Two young shepherds, Chromis and Mnafylus, having been often promised a fong by Silenus, chance to catch him afleep in this Eclogue; where they bind him hand and foot, and then claim his promife. Silenus, finding they would be put off no longer, begins his fong, in which he defcribes the formation of the univerfe, and the original of animals, according to the Epicurean philosophy; and then runs through the moft furprifing transformations which have happened in Nature fince her birth. This Eclogue was defigned as a compliment to Syro the Epicurean, who inftructed Virgil and Varus in the principles of that philofophy. Silenus acts as tutor, Chromis and Mnafylus as the two pupils.
Firft of Romans ftoop'd to rural strains,
Nor blufh'd to dwell among Sicilian fwains,
When my Thalia rais'd her bolder voice,
And kings and battles were her lofty choice,
Phoebus did kindly humbler thoughts infufe,
And with this whisper check th' afpiring Muse
But when you find that vigorous heat abate,
Leave off, and for another fummons wait.
Before the radiant fun, a glimmering lamp,
Adulterate metals to the sterling stamp,
Appear not meaner, than mere human lines,
Compar'd with those whose inspiration fhines:
These nervous, bold; thofe languid and remifs ;
There, cold falutes; but here, a lover's kifs.
Thus have I seen a rapid, headlong tide,
With foaming waves the paffive Soane divide;
Whofe lazy waters without motion lay,
While he, with eager force, urg'd his impetuous way.
The privilege that ancient poets claim,
Now turn'd to license by too juft a name,
Belongs to none but an establish'd fame,
Which fcorns to take it---
Abfurd expreffions, crude, abortive thoughts,
All the lewd legion of exploded faults,
Base fugitives to that afylum fly,
And facred laws with infolence defy.
Not thus our heroes of the former days,
Deferv'd and gain'd their never-fading bays;
For I mistake, or far the greatest part
Of what fome call neglect, was study'd art.
When Virgil feems to trifle in a line,
'Tis like a warning-piece, which gives the fign
To wake your fancy, and prepare your fight,
To reach the noble height of fome unufual flight.
I lose my patience, when with faucy pride,
"v.untun'd ears I hear his numbers try'd.
Reverfe of nature! fhall fuch copies then
Arraign th' originals of Maro's pen!
And the rude notions of pedantic schools
Blafpheme the facred founder of our rules!
The delicacy of the niceft ear
Finds nothing harsh or out of order there.
Sublime or low, unbended or intenfe,
The fund is ftill a comment to the fenfe.
A fkilful ear in numbers fhould prefide,
And all difputes without appeal decide.
This ancient Rome and elder Athens found,
Before mistaken stops debauch'd the found.
When, by impulfe from heaven, Tyrtaus fung,
In drooping foldiers a new courage sprung;
Reviving Sparta now the fight maintain'd,
And what two generals loft a poet gain'd.
By fecret influence of indulgent skies,
Empire and poefy together rife.
Truc poets are the guardians of a state,
And, when they fail, portend approaching fate.
For that which Rome to conqueft did inspire,
Was not the Veftal, but the Mufes' fire;
Heaven joins the bleffings: No declining age
E'er felt the raptures of poetic rage.
Of many faults, rhyme is (perhaps) the cause,
Too ftrict to rhyme, we flight more useful laws,
For that, in Greece or Rome, was never known,
Till by barbarian deluges o'erflown :
Subdued, undone, they did at last obey,
And change their own for their invaders' way.
I grant that from fome moffy, idol oak,
In double rhymes our Thor and Woden spoke;
And by fucceffion of unlearned times,
As Bards began, fo Monks rung on the chimes.
But now that Phoebus and the facred Nine, With all their beams on our bleft ifland fhine, Why should not we their ancient rites restore, And be, what Rome or Athens were before?
*Have we forgot how Raphael's numerous profe • Led our exalted fouls through heavenly camps, • And mark'd the ground where proud apoftate thrones Defy'd Jehovah! Here, 'twixt hoft and hoft, but a dreadful interval)
Portentous fight! before the cloudy van
Satan with vaft and haughty ftrides advanc'd,
Came towering arm'd in adamant and gold.
There bellowing engines, with their fiery tubes,
Difpers'd æthereal forms, and down they fell
By thousands, angels on arch-angels roll'd;
Recover'd, to the hills they ran, they flew,
Which (with their ponderous load, rocks, waters,
• woods)
• From their firm feats torn by the shaggy tops
They bore like shields before them through the air, 'Till more incens'd they hurld them at their foes. All was confusion, heaven's foundations shook, • Threatning no less than univerfal wreck, • For Michael's arm main promontories flung,
* An essay on blank verse, out of Paradise Loft, B. VI.
And over-preft whole legions weak with fin: Yet they blafphem'd and struggled as they lay, • Till the great ensign of Messiah blaz’d,
• And (arm'd with vengeance) God's victorious Son (Effulgence of paternal deity)
Grafping ten thousand thunders in his hand,
• Drove th' old original rebels headlong down,
And fent them flaming to the vast abyss.'
O may I live to hail the glorious day,
And fing loud paans through the crowded way,
When in triumphant state the British Muse,
True to herself, fhall barbarous aid refuse,
And in the Roman majesty appear,
Which none know better, and none come fo near.
Azure vaults! O crystal sky!
The world's transparent canopy,
Break your long filence, and let mortals know
With what contempt you look on things below.
Wing'd fquadrons of the god of war,
Who conquer wherefoe'er you are,
Let echoing anthems make his praises known
On earth his footstool, as in heaven his throne.
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