Of all that breathes, the various progeny,
Stung with delight, is goaded on by thee.
O'er barren mountains, o'er the flowery plain,
The leafy forest, and the liquid main,

Extends thy uncontrol'd and boundless reign.
Through all the living regions dost thou move,
And scatter'st, where thou goest, the kindly seeds of
Since then the race of every living thing [love.
Obeys thy power; since nothing new can spring
Without thy warmth, without thy influence bear,
Or beautiful, or lovesome can appear;
Be thou my aid, my tuneful song inspire,
And kindle with thy own productive fire;
While all thy province, Nature, I survey,
And sing to Memmius an immortal lay
Of heaven and earth, and every where thy won-
drous power display:

To Memmius, under thy sweet influence born,

35

Whom thou with all thy gifts and graces dost adorn. The rather then assist Muse and me,

my

Infusing verses worthy him and thee.

[cease,

Meantime on land and sea let barbarous discord
And lull the list'ning world in universal peace.
To thee mankind their soft repose must owe;
For thou alone that blessing canst bestow;
Because the brutal business of the war

Is manag'd by thy dreadful servant's care;
Who oft retires from fighting fields, to prove
The pleasing pains of thy eternal love;
And, panting on thy breast, supinely lies,

45

While with thy heavenly form he feeds his famish'd
Sucks in with open lips thy balmy breath, [eyes;
By turns restor'd to life, and plung'd in pleasing
death.

There while thy curling limbs about him move,
Involv'd and fetter'd in the links of love,
When, wishing all, he nothing can deny,
Thy charms in that auspicious moment try;
With winning eloquence our peace implore,
And quiet to the
world restore.

weary

55

THE BEGINNING OF

THE SECOND BOOK OF LUCRETIUS.

"Tis pleasant, safely to behold from shore
The rolling ship, and hear the tempest roar:
Not that another's pain is our delight;
But pains unfelt produce the pleasing sight.
'Tis pleasant also to behold from far
The moving legends mingled in the war.
But much more sweet thy labouring steps to guide
To virtue's heights, with wisdom well supplied,
And all the magazines of learning fortified:
From thence to look below on humankind,
Bewilder'd in the maze of life, and blind :
To see vain fools ambitiously contend
For wit and power; their last endeavours bend
To outshine each other, waste their time and health

10

In search of honour, and pursuit of wealth. 15
O wretched man! in what a mist of life,
Inclos'd with dangers and with noisy strife,
He spends his little span; and overfeeds
His cramm'd desires with more than nature needs!
For nature wisely stints our appetite,

20

25

And craves no more than undisturb'd delight:
Which minds, unmix'd with cares and fears, ob-
A soul serene, a body void of pain. [tain;
So little this corporeal frame requires ;
So bounded are our natural desires,
That wanting all, and setting pain aside,
With bare privation sense is satisfied.
If golden sconces hang not on the walls,
To light the costly suppers and the balls;
If the proud palace shines not with the state
Of burnish'd bowls, and of reflected plate;
If well tun'd harps, nor the more pleasing sound
Of voices, from the vaulted roofs rebound;

Yet on the grass, beneath a poplar shade,

30

By the cool stream our careless limbs are laid;
With cheaper pleasures innocently bless'd,
When the warm spring with gaudy flowers is dress'd.
Nor will the raging fever's fire abate,
With golden canopies and beds of state:
But the poor patient will as soon be sound
On the hard mattrass, or the mother ground.
Then since our bodies are not eas'd the more
By birth, or power, or fortune's wealthy store,
'Tis plain, these useless toys of every kind

40

45

55

As little can relieve the labouring mind:
Unless we could suppose the dreadful sight
Of marshal'd legions moving to the fight,
Could, with their sound and terrible array,
Expel our fears, and drive the thoughts of death
But, since the supposition vain appears, [away
Since clinging cares, and trains of inbred fears,
Are not with sounds to be affrighted thence,
But in the midst of pomp pursue the prince,
Not aw'd by arms, but in the presence bold,
Without respect to purple, or to gold;
Why should not we these pageantries despise ;
Whose worth but in our want of reason lies?
For life is all in wand'ring errors led;
And just as children are surpris'd with dread,
And tremble in the dark, so riper years
E'en in broad daylight are possess'd with fears;
And shake at shadows fanciful and vain,
As those which in the breasts of children reign.
These bugbears of the mind, this inward hell,
rays of outward sunshine can dispel ;

No

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65

But nature and right reason must display
Their beams abroad, and bring the darksome soul

to day.

THE LATTER PART OF THE THIRD BOOK OF LUCRETIUS;

AGAINST THE FEAR OF DEATH.

WHAT has this bugbear death to frighten men,
If souls can die, as well as bodies can?
For, as before our birth we felt no pain,
When Punic arms infested land and main,
When heaven and earth were in confusion hurl'd,
For the debated empire of the world,

10

Which aw'd with dreadful expectation lay,
Sure to be slaves, uncertain who should
sway:
So, when our mortal flame shall be disjoin'd,
The lifeless lump uncoupled from the mind,
From sense of grief and pain we shall be free;
We shall not feel, because we shall not be.
Though earth in seas, and seas in heaven were lost,
We should not move, we only should be tost.
Nay, e'en suppose when we have suffer'd fate, 15
The soul could feel in her divided state,
What's that to us? for we are only we
While souls and bodies in one frame agree.
Nay, though our atoms should revolve by chance,
And matter leap into the former dance;
Though time our life and motion could restore,
And make our bodies what they were before,
What gain to us would all this bustle bring?

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