Secure the happy innocent may rove,
The care of every power above;
Although unarm'd he wanders o'er
The treacherous Libya's fands, and faithless shore :
Though o'er th' inhofpitable brows
Of favage Caucafus he goes;
Through Africk's flames, through Scythia's fnows,
Or where Hydafpes, fam'd for monsters, flows.
III.
For as, within an unfrequented grove,
I tun'd my willing lyre to love,
With pleasing amorous thoughts betray'd,
Beyond my bounds infenfibly I ftray'd;
A wolf that view'd me fled away,
He fled from his defencelefs prey?
When I invok'd Maria's aid,
Although unarm'd, the trembling monfter fled.
Not Daunia's teeming fands, nor barbarous fhore,
E'er fuch a dreadful native bore,
Nor Africk's nurfing caves brought forth
So fierce a beaft, of fuch amazing growth:
Yet vain did all his fury prove
Against a breaft that 's arm'd with love;
Though abfent, fair Maria's name
Subdues the fierce, and makes the favage tame.
Commit me now to that abandon'd place
Where chearful light withdraws its rays;
No beams on barren nature fimile,
Nor fruitful winds refresh th' intemperate foil;
But tempefts, with eternal frofts,
Still rage around the gloomy coaft:
Whilft angry Jove infefts the air,
And, black with clouds, deforms the fullen year.
Qr place me now beneath the torrid zone,
To live a borderer on the fun :
Send me to fcorching fands, whofe heat
Guards the deftructive foil from human feet:
Yet there I'll fing Maria's name,
And fport, uninjur'd, midst the flame :
Maria's name! that will create, ev'n there,
A milder climate, and more temperate air.
PATROCLUS's Request to ACHILLES for his Arms.
Imitated from the Beginning of the Sixteenth
ILIAD of HOMER.
IVINE Achilles, with compaffion mov'd,
Thus to Patroclus fpake, his best-belov'd.
Why like a tender girl doft thou complain!
That ftrives to reach the mother's breaft in vain
Mourns by her fide, her knees embraces faft,
Hangs on her robes, and interrupts her hafte;
Yet, when with fondness to her arms fhe 's rais'd,
Still mourns and weeps, and will not be appeas'd!
Thus my Patroclus in his grief appears,
Thus like a froward girl profufe of tears.
From Phthia doft thou mournful tidings hear,
And to thy friend fome fatal message bear?
Thy valiant father (if we fame believe)
The good Menatius, he is yet
And Peleus, though in his declining days,
Reigns o'er his. Myrmidons in health and peace;
Yet, as their lateft obfequies we paid,
Thou mourn'ft them living, as already dead..
Or thus with tears the Grecian host deplore,
That with their navy perish on the shore;
And with compaffion their misfortunes view,
The juft reward to guilt and falfehood due ?
Impartial heaven avenges thus my wrong,
Nor fuffers crimes to go unpunish'd long.
Reveal the cause fo much afflicts thy mind,
Nor thus conceal thy forrows from thy friend..
When, gently raising up his drooping head,
Thus, with a figh, the fad Patroclus faid.
Godlike Achilles, Peleus' valiant fon!
Of all our chiefs, the greatest in renown;
Upbraid not thus th' afflicted with their woes,
Nor triumph now the Greeks fuftain fuch lofs!
To pity let thy generous breast incline,
And fhow thy mind is like thy birth divine.
For all the valiant leaders of their hoft,
Or wounded lie, or are in battle loft.
Ulyffes great in arms, and Diomede,
Languish with wounds, and in the navy bleed:
This common fate great Agamemnon fhares,
And ftern Eurypylus, renown'd in wars.
Whilst powerful drugs th' experienc'd artists try,
And to their wounds apt remedies apply:
Easing th' afflicted heroes with their skill,
Thy breast alone remains implacable!
What, will thy fury thus for ever last!
Let prefent woes atone for injuries past :
How can thy foul retain fuch lasting hate!
Thy virtues are as useless as they 're great.
What injur'd friend from thee fhall hope redress,
That will not aid the Greeks in fuch diftrefs?
Ufelefs is all the valour that you boast,
Deform'd with rage, with fullen fury lost.
Could cruelty like thine from Peleus come,
Or be the offspring of fair Thetis' womb!
Thee raging feas, thee boisterous waves brought forth,
And to obdurate rocks thou ow'ft thy birth!
Thy stubborn nature still retains their kind,
So hard thy heart, so savage is thy mind.
But, if thy boding breast admits of fear,
Or dreads what facred oracles declare!
What awful Thetis in the courts above
Receiv'd from the unerring mouth of Jove!
If fo----let me the threatening dangers face,
And head the warlike fquadrons in thy place:
Whilft me thy valiant Myrmidons obey,
We yet may turn the fortune of the day.
Let me in thy distinguish'd arms appear,
With all thy dreadful equipage of war;
That when the Trojans our approaches view,
Deceiv'd, they fhall retreat, and think 'tis you.
Thus, from the rage of an infulting host,
We may retrieve that fame the Greeks have loft;
Vigorous and fresh, th' unequal fight renew,
And from our navy force the drooping foe;
O'er harass'd men an eafy conquest gain,
And drive the Trojans to their walls again.
On the re-printing MILTON's Profe Works, with his POEMS written in his PARADISE LOST.
HESE facred lines with wonder we peruse,
And praise the flights of a feraphic Mufe,
Till thy feditious profe provokes our rage,
And foils the beauties of thy brightest page.
Thus here we see transporting scenes arise,
Heaven's radiant hoft, and opening paradise ;
Then trembling view the dread abyfs beneath,
Hell's horrid manfions, and the realms of death.
Whilft here thy bold majestic numbers rife,
And range th' embattled legions of the skies,
With armies fill the azure plains of light,
And paint the lively terrors of the fight,
We own the poet worthy to rehearse
Heaven's lafting triumphs in immortal verse:
But when thy impious mercenary pen
Infults the best of princes, beft of men,
Our admiration turns to just difdain,
And we revoke the fond applaufe again.
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