Her guardian gods renounc'd their patronage,
Nor would the fierce invading foe repel;
To my refentment, and Minerva's rage,
The guilty king and the whole people fell.
And now the long-protracted wars are o'er,
The soft adulterer shines no more;
No more does Hector's force the Trojans fhield,
That drove whole armies back, and fingly clear'd the
My vengeance fated, I at length refign
To Mars his offspring of the Trojan line:
Advanc'd to godhead let him rise,
And take his ftation in the skies;
There entertain his ravish'd fight
With scenes of glory, fields of light;
Quaff with the gods immortal wine,
And fee adoring nations croud his shrine.
The thin remains of Troy's afflicted hoft,
In distant realms may feats unenvy'd find,
And flourish on a foreign coast;
But far be Rome from Troy disjoin'd,
Remov'd by feas, from the disastrous fhore,
May endless billows rife between, and ftorms un-
number'd roar.
Still let the curft detefted place
Where Priam lies, and Priam's faithless race,
Be cover'd o'er with weeds, and hid in grafs.
There let the wanton flocks unguarded stray;
Or, while the lonely fhepherd fings,
Amidst the mighty ruins play,
And frisk upon the tombs of kings,
May tigers there, and all the favage kind,
Sad folitary haunts and filent deserts find;
In gloomy vaults, and nooks of palaces,
May th' unmolested lioness
Her brinded whelps fecurely lay,
Or, coucht, in dreadful flumbers waste the day.
While Troy in heaps of ruins lies,
Rome and the Roman capitol fhall rise;
Th' illuftrious exiles unconfin'd
Shall triumph far and near, and rule mankind.
In vain the fea's intruding tide Europe from Afric fhall divide,
And part the fever'd world in two:
Through Afric's fands their triumphs they shall spread,
And the long train of victories pursue
To Nile's yet undiscover'd head.
Riches the hardy foldiers fhall despise,
And look on gold with undefiring eyes,
Nor the difbowel'd earth explore
In fearch of the forbidden ore;
Those glittering ills, conceal'd within the mine,
Shall lie untouch'd, and innocently shine.
To the laft bounds that nature sets,
The piercing colds and fultry heats,
The godlike race fhall spread their arms,
Now fill the polar circle with alarms,
Till storms and tempefts their pursuits confine;
Now sweat for conqueft underneath the line.
This only law the victor fhall reftrain,
On these conditions fhall he reign;
If none his guilty hand employ
To build again a fecond Troy,
If none the rash design pursue,
Nor tempt the vengeance of the gods anew.
A curfe there cleaves to the devoted place,
That shall the new foundations rase;
Greece fhall in mutual leagues confpire
To ftorm the rifing town with fire,
And at their armies head myself will show
What Juno, urg'd to all her rage, can do.
Thrice fhould Apollo's felf the city raise
And line it round with walls of brass,
Thrice fhould my favourite Greeks his works confound,
And hew the shining fabric to the ground:
Thrice should her captive dames to Greece return,
And their dead fons and slaughter'd husbands mourn.
But hold, my Mufe, forbear thy towering flight,
Nor bring the fecrets of the gods to light:
In vain would thy prefumptuous verse
Th' immortal rhetoric rehearse;
The mighty ftrains, in lyric numbers bound,
Forget their majefty, and lofe their found.
DE FAST IS, LIB. III. EL. I.
"Blanda quies victis furtim fubrepit ocellis, &c."
AS the fair Veftal to the fountain came,
(Let none be startled at a Vestal's name)
Tir'd with the walk, fhe laid her down to reft,
And to the winds expos'd her glowing breast,
To take the freshness of the morning-air,
And gather'd in a knot her flowing hair;
While thus fhe refted, on her arm reclin'd,
The hoary willows waving with the wind,
And feather'd choirs that warbled in the shade,
And purling ftreams that through the meadow stray'd,
In drowsy murmurs lull'd the gentle maid.
The God of War beheld the virgin lie,
The God beheld her with a lover's eye;
And, by fo tempting an occafion prefs'd,
The beauteous maid, whom he beheld, poffefs'd:
Conceiving as fhe flept, her fruitful womb
Swell'd with the Founder of immortal Rome.
THE STORY OF PHAETON.
THE fun's bright palace, on high columns rais'd,
With burnish'd gold and flaming jewels blaz'd;
The folding gates diffus'd a filver light,
And with a milder gleam refresh'd the fight;
Of polish'd ivory was the covering wrought:
The matter vied not with the sculptor's thought,
For in the portal was display'd on high
(The work of Vulcan) a fictitious sky;
A waving fea th' inferior earth embrac'd,
And Gods and Goddeffes the waters grac'd.
Ægeon here a mighty whale beftrode;
Triton, and Proteus (the deceiving God),
With Doris here were carv'd, and all her train,
Some loosely swimming in the figur'd main,
While fome on rocks their drooping hair divide,
And fome on fishes through the waters glide:
Though various features did the fifters grace,
A fifter's likeness was in every face.
On earth a different landskip courts the eyes,
Men, towns, and beasts, in distant prospects rise,
And nymphs, and ftreams, and woods, and rural deities.
O'er all, the heaven's refulgent image shines ;
On either gate were fix engraven figns.
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