To comfort the afflicted;
Solicitous for the poor,
And rich in store of alms:
Whereby she became
The delight, the love, the blessing, of all.
In her household flourished
Cheerfulness, due order, thrift, and plenty.
In the closet retired,
In the temple public.
Morning and evening did she worship;
By instruction, by example,
Sedulous to nurture her children in godliness: So prevalent her love to them, Visited with that sore disease, Which too often kills or blights The mother's fondest hopes, That (regardless of self-preservation) In piously watching over their lives, She, catching the infection, lost her own, Triumphing, through resignation, Over sickness, pain, anguish, agony, And (encompassed with tears and lamentations) Expiring in the fervour of prayer.
To the Memory, ever dear and precious, of his most affectionate, most beloved, and most deserving wife, is this monument raised by Henry Vernon, of Hilton, in the county of Stafford, Esq. To him she bore five sons and two daughters, all surviving, save Elizabeth; who, dying in her second year of the small-pox, some few days before, resteth by her mother.
FAR northward as the Dane extends his
Where the sun glances but a sloping ray,
Beneath the sharpest rigour of the skies,
Disdainful Thule's wintry island lies.
Unhappy maid! thy tale, forgotten long,
Shall virgins learn from my instructive song,
And every youth, who lingers in despair,
By thy example warn the cruel fair.
In Cyprus, sacred to the queen of love,
(Where stands her temple, and her myrtle grove,)
Was Thule born, uncertain how: 'tis said
Once Venus won Adonis to her bed,
And pregnant grew, the birth to chance assign'd,
In woods, and foster'd by the feather'd kind.
With flowers some strew the helpless orphan round,
With downy moss some spread the carpet ground,
Some ripen'd fruits, some fragrant honey, bring;
And some fetch water from the running spring;
While others warble from the boughs, to cheer
Their infant-charge, and tune her tender ear.
Soon as the sun forsakes the evening skies,
And hid in shades the gloomy forest lies,
The nightingales their tuneful vigils keep,
And lull her, with their gentler strains, to sleep.
This the prevailing rumour: as she grew,
No dubious tokens spoke the rumour true.
In every forming feature might be seen
Some bright resemblance of the Cyprian queen:
Nor was it hard the hunter youth to trace,
In all her early passion of the chase:
And when, on springing flowers reclined, she sung,
The birds upon the bending branches hung,
While, warbling, she express'd their various strains,
And, at a distance, charm'd the listening swains:
So sweet her voice resounding through the wood,
They thought the nymph some Syren from the flood.
Half human thus by lineage, half divine,
In forests did the lonely beauty shine,
Like woodland flowerswhich paint the desert glades
And waste their sweets in unfrequented shades.
No human face she saw, and rarely seen
By human face: a solitary queen
She ruled, and ranged, her shady empire round.
No horn the silent huntress bears; no hound,
With noisy cry, disturbs her solemn chase,
Swift, as the bounding stag, she wings her pace:
And, bend whene'er she will her ebon bow,
A speedy death arrests the flying foe.
The bow the hunting goddess first supplied,
And ivory quiver cross her shoulders tied.
The' imperious queen of Heaven, with jealous Beholds the blooming virgin from the skies, [eyes, At once admires, and dreads her growing charms, And sees the god already in her arms:
In vain, she finds, her bitter tongue reproves
His broken vows, and his clandestine loves:
Jove still continues frail: and all in vain
Does Thule in obscurest shades remain,
While Maja's son, the thunderer's winged spy,
Informs him where the lurking beauties lie.
What sure expedient then shall Juno find,
To calm her fears, and ease her boding mind?
Delays to jealous minds a torment prove;
And Thule ripens every day for love.
She mounts her car, and shakes the silken reins; The harness'd peacocks spread their painted trains,
And smooth their glossy necks against the sun:
The wheels along the level azure run,
Eastward the goddess guides her gaudy team,
And perfects, as she rides, her forming scheme.
The various orbs now pass'd, adown the steep
Of heaven the chariot whirls, and plunges deep
In fleecy clouds, which o'er the midland main
Hang poised in air, to bless the isles with rain:
And here the panting birds repose a while:
Nor so their queen; she gains the Cyprian isle,
By speedy Zephyrs borne in thicken'd air:
Unseen she seeks, unseen she finds, the fair.
Now o'er the mountain tops the rising sun
Shot purple rays: now Thule had begun
Her morning chase, and printed in the dews
Her fleeting steps. The goddess now pursues,
Now overtakes her in her full career,
And flings a javelin at the flying deer.
Amazed, the virgin huntress turns her eyes;
When Juno (now Diana in disguise),
Let no vain terrors discompose thy mind;
My second visit, like my first, is kind.
Thy ivory quiver, and thy ebon bow,
Did not I give?-Here sudden blushes glow
On Thule's cheeks: her busy eyes survey
The dress, the crescent; and her doubts give way.
'I own thee, goddess bright, (the nymph replies)
Goddess, I own thee, and thy favours prize:
Goddess of woods, and lawns, and level plains,
Fresh in my mind thine image still remains.'
Then Juno, Beauteous ranger of the grove,
My darling care, fair object of my love,
Hither I come, urged by no trivial fears,
To guard thy bloom, and warn thy tender years."
THE FIRST OLYMPIONIQUE OF PINDAR. TO HIERO OF SYRACUSE,
VICTORIOUS IN THE HORSE-RACE.
The poet praises Hiero for his justice, his wisdom, and his skill in music. He likewise celebrates the horse that won the race, and the place where the Olympic games were performed. From the place (namely Peloponnesus) he takes an occasion of digressing to the known fable of Tantalus and Pelops; whence, returning to Hiero, he sets forth the felicity of the Olympian victors. Then he concludes, by praying to the gods to preserve the glory and dignity of Hiero, admonishing him to moderation of mind, in his high station; and lastly, glories in his own excellency in compositions of this kind.
STROPHE I. Measures 18.
EACH element to water yields;
And gold, like blazing fire by night,
Amidst the stores of wealth that builds
The mind aloft, is eminently bright:
But if, my soul, with fond desire
To sing of games thou dost aspire,
As thou by day canst not descry,
Through all the liquid waste of sky,
One burnish'd star, that like the sun does glow,
And cherish every thing below,
So, my sweet soul, no toil divine,
In song, does like the' Olympian shine:
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