broiling wretches dy'd.

DECADE XXI.

Him therefore nor in sweet society

The generous youth converfing ever name
Nor with the harp's delightful melody
Mingle his odious inharmonious fame.
The first, the greatest bliss on man conferr'd
Is, in the acts of virtue to excel;

The fecond, to obtain their high reward,

The foul-exalting praise of doing well..

Who both these lots attains, is blefs'd indeed,
Since Fortune here below can give no richer meed.

THE