And P still to vice unknown, unchanged by art,
His be the guiltless hand, the guileless heart;
Pure as, with lustral stream and snowy vest,
The priests of Jove his lifted bolt arrest.
'Twas thus the sightless seer Tiresias fared;
And Linus thus his frugal meal prepared:
Such the repasts prophetic Calchas knew;
And he, whose lyre the list'ning tigers drew.
On food like this immortal Homer fed,

Whose Muse from Troy the ten years' wanderer led ;
Safely through Circe's wizard halls convey'd,

Safely through seas where wily Sirens play'd,
Safely through death's dark waste, and dreariest hell,
Where thronging phantoms linger'd at his spell.
For shielding Gods the bard, their priest, surround,
Jove swells his breast, his accents Jove resound.

"I was confirmed in the opinion that he, who would not be frustrated of his hope to write well hereafter in laudable things, ought himself to be a true poem, that is, a composition and pattern of the best and honourablest things, not presuming to sing the high praises of heroic men or famous cities, unless he has in himself the experience and the practice of all that is praise-worthy." Apol. for Smect.-P. W. i. 224.

As the reader may be desirous of seeing the whole of this pleasing elegy, I subjoin in this place the first and the last twelve lines, which, not being immediately to my purpose, I omitted in the body of the work. The translation is by Mr. Wrangham.

AD CAROLUM DEODATUM RURI

COMMORANTEM.

Mitto tibi sanam, non pleno ventre, salutem;
Quâ tu distento forte carere potes.

At tua quid nostram prolectat Musa camœnam,
Nec sinit optatas posse sequi tenebras ?

Carmine scire velis quam te redamemque, colamque?

While Milton's occupation, as a teacher,

Crede mihi vix hoc carmine scire queas.
Nam neque noster amor modulis includitur arctis,
Nec venit ad claudos integer ipse pedes.
Quam bene solennes epulas, hilaremque decembrem,
Festaque califugam quæ coluere Deum:
Deliciasque refers, hiberni gaudia ruris,
Haustaque per lepidos Gallica musta focos?

Light and unfever'd with excess, I send
Health, haply wanted, to my feasting friend.
But why with song provoke my lingering lay,
And drag the unwilling scribbler into day?

Would'st thou from verse my ardent friendship know?
'Tis not in verse a flame so pure to show.

Ah! not to scanted strains, and halting song,
The powers to grasp my perfect love belong.
The Christmas glee, December's mirthful board;
And fabled Saturn's revelry restored:

The circling glass, the winter's joyous blaze,
How passing well thy jovial muse displays!
Then why of wine's, &c.

At tu siquid agam scitabere, (si modo saltem
Esse putas tanti noscere siquid agam,)
Paciferum canimus cœlesti semine regem,
Faustaque sacratis sæcula pacta libris;
Vagitumque Dei, et stabulantem paupere tecto
Qui suprema suo cum patre regna colit;
Stelliparumque polum, modulantesque æthere turmas,
Et subito elisos ad sua fana Deos.

Dona quidem dedimus Christi natalibus illa,
Illa sub auroram lux mihi prima tulit.

Te quoque pressa manent patriis meditata cicutis,
Tu mihi, cui recitem, judicis instar eris.

But thou, should interest, kind or curious, bend,
Anxious to ask what toils employ thy friend;

preserved his familiarity with many of the
Roman and Greek authors, and was conse-
quently not without its use to him, it was
not permitted to interfere with what he con-
ceived to be his duties as a citizen, and with
that patriotic object which had recalled him
from the shores of Sicily and Greece. De-
termined, from his first acquaintance with the
struggles of his country, to devote himself to
her service, he did not hesitate with respect
Know that the Son of heaven's eternal King,
By holy sages sung, he dares to sing;
All meanly wrapt in the rude manger laid,
The infant-Godhead, and his mother-maid:
Harping in solemn quire, the cherubs helm'd,

And new born stars, and fanes with their dumb idols
whelm'd.

A solemn tribute on his natal day,

Or ere the point of dawn I framed the lay.
And thee, my friend, awaits the English strain:
Thy critic ear shall judge, nor I recite in vain.

The reader need not be informed that, in these lines, Milton alludes to his ode on Christ's nativity. The expressions, in italics, are borrowed from this ode.

This excellent translation Mr. Hayley has prudently omitted to notice when he published Mr. Cowper's version of the same elegy. Mr. H. was aware, no doubt, that any comparison of the two productions would not be in favour of his friend's, and therefore, with more judgment than candour he suppressed all reference to the superior composition.

Of Mr. Cowper's translations, which have lately been published, that of Francini's Italian Ode is unquestionably the best. With respect to the rest, it cannot with truth be said that any of them rise above mediocrity.

Con

to the part in which he was to act. scious of his own proper strength, and sensible that genius armed with knowledge was a power of far greater and more extensive efficiency than the bodily force of any individual, he decided in favour of the pen against the sword; and stationed himself in the closet, where he was himself an host, rather than in the field, where every muscular private man would be his superior, This is substantially the account which we have from himself; and the motives of his conduct must obtain our approbation as honourable and wise.'

The Long Parliament was now assembled as the representative of a nation, irritated and alarmed by very flagrant abuses of power

"Atque illi quidem, Deo perinde confisi, servitutem honestissimis armis pepulere: cujus laudis etsi nullam partem mihi vindico, à reprehensione tamen vel timiditatis vel ignaviæ, siqua infertur, facilè me tueor. Neque enim militiæ labores et pericula sic defugi, ut non alia ratione et operam multò utiliorem nec minore cum periculo meis civibus navarim, et animum dubiis in rebus neque demissum unquam, neque ullius invidiæ vel etiam mortis plus æquo metuentem præstiterim. Nam cùm ab adolescentulo humanioribus essem studiis ut qui maximè deditus, et ingenio semper quàm corpore validior, posthabitâ castrensi operâ, qua me gregarius quilibet robustior facilè superasset, ad ea me contuli quibus plus potui; ut parte mei meliore ac potiore, si saperem, non deteriore, ad rationes patriæ, causamque hanc præstantissimam quantum maximè possem momentum accederem."

in the civil and in the ecclesiastical department. The king's violent conduct to his four former parliaments, with his unrelenting imprisonment of their members, one of whom had died under the length and rigours of the confinement; his violent attempts to govern by prerogative alone; his arbitrary exactions in violation of all law, and the severe sentences, with which his council and his courts abetted and enforced his injudicious despotism, had alienated all the orders of the com

"Relying on the assistance of God, they indeed repelled servitude with the most justifiable war; and though I claim no share of their peculiar praise, I can easily defend myself against the charge, (if any charge of that nature should be brought against me,) of timidity or of indolence. For I did not for any other reason decline the toils and the dangers of war than that I might in another way, with much more efficacy and with not less danger to myself, render assistance to my countrymen, and discover a mind neither shrinking from adverse fortune, nor actuated by any improper fear of calumny or of death. Since from my childhood I had been devoted to the more liberal studies and was always more powerful in my intellect than in my body, avoiding the labours of the camp, in which any robust common soldier might easily have surpassed me, I betook myself to those weapons which I could wield with the most effect; and I conceived that I was acting wisely when I thus brought my better and more valuable faculties, those which constituted my principal strength and consequence, to the assistance of my country and her most honourable cause." Def. Sec. P. W. v. 199.

A very accurate and circumstantial history of England, by various authors, (a second edition of which was published in two