Ut cum fugaces excitant Horæ diem,
Themidos Jovisque filliæ;
Et sempiterni ducit ad vultus Patris :
At justa raptat impios
Sub regna furvi luctuosa Tartari,
Sedesque subterraneas."
Hanc ut vocantem lætus audivi, cito
Fœdum reliqui carcerem,
Volatilesque faustus inter milites
Ad astra sublimis feror;
Vates ut olim raptus ad cœlum senex,
Auriga currus ignei.
Non me Boötis terruere lucidi
Sarraca tarda frigore, aut
Formidolosi Scorpionis brachia;
Non ensis, Orion, tuus.
Prætervolavi fulgidi solis globum,
Longeque sub pedibus deam
Vidi triformem, dum coërcebat suos
Frænis dracones aureis.
Erraticorum siderum per ordines,
Per lacteas vehor plagas,
Velocitatem sæpe miratus novam;
Donec nitentes ad fores
Ventum est Olympi, et regiam crystallinam, et
Stratum smaragdis atrium.
Sed hic tacebo; nam quis effari queat,
Oriundus humano patre,
Amonitates illius loci? Mihi
Sat est in æternum frui.
NATURAM NON PATI SENIUM x.
HEU, quam perpetuis erroribus acta fatiscit
Avia mens hominum, tenebris immersa profundis
Edipodioniam volvit sub pectore noctem !
Quæ vesana suis metiri facta deorum
Audet, et incisas leges adamante perenni
Assimilare suis, nulloque solubile sæclo
Consilium fati perituris alligat horis !
Ergone marcescet sulcantibus obsita rugis
Naturæ facies, et rerum publica mater
Omniparum contracta uterum sterilescet ab ævo ?
Et, se fassa senem, male certis passibus ibit
Sidereum tremebunda caput? Num tetra vetustas,
Annorumque æterna fames, squalorque, situsque,
This was an academical exercise, written in 1628, to oblige one of the fellows of Christ's college, who having laid aside the levities of poetry for the gravity and solidity of prose, imposed the boyish task on Milton, now about nineteen years old.-T. WARTON.
Scen verbume! Ar et insatiabile Tempus
Isumer rejun, airtone in viscera patrem ?
ŽEL PERLINE Suns ingerudens Jupiter arces
Se much muss nefas, et Temporis isto
Tremise mu rosque dedisse perennes?
Lg er u rumdagne sono clapsa tremendo
Corest muutama rum, & que obvins ietu
Semilac marque paus, superaque ut Olympius aula
Deaux, birindisyor retera Gorgone Pallas;
Quads in Frem prides Junonia Lemnon
Derazana sa cecidis de Emine cœli ?
Ti procie. Phabe, ti casus imitabere nati ;
Predsin ma sine ferere ruina
Promos, es extiteta femalit lampade Nereus,
EAC : feralis sibila ponto.
Ime etiam aérei Evalsis sedibus Hæmi
Destilaabi spex inque alisa barathro
Termeðan Stygim dejecta Ceraunis Ditem,
In superos valbos usus erat, fraternaque bella.
A: Pater Omnipotens, fundatis fortius astris,
Consultit rerum somæ, certoque peregit
Pondere fatorum lances, atque ordine summo
Singula perpetuum jussit servare tenorem.
Volvitur hine lapsu mundi rota prima diurno;
Raptat et ambitos socia vertigine cœlos.
Tardior haud solito Saturnus, et acer ut olim
Fulmineum rutilat eristata casside Mavors.
Floridus æternum Phoebus juvenile coruscat,
Nec fovet effoetas loca per declivia terras
Devexo temone deus; sed semper amica
Luce potens, eadem currit per signa rotarum.
Surgit odoratis pariter formosus ab Indis,
Æthereum pecus albenti qui cogit Olympo,
Mane vocans, et serus agens in pascua cœli;
Temporis et gemino dispertit regna colore.
Fulget, obitque vices alterno Delia cornu,
Cæruleumque ignem paribus complectitur ulnis.
