Who, like a gentle scion newly started out,
From Syracusa's side dost sprout!
Thee first my song does greet,
With numbers smooth and fleet
As thine own horses' airy feet,

When they young Chromius' chariot drew,
And o'er the Nemæan race triumphant flew.
Jove will approve my song and me;
Jove is concern'd in Nemea, and in thee.

With Jove my song; this happy man,
Young Chromius, too, with Jove began;
From hence came his success,

Nor ought he therefore like it less,
Since the best fame is that of happiness;
For whom should we esteem above

The men whom Gods do love?

"T is them alone the Muse too does approve.
Lo! how it makes this victory shine
O'er all the fruitful isle of Proserpine!
The torches which the mother brought
When the ravish'd maid she sought,
Appear'd not half so bright,

But cast a weaker light,

Through earth, and air, and seas, and up to th' heavenly vault.

"To thee, O Proserpine! this isle I give,"

Said Jove, and, as he said,

Smil'd, and bent his gracious head.

"And thou, O isle!" said he, " for ever thrive, "And keep the value of our gift alive!

"As Heaven with stars, so let

"The country thick with towns be set,

"And numberless as stars!

"Let all the towns be then

"Wise in peace, and bold in wars! "Of thousand glorious towns the nation, "Of thousand glorious men each town a constella"tion!

"Nor let their warlike laurel scorn "With the Olympick olive to be worn, "Whose gentler honours do so well the brows of 66 peace adorn!"

Go to great Syracuse, my Muse, and wait
At Chromius' hospitable gate;

'T will open wide to let thee in,

When thy lyre's voice shall but begin;
Joy, plenty, and free welcome, dwells within.
The Tyrian beds thou shalt find ready drest,
The ivory table crowded with a feast:
The table which is free for every guest,
No doubt will thee admit,

And feast more upon thee, than thou on it.
Chromius and thou art met aright,

For, as by nature thou dost write,

So he by nature loves, and does by nature fight.

Nature herself, whilst in the womb he was,

Sow'd strength and beauty through the forming

mass;

They mov'd the vital lump in every part,

And carv'd the members out with wondrous art.
She fill'd his mind with courage, and with wit,
And a vast bounty, apt and fit

For the great dower which Fortune made to it
"T is madness sure treasures to hoard,
And make them useless, as in mines, remain,
To lose th' occasion Fortune does afford
Fame and publick love to gain:
Ev'n for self-concerning ends,

"T is wiser much to hoard-up friends. Though happy men the present goods possess, Th' unhappy have their share in future hopes no less.

How early has young Chromius begun
The race of virtue, and how swiftly run,
And borne the noble prize away,

Whilst other youths yet at the barriers stay!
None but Alcides e'er set earlier forth than he:
The God, his father's, blood nought could restrain,
'T was ripe at first, and did disdain

The slow advance of dull humanity.

The big-limb'd babe in his huge cradle lay,
Too weighty to be rock'd by nurses' hands,
Wrapt in purple swadling-bands;

When, lo! by jealous Juno's fierce commands,
Two dreadful serpents come,

Rolling and hissing loud, into the room;

To the bold babe they trace their bidden way; Forth from their flaming eyes dread lightnings went, Their gaping mouths did forked tongues, like thunder-bolts, present.

Some of th' amazed women dropp'd down dead
With fear, some wildly fled

About the room, some into corners crept,
Where silently they shook and wept :

All naked from her bed the passionate mother leap'd,
To save or perish with her child;

She trembled, and she cry'd; the mighty infant smil'd:

The mighty infant seem'd well pleas'd

At his gay gilded foes;

And, as their spotted necks up to the cradle rose,
With his young warlike hands on both he seiz'd;
In vain they rag'd, in vain they hiss'd,
In vain their armed tails they twist,

And angry circles cast about;

Black blood, and fiery breath, and poisonous soul, he squeezes out!

With their drawn swords

In ran Amphitryo and the Theban lords;
With doubting wonder, and with troubled joy,
They saw the conquering boy

Laugh, and point downwards to his prey,

Where, in death's pangs and their own gore, they

folding lay.

When wise Tiresias this beginning knew,
He told with ease the things t'ensue;
From what monsters he should free
The earth, the air, and sea;

What mighty tyrants he should slay,
Greater monsters far than they;

How much at Phlægra's field the distrest Gods should owe

To their great offspring here below;

And how his club should there outdo Apollo's silver bow, and his own father's thunder too.

And that the grateful Gods, at last,

The race of his laborious virtue past,

Heaven, which he sav'd, should to him give; Where, marry'd to eternal youth, he should for ever live;

Drink nectar with the Gods, and all his senses please In their harmonious, golden palaces;

Walk with ineffable delight

Through the thick groves of never-withering light, And, as he walks, affright

The lion and the bear,

Bull, centaur, scorpion, all the radiant monsters

there.