for you: and the labourer rejoices to have beaten the hated ground in triple dance.

ODE XIX.

TO TELEPHUS.

By a sudden interruption, he brings over an unseasonable detailer of ancient history, to think rather of what might promote the festivity of the entertainment.

How far Codrus, who was not afraid to die for his country, is removed from Inachus, and the race of Æacus, the battles also that were fought at sacred Troy-these subjects you descant upon; but at what price we may purchase a hogshead of Chian, who shall warm the water for bathing, who finds a house, and at what hour I am to get rid of these Pelignian colds, you are silent. Give me, boy, a bumper for the new moon in an instant, give me one for midnight, and one for Murena the augur. Let the decanters be mixed up with three or nine glasses, according to every one's disposition. The enraptured bard, who delights in the odd numbered muses, shall call for brimmers thrice three. Each of the Graces, in conjunction with her naked sisters, fearful of broils, prohibits more than three. It is my pleasure to rave: Why cease the breathings of the Phrygian flute ? Why is the pipe hung up with the silent lyre? I hate your niggardly handfuls: strew roses in abundance. Let the envious Lycus hear the jovial noise; and let our neighbour, ill-suited to the old Lycus, hear it. The ripe Chloe aims at thee, Telephus, with thy bushy locks, at thee, bright as the clear eveningstar; but the love of my Glycera slowly consumes

me.

ODE XX.

TO PYRRHUS.

That he should not endeavour to force away the beautiful youth from his damsel.

Do you not perceive, O Pyrrhus, at what a hazard you are taking away the whelps from a Getulian lioness! In a little while, you, a timorous ravisher, shall fly from the severe engagement, when she shall march through the opposing band of youth, re-demanding her beauteous Nearchus. A grand contest, whether a greater share of the booty shall fall to thee or her. In the mean time, while you produce your swift arrows, she whets her terrific teeth; while the umpire of the combat is reported to have placed the palm under his naked foot, and refreshed his shoulder, overspread with his perfumed hair, with the gentle breeze; just such another as was Nireus, or* he that was ravished from the watery Ida.

ODE XXI.

TO HIS JAR.

He calls upon it to furnish him with generous wine, in compliment to Messala.

O THOU goodly cask, that was brought to light at the same time with me, in the consulship of Manlius, whether you contain the occasion of complaint, or jests, or broils, and madding amours, or gentle sleep; under whatever title you preserve the choice Massic, thou art worthy to be removed in an auspicious day; descend, Corvinus bids me draw the mellowest wine. He, though he is imbued in the Socratic lectures, will not morosely reject thee. The virtue even of old Cato is recorded to have frequently been warmed with wine: You apply a gentle violence to that disposition, which is, in general, of the rougher cast: You reveal the cares and secret designs of the wise, by the assistance of merry Bacchus: You restore hope and spirit to anxious minds, and give horns* to the poor man, who, after tasting you, neither dreads the diadems of enraged monarchs, nor the weapons of the military. Thee, Bacchus and Venus-if she comes in good humour, and the Graces, loth tot dissolve the knot of their union, and living lights shall prolong till returning Phœbus puts the stars to flight.

ODE XXII.

TO DIANA.

He promises an annual thanksgiving for the happy delivery of his mistress.

VIRGIN, protrectress of the mountains and the groves, thou three-formed goddess, who, thrice* invoked, hearest the young women in labour, and savest them from death; sacred to thee be this pine that overshadows my villa, which I, at the completion of every year, joyful will present with the blood of a boar pig, just meditating his oblique attack.

ODE XXIII.

TO PHIDYLE.

That the blessings of the Gods are not so effectually secured by costly as by pure oblations.

My country Phidyle, if you raise your suppliant hands to heaven at the new moon, and appease the household Gods with frankincense, and this year's fruits, and a ravening swine; the fertile vine shall neither feel the pestilential southwest, nor the corn the barren blight, nor your dear brood 'the sickly season of the fruit-bearing autumnal year. For the destined victim, which is pastured in the snowy Algidum, amongst the oaks and holm trees, or thrives in the Albanian meadows, with its throat shall stain the axes of the priests. It is not required of you, who are crowning our little Gods with rosemary, and the brittle myrtle, to solicit them with a great slaughter of sheep. If an innocent hand touches the altar, a magnificent victim will not pacify the offended Penates* more acceptably than a consecrated cake and crackling salt.

ODE XXIV.

TO THE COVETOUS.

He inveighs against the vices of his age, and proposes remedies for them.

THOUGH more wealthy than the hoarded (or unrifled) treasures of the Arabians and rich India, you should possess yourself by your edifices of the whole Tyrrhenian and Apulian seas; yet, if cruel fate fixes its adamantine grapples upon the topmost roofs, you shall not disengage your mind from dread, nor your life from the snares of death. The Sycthians that dwell in the plains, whose carts, according to their custom, draw their vagrant habitations, live in a better manner, and so do the rough Getæ, whose uncircumscribed acres produce fruits and corn free to all alike, nor is a longer than annual tillage agreeable, and a successor relieves him who has accomplished his labours by an equal right. There the guiltless wife spares her motherless children-in-law, nor does the portioned spouse govern her husband, nor puts any confidence in