Nec variant elementa fidem, solitoque fragore
Lurida perculsas jaculantur fulmina rupes:
Nec per inane furit leviori murmure Corus,
Stringit et armiferos æquali horrore Gelonos
Trux Aquilo, spiratque hyemem, nimbosque volutat.
Utque solet, Siculi diverberat ima Pelori
Rex maris, et rauca circumstrepit æquora concha
Oceani tubicen, nec vasta mole minorem
Ægæona ferunt dorso Balearica cete.
Sed, neque, Terra, tibi sæcli vigor ille vetusti
Priscus abest, servatque suum Narcissus odorem,
Et puer ille suum tenet, et puer ille, decorem,
Phœbe, tuusque, et, Cypri, tuusy; nec ditior olim
Terra datum sceleri celavit montibus aurum
Conscia, vel sub aquis gemmas. Sic denique in ævum
Ibit cunctarum series justissima rerum ;
Donec flamma orbem populabitur ultima, late
Circumplexa polos, et vasti culmina cœli;
Ingentique rogo flagrabit machina mundi.
DE IDEA PLATONICA QUEMADMODUM ARISTOTELES INTELLEXIT 2.
DICITE, sacrorum præsides nemorum deæ ;
Tuque, O, noveni perbeata numinis
Memoria mater, quæque in immenso procul
Antro recumbis, otiosa Eternitas,
Monumenta servans, et ratas leges Jovis,
Cœlique fastos, atque ephemeridas deum;
Quis ille primus, cujus ex imagine
Natura solers finxit humanum genus,
Æternus, incorruptus, æquævus polo,
Unusque et universus, exemplar Dei?
Haud ille Palladis gemellus innubæ a
Interna proles insidet menti Jovis ;
Sed quamlibet natura sit communior,
Tamen seorsus extat ad morem unius,
Et, mira, certo stringitur spatio loci :
Seu sempiternus ille siderum comes
Coeli pererrat ordines decemplicis,
Citimumve terris incolit lunæ globum :
Sive, inter animas corpus adituras sedens,
Obliviosas torpet ad Lethes aquas:
Sive in remota forte terrarum plaga
Incedit ingens hominis archetypus gigas,
Et diis tremendus erigit celsum caput,
Atlante major portitore siderum.
Non, cui profundum cæcitas lumen dedit,
Dircæus augur vidit hunc alto sinu;
Hyacinth the favourite boy of Phœbus, Adonis of Venus : both, like Narcissus, converted into flowers.-T. WARTON.
This poem is replete with fanciful and ingenious allusions: it has also a vigour of expression, a dignity of sentiment, and elevation of thought, rarely found in very young writers.-T. WARTON.
* I find this poem inserted at full length, as a specimen of unintelligible mataphysics, in a scarce little book of universal burlesque, much in the manner of Tom Brown, seemingly published about the year 1715, and intitled "An Essay towards the Theory of the intelligible world intuitively considered."-T. WARTON.
Haud ille Palladis gemellus innubæ, &c.
"This aboriginal man, the twin-brother of the virgin Pallas, does not remain in the brain of Jupiter where he was generated; but, although partaking of man's common nature, still exists somewhere by himself, in a state of singleness and abstraction, and in a determinate place. Whether among the stars," &c.-T. WARTON.
b Tiresias of Thebes.-T. WARTON.
NUNC mea Pierios cupiam per pectora fontes
Irriguas torquere vias, totumque per ora
Volvere laxatum gemino de vertice rivum ;
Ut, tenues oblita sonos, audacibus alis
Surgat in officium venerandi Musa parentis.
Hoc utcunque tibi gratum, pater optime, carmen
Exiguum meditatur opus; nec novimus ipsi
Aptius a nobis quæ possint munera donis
Respondere tuis, quamvis nec maxima possint
Respondere tuis, nedum ut par gratia donis
Esse queat, vacuis quæ redditur arida verbis.
