By some old woman in our ear

Still sounded, summons' all to bear.

To what a strait a bard were driven

The promise to perform so given!
The labouring mountain teems, no doubt;
Yet nothing but a mouse creeps out.
From such how different seems the song

Of him who is so seldom wrong.

With plainness he, that judgment seeks,
Of man's first disobedience speaks.

He fire from smoke, not smoke from fire,
Calls forth, preparing us to admire

1 Fortunam Priami cantabo et nobile bellum.
Quid dignum tanto feret hic promissor hiatu?
Parturiunt montes: nascetur ridiculus mus.
Quanto rectius hic, qui nil molitur inepte!
2 Dic mihi Musa, virum, capta post mania Troja
Qui mores hominum multorum vidit et urbes.
Non fumum ex fulgore, sed ex fumo dare lucem
Cogitat, ut speciosa dehinc miracula promat,

1

• Fair Eden's groves, for ever green,

3

2 Hell, Chaos, and Creation's scene.

Nor did he wish, in Alfred's praise, One work to reach from Egbert's days; Nor had with Uther's acts begun

To celebrate his far-famed son.

Still the main subject kept in view,

The hearer he, as if he knew
Whate'er preceded, while he sings,
Transports into the midst of things;
And slight events, appearing such
As could not please, forbears to touch.
While Truth and Fancy he combines,
So the well order'd poem shines,

2

Antiphaten, Scyllamque, et cum 3 Cyclope Cha-
rybdin.

s Nec reditum Diomedis ab interitu Meleagri,
"Nec gemino bellum Trojanum orditur ab ovo:
Semper ad eventum festinat, et in medias res,
Non secus ac notas, auditorem rapit; et quæ
Desperat tractata nitescere posse, relinquit:
Atque ita mentitur, sic veris falsa remiscet,

We find beginning, middle, end,
All to the selfsame purpose tend.

Learn what, as your allotted task,
The public, as myself, will ask,
'Would you the lounger, at your play,
'Quite to the curtain's fall delay,
'One actor seen, with archer glance,
To speak the epilogue advance.
Observant of all round you, scan

The manners of each age in man.
The boy seeks playmates of like years;
Pettish, yet placable appears.

Primo ne medium, medio ne discrepet imum.
Tu, quid ego et populus mecum desideret, audi;
'Si fautoris eges aulæa manentis, et 3 usque
Sessuri, donec cantor, vos plaudite, dicat:

Ætatis cujusque notandi sunt tibi mores, Mobilibusque decor naturis dandus et annis. Reddere qui voces jam scit puer, et pede certo Signat humum; gestit paribus colludere, et iram Colligit, ac ponit temerè, et mutatur in horas.

The youth, from tutors hardly free,

Of hounds and horses fond we see,

Or, wilder daily, in renown
For every folly of the town;
Rejecting formal, dull Advice;
Lost all he borrows in a trice;
Presumptuous, eager, and by fits
Desiring what, enjoy'd, he quits.

To one, by time more steady grown,
The value well of things is known;
He makes great friends, and only dreams
Of Interest's, and Ambition's schemes.

Imberbis juvenis, tandem custode remoto, Gaudet equis canibusque, et aprici gramine campi: Cereus in vitium flecti; monitoribus asper,

Utilium tardus provisor, prodigus æris,

Sublimis, cupidusque, et amata relinquere pernix.

Conversis studiis, ætas animusque virilis

Quærit opes et amicitias, inservit honori;

Commisisse cavet, quod mox mutare laboret.

Old men shew either a desire
As much to hoard as to acquire,
Or weakness, in a pausing will,
And constant fear of fancied ill:
Peevish and plaintive, loud in praise
Of past, and blame of present days.
Each age of blessings is possess'd,
Peculiar, and denied the rest:

You then in fiction would do wrong
O'erlooking what to one belong.

The audience either learn from one

Who speaks, or witness what is done.

Multa senem circumveniunt incommoda ; vel quod Quærit, et inventis miser abstinet, ac timet uti; Vel quod res omnes timidè gelidè que ministrat, Dilator, spe lentus, iners, pavidusque futuri; Difficilis, querulus, laudator temporis acti Se puero, censor, castigatorque minorum.

Multa ferunt anni venientes commoda secum, Multa recedentes adimunt; ne forte seniles Mandentur juveni partes, pueroque viriles. Semper in adjunctis ævoque morabimur aptis. Aut agitur res in scenis, aut acta refertur: