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Show An E P I S T L E to Taught Horace then to touch the Lesbian Lyre, And Sappho's Sweetnefs join'd with Pindar's Fire, By Cdfar's Bounty all the tuneful Train Enjoy*d, and lung of Saturn's Golden Reign : N o Genius then was left to live on Praife, O r curft the barren Ornament of Bays j O n ail her Sons he caft a kind Regard, N o r could They write fo faft as H e reward. T h e Mufe induftrious to record his N a me In the bright Annals of eternal Fame, Profufe of Favours lavifti'd all her Store, And for one Reign made many Ages poor. Now from the rugged North unnumber'd Swarms Invade the Latkn Coafts with barbarous Arms j A Race unpolifh'd, but inur'd to Toil, Rough as their Heav'n, and barren as their Soil: Thofe Locufts ev'ry fpringing Art deftroy'd, And foft Humanity before 'em dy'd. Picture no more maintain'd tke doubtful Strife fWith Nature's Scenes, nor gave the Canvafs Life: N o r Sculpture exercis'd her Skill, beneath Her forming Hand to make the Marble breathe ; Struck with Defpair, they flood devoid of Thought, Lefs lively than the Works themfelves had wrought. O n thofe T w i n Sifters fuch Difaftcrs came, T h o ' Colours and Proportions are the fame In ev'ry A^e, and Clime j their Beauties known T o ev'ry Language, and confin'd by none. But Fate lefs Freedom to the Mufe affords, And checks her Genius with the Choice of Words; T o paint her Thoughts the Diction muft be found Of eafie Grandeur, and harmonious Sound, v Mr. SOVTHERNE. Thus when (he rais'd her Voice divinely great, Po fing the Founder of the Roman State $ the Language was adapted to the Song, Sweet and Sublime, with native Beauty ftrong, ut when the Goths infulting Troops appear'd, jch DifTonance the trembling Virgin heard, Jhang'd to a Swan, from Tiber's troubled Streams She wing'd her Flighty and fought the filver Thames. Long in the melancholy Grove fhe ftay'd, And taught the penfive Druids in the Shade j "a folemn and inftruclive Notes they fung, rom whence the beauteous Frame of Nature fprungj Vho polifiYd all the radiant Orbs above, nd in bright Order made the Planets move; /hence Thunders roar, and frightful Meteors fly, And Comets roll unbounded through the Sky ; Who wing'd the Winds, and gave the Streams to flow, And rais'd the. Rocks, and fpread the Lawns below j Whence the gay Spring exults in flow'ry Pride, And Autumn with the bleeding Grape is dy'di Whence Summer Suns imbrown the lab'ring Swains, And fhiv'ring Winter pines in Icy Chains: And prais'd the Pow'r Supream, nor dar'd advance So vain a Theory as that of Chance, But in this Ifle fhe found the Nymphs fo fair, She chang'd her Hand, and chofe a fofter Air, And Love and Beauty next became her Care Greece, her lov'd Country, only cou'd afford ' A Venus and a Helen to Record i A Tlwufind radiant Nymphs fhe here beheld, W h o match'd the Goddefs, and the Queen exceed. T'irn.- |