And two to thee, and two to Phoebus rise;

On both is offer'd annual sacrifice.

The holy priests, at each returning year,

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Two bowls of milk, and two of oil, shall bear;

And I myself the guests with friendly bowls will cheer. Two goblets will I crown with sparkling wine,

The gen'rous vintage of the Chian vine:

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These will I pour to thee, and make the nectar thine.
In winter shall the genial feast be made
Before the fire; by summer, in the shade.
Damætas shall perform the rites divine;
And Lyctian Ægon in the song shall join.
Alphesibous, tripping, shall advance,
And mimic satyrs in his antic dance.
When to the nymphs our annual rites we pay,
And when our fields with victims we survey-
While savage boars delight in shady woods,
And finny fish inhabit in the floods-
While bees on thyme, and locusts feed on dew-
Thy grateful swains these honours shall renew.
Such honours as we pay to pow'rs divine,

To Bacchus and to Ceres, shall be thine.

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Such annual honours shall be giv'n; and thou 125 Shalt hear, and shalt condemn thy suppliants to their

VOW.

MOPSUS.

What present, worth thy verse, can Mopsus find? Not the soft whispers of the southern wind,

That play through trembling trees, delight me more; Nor murm'ring billows on the sounding shore; 130 Nor winding streams, that through the valley glide, And the scarce-cover'd pebbles gently chide.

MENALCAS.

Receive you first this tuneful pipe, the same
That play'd my Corydon's unhappy flame;
The same that sung Neæra's conqu❜ring eyes,
And, had the judge been just, had won the prize.

MOPSUS.

Accept from me this sheep-hook in exchange;
The handle brass; the knobs in equal range.
Antigenes, with kisses, often try'd

To beg this present, in his beauty's pride,

When youth and love are hard to be deny'd..
But what I could refuse to his request,
Is yours unask'd; for you deserve it best.

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PASTORAL VI.

OR,

SILENU S.

ARGUMENT.

Two young shepherds, Chromis and Mnasylus, having been often promised a song by Silenus, chance to catch him asleep in this pastoral; where they bind him hand and foot, and then claim his promise. Silenus, finding they would be put off no longer, begins his song, in which he describes the formation of the universe, and the original of animals, according to the Epicurean philosophy; and then runs through the most surprising transformations which have happened in Nature since her birth. This pastoral was designed as a compliment to Syron the Epicurean, who instructed Virgil and Varus in the principles of that philosophy. Silenus acts as tutor, Chromis and Mnasylus as the two pupils.

I

FIRST transferr'd to Rome Sicilian strains;

Nor blush'd the Doric Muse to dwell on Mantuan

plains.

But when I try'd her tender voice, too young,

And fighting kings and bloody battles sung,

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Apollo check'd my pride, and bade me feed
My fatt'ning flocks, nor dare beyond the reed.
Admonish'd thus, while ev'ry pen prepares
To write thy praises, Varus, and thy wars,
My past'ral Muse her humble tribute brings;
And yet not wholly uninspir'd she sings:
For all who read, and, reading, not disdain
These rural poems, and their lowly strain,
The name of Varus oft inscrib'd shall see
In ev'ry grove, and ev'ry vocal tree;
And all the silvan reign shall sing of thee:
Thy name, to Phoebus and the Muses known,
Shall in the front of ev'ry page be shown;
For he who sings thy praise, secures his own.
Proceed, my Muse!-Two Satyrs, on the ground,
Stretch'd at his ease, their sire Silenus found.
Doz'd with his fumes, and heavy with his load,
They found him snoring in his dark abode,
And seis'd with youthful arms the drunken god.
His rosy wreath was dropt not long before,
Borne by the tide of wine, and floating on the floor.
His empty can, with ears half worn away,
Was hung on high, to boast the triumph of the day.
Invaded thus, for want of better bands,

His garland they unstring, and bind his hands:
For, by the fraudful god deluded long,

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They now resolve to have their promis'd song.
Ægle came in, to make their party good-
The fairest Naïs of the neighb'ring flood-
And, while he stares around with stupid eyes,
His brows with berries, and his temples, dies.
He finds the fraud, and, with a smile, demands
On what design the boys had bound his hands.
"Loose me," he cry'd; " 'twas impudence to find
A sleeping god; 'tis sacrilege to bind.

To you the promis'd poem I will pay';

The nymph shall be rewarded in her way.'
He rais'd his voice; and soon a num'rous throng
Of tripping Satyrs crowded to the song;
And silvan Fauns, and savage beasts, advanc'd;
And nodding forests to the numbers danc'd.
Not by Hæmonian hills the Thracian bard,
Nor awful Phoebus was on Pindus heard
With deeper silence, or with more regard.
He sung the secret seeds of Nature's frame;

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How seas, and earth, and air, and active flame, 50
Fell through the mighty void, and, in their fall,
Were blindly gather'd in this goodly ball.

The tender soil then, stiff'ning by degrees,
Shut from the bounded earth the bounding seas.
Then earth and ocean various forms disclose;
And a new sun to the new world arose;

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