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 saved a land or bless'd a throne, Since first thy beams were spread, or genial power was known.
So may thy godhead be confess'd, So the returning year be bless'd, 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.
1 Intended to be sung at court on New Year's Day, 1694.
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 our Delos' hill confess'd, With all thy arrows arm'd, in all thy glory dress'd. Like thee, the hero does his arms employ
The raging Python to destroy,
And give the injured 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 saved 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
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 Heaven diffuse;
That great Maria all those joys may know Which, from her cares, upon her subjects flow.
For thy own glory sing our sovereign'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 power, And touch thy lyre, and shoot thy beams no more.
FIRST HYMN OF CALLIMACHUS.
WHILE we to Jove select the holy victim, Whom apter shall we sing than Jove himself, The god for ever great, for ever king, Who slew the earth-born race, and measures right To Heaven's great 'habitants? Dictæan hear'st More joyful, or Lycæan, long dispute [thou And various thought has traced. On Ida's mount, Or Dictæ, studious of his country's praise, The Cretan boasts thy natal place; but oft He meets reproof deserved: for he, presumptuous, Has built a tomb for thee who never know'st To die, but livest the same to-day and ever. Arcadian therefore be thy birth: great Rhea, Pregnant, to high Parrhasia's cliffs retired, And wild Lycæus, black with shading pines; Holy retreat! sithence no female hither, Conscious of social love and Nature's rites, Must dare approach, from the inferior reptile To woman, form divine. There the bless'd parent Ungirt her spacious bosom, and discharged The pondrous birth: she sought a neighbouring spring
To wash the recent babe: in vain: Arcadia, (However streamy now) adust and dry, Denied the goddess water; where deep Melas And rocky Cratis flow, the chariot smoked Obscure with rising dust: the thirsty traveller
In vain required the current, then imprison'd In subterranean caverns: forests grew Upon the barren hollows, high o'ershading The haunts of savage beasts, where now Iaon And Erimanth incline their friendly urns.
'Thou, too, O Earth, (great Rhea said) bring forth, And short shall be thy pangs.' She said, and high She rear'd her arm, and with her sceptre struck The yawning cliff: from its disparted height Adown the mount the gushing torrent ran, And cheer'd the valleys: there the heavenly mother Bathed, mighty King, thy tender limbs; she wrapp'd them
In purple bands: she gave the precious pledge To prudent Neda, charging her to guard thee Careful and secret: Neda, of the nymphs That tended the great birth, next Philyré And Styx, the eldest. Smiling she received thee, And conscious of the grace, absolved her trust; Not unrewarded, since the river bore
The favourite virgin's name : fair Neda rolls By Leprion's ancient walls, a fruitful stream: Fast by her flowery bank the sons of Arcas, Favourites of heaven, with happy care protect Their fleecy charge, and joyous drink her wave. Thee, god, to Gnossus Neda brought: the Nymphs
And Corybantes thee their sacred charge Received: Adrasté rock'd thy golden cradle. The Goat, now bright amidst her fellow-stars, Kind Amalthea, reach'd her teat distent With milk, thy early food: the sedulous bee Distill'd her honey on thy purple lips. Around, the fierce Curetes (order solemn
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