Whate'er we take, as soon we lose
In Homer's riddle and in life.

So, whilst in feverish sleeps we think
We taste what waking we desire,
The dream is better than the drink,
Which only feeds the sickly fire.

To the mind's eye things well appear, At distance through an artful glass; Bring but the flattering objects near, They're all a senseless gloomy mass.

Seeing aright, we see our woes:
Then what avails it to have eyes?
From ignorance our comfort flows,
The only wretched are the wise.

We wearied should lie down in death, This cheat of life would take no more; If you thought fame but stinking breath, And Phyllis but a perjur'd whore.

HYMN TO THE SUN.

SET BY DR. PURCELL,

AND INTENDED TO BE SUNG BEFORE THEIR MAJESTIES ON
NEW-YEAR'S DAY, 1693-4. WRITTEN AT THE HAGUE.

LIGHT of the world, and ruler of the year,
With happy speed begin thy great career;
And, as thou dost thy radiant journeys run,
Through every distant climate own,

That in fair Albion thou hast seen

The greatest prince, the brightest queen, That ever sav'd a land, or blest a throne, Since first thy beams were spread, or genial power was known.

So may thy godhead be confest,
So the returning year be blest,
As his infant months bestow
Springing wreaths for William's brow;
As his summer's youth shall shed
Eternal sweets around Maria's head:
From the blessings they bestow,

Our times are dated, and our eras move:
They govern and enlighten all below,

As thou dost all above.

Let our hero in the war

Active and fierce, like thee, appear:
Like thee, great son of Jove, like thee,
When clad in rising majesty,

Thou marchest down o'er Delos' hills confest,

With all thy arrows arm'd, in all thy glory drest. Like thee, the hero does his arms employ,

The raging Python to destroy,

And give the injur'd nations peace and joy.

From fairest years, and Time's more happy stores,
Gather all the smiling hours;

Such as with friendly care have guarded
Patriots and kings in rightful wars;
Such as with conquest have rewarded
Triumphant victors' happy cares:
Such as story has recorded

Sacred to Nassau's long renown,
For countries sav'd, and battles won.

March them again in fair array,
And bid them form the happy day,
The happy day design'd to wait
On William's fame, and Europe's fate.
Let the happy day be crown'd
With great event, and fair success;

No brighter in the year be found,
But that which brings the victor home in peace.

Again thy godhead we implore,

Great in wisdom as in power;
Again, for good Maria's sake, and ours,
Choose out other smiling hours;
Such as with joyous wings have fled,

When happy counsels were advising;

Such as have lucky omens shed

O'er forming laws, and empires rising;
Such as many courses ran,
Hand in hand, a goodly train,

To bless the great Eliza's reign;
And in the typic glory show,
What fuller bliss Maria shall bestow.

As the solemn hours advance,
Mingled send into the dance
Many fraught with all the treasures,
Which thy eastern travel views;
Many wing'd with all the pleasures,

Man can ask, or Heav'n diffuse :

That great Maria all those joys may know, Which, from her cares, upon her subjects flow.

For thy own glory sing our sov'reign's praise, God of verses and of days:

Let all thy tuneful sons adorn

Their lasting work with William's name;
Let chosen Muses yet unborn

Take great Maria for their future theme:
Eternal structures let them raise,
On William's and Maria's praise:
Nor want new subject for the song,

Nor fear they can exhaust the store,
Till Nature's music lies unstrung,

Till thou, great God, shalt lose thy double pow'r,
And touch thy lyre, and shoot thy beams no more.

THE LADY'S LOOKING-GLASS.1

IN IMITATION OF A GREEK IDYLLIUM.

CELIA and I the other day

Walk'd o'er the sand-hills to the sea:
The setting sun adorn'd the coast,
His beams entire, his fierceness lost:
And on the surface of the deep,
The winds lay only not asleep :
The nymph did like the scene appear,
Serenely pleasant, calmly fair:
Soft fell her words, as flew the air.
With secret joy I heard her say,

That she would never miss one day
A walk so fine, a sight so gay.

But, oh the change! the winds grow high;
Impending tempests charge the sky;

1 See Longinus's comparison of the Odyssey to the Setting Sun. Ed. Pearce, 8vo. p. 56.

"Whether Prior had the latter words in view, one cannot say; but it is difficult to conceive how the same image could be more accurately or forcibly transferred from one language to another. That lively and most agreeable writer was very fond of copying from the Grecian school, but always in such a manner as to show the master, where he even meant to imitate, of which this little poem is a beautiful instance: the learned will easily trace in the Looking-Glass of Prior the Poet and his Muse (as it may be inscribed) of Moschus. CAPRICE is the general subject of both poems, and many images of the latter are transplanted into the former." Note to Eunomus, 1774, vol. iv. p. 108.