Sed tamen hæc nostros ostendit pagina census,
Et quod habemus opum charta numeravimus ista,
Quæ mihi sunt nullæ, nisi quas dedit aurea Clio,
Quas mihi semoto somni peperere sub antro,
Et nemoris laureta sacri Parnassides umbræ.
Nec tu vatis opus divinum despice carmen,
d Non hunc sacerdos novit Assyrius. Sanchoniathon, the eldest of the profane historians.-T. WARTON.
e Trino gloriosus nomine,
Hermes Trismegistus, an Egyptian philosopher, who lived soon after Moses, as Mr. Warton observes: "Thrice-great Hermes,"" Il Pens." v. 88.
called, because he was a philosopher, a priest, and a king.—TODD.
At tu, perenne ruris Academi decus, &c.
"You, Plato, who expelled the poets from your republic, must now bid them return," &c. Plato and his followers communicated their notions by emblems, fables, symbols, parables, allegories, and a variety of mystical representations.-T. WARTON.
According to Aubrey's manuscript "Life of Milton," Milton's father, although a scrivener, was not apprenticed to that trade; he says he was bred a scholar, and of Christchurch Oxford, and that he took to trade in consequence of being disinherited: Milton was therefore writing to his father in a language which he understood. Aubrey adds, that he was very ingenious, and delighted in music, in which he instructed his son John: that he died about 1647, and was interred in Cripplegate-church, from his house in Barbican.
Quo nihil æthereos ortus, et semina cœli,
Nil magis humanam commendat origine mentem,
Sancta Promethëæ retinens vestigia flammæ.
Carmen amant superi, tremebundaque Tartara carmen
Ima ciere valet, divosque ligare profundos,
Et triplici duro Manes adamante coercet.
Carmine sepositi retegunt arcana futuri
Phoebades", et tremulæ pallentes ora Sibyllæ :
Carmina sacrificus sollennes pangit ad aras;
Aurea seu sternit motantem cornua taurum ;
Seu cum fata sagax fumantibus abdita fibris
Consulit, et tepidis Parcam scrutatur in extis.
Nos etiam, patrium tunc cum repetemus Olympum,
Æternæque moræ stabunt immobilis ævi,
Ibimus auratis per cœli templa coronis ;
Dulcia suaviloquo sociantes carmina plectro,
Astra quibus, geminique poli convexa, sonabunt.
Spiritus et rapidos qui circinat igneus orbes,
Nunc quoque sidereis intercinit ipse choreis
Immortale melos, et inenarrabile carmen ;
Torrida dum rutilus compescit sibila Serpens,
Demissoque ferox gladio mansuescit Orion;
Stellarum nec sentit onus Maurusius Atlas.
Carmina regales epulas ornare solebant,
Cum nondum luxus, vastæque immensa vorago
Nota gulæ, et modico spumabat cœna Lyæo,
Tum, de more sedens festa ad convivia vates,
Esculea intonsos redimitus ab arbore crines,
Heroumque actus, imitandaque gesta canebat,
Et chaos, et positi late fundamina mundi,
Reptantesque deos, et alentes numina glandes,
Et nondum Ætnæo quæsitum fulmen ab antro.
Denique quid vocis modulamen inane juvabit,
Verborum sensusque vacans, numerique loquacis ?
Silvestres decet iste choros, non Orphea, cantus,
Qui tenuit fluvios, et quercubus addidit aures,
Carmine, non cithara; simulacraque functa canendo
Compulit in lacrymas: habet has a carmine laudes.
Nec tu perge, precor, sacras contemnere Musas,
Nec vanas inopesque puta, quarum ipse peritus
Munere, mille sonos numeros componis ad aptos;
Millibus et vocem modulis variare canoram
Doctus, Arionii merito sis nominis hæres.
Nunc tibi quid mirum, si me genuisse poetam
The priestesses of Apollo's temple at Delphi, who always delivered their oracles in verse. -T. WARTON.
Such productions of true genius, with a natural and noble consciousness anticipating its own immortality, are seldom found to fail.-T. WARTON.
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