CARMEN III. AD NAVEM, qua VIRGILIUS ATHENAS proficifcens vehebatur. Virgilio fauftam navigationem precatur Horatius, et impiam hominum audaciam infectatur. IC te Diva potens Cypri, Sic fratres Helenæ, lucida fidera, Ventorumque regat pater, Obftrictis aliis, præter Iapyga, Navis, quæ tibi creditum Debes Virgilium; finibus Atticis Reddas incolumem, precor, Et ferves animæ dimidium mes. Illi robur et æs triplex Circa pectus erat, qui fragilem truci Commifit pelago ratem Primus, nec timuit præcipitem Africum Decertantem Aquilonibus, Nec triftes Hyadas, nec rabiem Noti; Quo non arbiter Adriæ Major, tollere feu ponere vult freta. Qui ficcis oculis monftra natantia, Retis. Bent. Fixis, Sanad. Nequicquam O DE III. To the SHIP, in which VIRGIL was about to fail to ATHENS. Horace wifhes Virgil a good voyage, and inveighs against the impious boldness of mankind. So may the powerful Cyprian Goddefs; fo may the bright ftars, the brothers of Helen; and fo may the father of the winds, confining all except Iapix †, direct thee, O Ship, who art intrufted with Virgil: my prayer is, that thou may land him fafe on the Athenian fhore, and preferve the half of my foul. Sure oak and threefold brafs furrounded his heart, who first trusted a frail veffel to the mercilefs ocean, nor was afraid of the impetuous African wind contending with the Northern ftorms, nor of the mournful Hyades, nor of the rage of the South-weft wind, than which there is not a more abfolute controller of the Adriatic, to either raife, or to affuage its waves at pleasure. What form of death could terrify him, who beheld unmoved the rolling monfters of the deep; who beheld unmoved the tempeftuous fwelling of the fea, and the Acroceraunians---infamous rocks! Caftor and Pollux. † A weßterly wind. Nequicquam Deus abfcidit Prudens Oceano diffociabili Terras, fi tamen impiæ Non tangenda rates tranfiliunt vada. Audax omnia perpeti Gens humana ruit per vetitum * nefas. Audax Iapeti genus Ignem fraude mala gentibus intulit: 25 Poft ignem ætheria domo Nil mortalibus arduum † eft. Cœlum ipfum petimus ftultitia; neque Per noftrum patimur fcelus Iracunda Jovem ponere fulmina, CARMEN IV. AD SESTIUM. 40 In vain hath God in his wifdom divided the countries of the earth by the feparating ocean, if notwithstanding profane fhips bound over waters which ought not to be violated, The race of man prefumptuous enough to fupport every thing, rushes on thro' forbidden wickednefs*. The prefumptuous fon of Iapetust by an impious fraud brought down fire into the world: After fire was thus ftolen from the celestial manfions, confumption, and a new train of fevers fettled upon the earth; and the flow approaching neceffity of death, which till now was remote, accelerated its pace. Dædalus effayed the empty air with wings not defigned for men: The labour of Hercules broke through Acheron. There is nothing too arduous for mortals to attempt. We aim at heaven itself through folly §; neither do we fuffer by our wickednefs Jupiter to lay afide his revengeful thunderbolts. O DE IV. To SESTIUS. He exhorts him to pleafure, on the confiderations of the approach of fpring, and the brevity of life. SEVERE winter the spring and the weftern EVERE winter is relaxed by the agreeable. breeze; and engines haul from fore the dry fhips: VOL. I. C And Or if, with Hemelius and Senad, we read upon the authority of an ancient M. S. vetitum et nefas---breaks through all human and divine laws. Ac neque jam ftabulis gaudet pecus, aut arator igni; Nec prata canis albicant pruinis. Jam Cytherea choros ducit Venus, imminente luna: ་ Junctæque Nymphis Gratiæ decentes 5 Alterno terram quatiunt pede; dum graves Cy clopum Vulcanus ardens urit * officinas. Nunc decet aut viridi nitidum caput impedire myrto, Aut flore, terræ quem ferunt folutæ. 10 Nunc et in umbrofis Fauno decet immolare lucis, Vitæ fumma brevis fpem nos vetat inchoare longam. Et domus exilis Plutonia: quo fimul mearis, 16 Nec tenerum Lycidam mirabere, quo calet juventus Nunc omnis, et mox virgines tepebunt CARMEN V. AD PYRRHAM, Miferos effe qui illius amore teneantur : fe ex eo, tanquam è naufragio, enatale, |