The good Æneas, Ancus, and rich Tullus be,

No more than dust and shade are we!

Who knows if Heaven will to the sum of this day give
To-morrow's hours to thee to live ?

All will escape the greedy fingers of a grasping heir
Thou hast given to thine own soul dear :

When once thou'rt dead, and Minos hath pronounced on thee
Judgment in all its majesty,

Not thy descent, nor eloquence, Torquatus, nor
Thy piety shall thee restore:

For even Dian frees not chaste Hippolytus
From gloom of nether Tartarus,

Nor yet is Theseus able Lethe's chains to tear
From off Pirithous, though dear.

LIBER IV. CARMEN VIII.

Donarem pateras grataque commodus,
Censorine, meis aera sodalibus,
Donarem tripodas, praemia fortium
Graiorum, neque tu pessima munerum
Ferres, divite me scilicet artium

Quas aut Parrhasius protulit aut Scopas,
Hic saxo, liquidis ille coloribus
Sollers nunc hominem ponere, nunc deum.
Sed non haec mihi vis, nec tibi talium
Res est aut animus deliciarum egens.
Gaudes carminibus; carmina possumus
Donare et pretium dicere muneri.
Non incisa notis marmora publicis,
Per quae spiritus et vita redit bonis.

BOOK IV. ODE VIII.

Gifts of goblets and bronzes I fain would bestow
With liberal hand on the friends whom I know-
Gifts of tripods, the prizes in Greece of the brave-
Nor should'st thou, Censorinus, the worst present have,
If forsooth I were rich in the arts first made known
By Parrhasius and Scopas, who this one in stone,
By soft colours that one, with wonderful merit,
Now fashioned a man, and now the great Spirit.
But this power I have not; nor do thy affairs
Nor thy spirit require such delicate wares;
Thou delightest in song, and song we have power
To bestow, and the value to fix of the dower :
Not marbles engraved with inscriptions of State,
Which restore life and breath to good captains and great

Post mortem ducions, un celeres áræ.
Bejentaente retrorem Hannibals mine.
Non Seenda Carthaginis

Ejna, qui domina nomen ab Aft
Lucrsons redis, clarine indiens
Landes quam Calabrae Pierides: neque,
Si carta flleant quod bene feceris,
Mercedem tuleria. Quid foret Ilise
Mavortisque puer, si taciturnitas
Obetaret meritis invida Romuli?
Ereptum Stygiis fuctibus Eacum
Virtus et favor et lingua potentium
Vatum divitibus consecrat insulis.
Dignum laude virum Musa vetat mori,
Caelo Musa beat. Sic Jovis interest
Optatis epulis impiger Hercules,
Clarum Tyndaridae sidus ab infimis
Quassas eripiunt aequoribus rates,
Ornatus viridi tempora pampino
Liber vota bonos ducit ad exitus.

When death overtakes them, nor yet the swift flight,
When Hannibal's threats were flung back on the wight,
Not impious Carthage, lit up in a blaze,

Point out with more clearness his glorious praise,
Who from Africa conquered obtained him a name,
Than the Muse of the man of Calabrian fame.
If parchments were silent of deeds bravely done,
No meed wouldst thou bear. Where had been the son

Of Ilia and Mavors, had silence withstood

With its envy the King whose deserts were so good? Was Eacus snatched from the Stygian wave?

'Tis the virtue, the favour, the tongue strong to save, Of bards which enshrine in the isles of the blest;

'Tis the Muses forbid him to die like the rest, Who is worthy of praise; 'tis the Muses bestow

A blessing in Heaven; brave Hercules so

Hath a place at Jove's feast which he yearned for below;

It is so that the bright star, the Tyndaridae,

The shattered bark rescues from depths of the sea;
It is so, the green vine-leaf adorning his brow,

That Liber conducts to good issues the vow.