Woulds thou engage the gods peculiar care ?

O Hercules, th' immortal pow’rs adore !
With a pure heart, with sacrifice, and pray's to

Attend their altars, and their aid implore.
Or, would'st thou gain thy counıry's loud applause,

Lov'd as her father, as her god ador’d?
Be thou the bold afferter of her cause ;

Her voice in council, in the fight her sword :
In peace, in war, pursue thy country's good;
For her bare thy bold breast, and pour thy generous blood.

Wouldst thou, to quell the proud and lift the opprefty

In arts of war and matchless strength excel? Firft conquer thou thyself: to ease, to reft,

To each foft thought of pleasure, bid farewela The night alternate, due to sweet repose,

In watches wale : in painful march, the day: Congcald amidst the rigorous winter's snows,

Scorch'd by the summer's thirst-inflaming raya Thy hardeu'd limbs shall boaft fuperior might : Vigour fhall brace thine arm, resistless in the fight."

« Hear'it thou what monsters then thou must engage ?

What dangers, gentle youth, fhe bids thee prove ?" (Abrupt fans Sloth)— Ill fit thy tender age

Tumult and wars, fit age for joy and love. .

Turn,

Turn, gentle youth, to me, to love, and joy !

To these I lead'? no monsters here shall stay Thine easy courfe ; no cares thy péace 'annoy ;

I lead to bliss a nearer, smoother way : Short is my way, fair, easy, smooth, and plain : Turn, gentle youth-- with me eternal pleasures reign."

“ What pleasures, vain mislaken wretch, are thine ?

(Virtue with scorn replied) “ who fleep'lt in eafe Insensate į whose soft limbs the toil decline

That seasons bliss, and makes enjoyment please : Draining the copious bowl ere thirst require :

Feasting ere hunger to the feaft invite; Whose taltelefs joyś anticipate desire,

Whom luxury supplies wirh appetite' ; Yet nature loaths, and you employ in vain Variety and art to conquer

her disdain.

The sparkling neftar, coold with summer snows..

The dainty board with choicest viands spread. To thee are taseless all! sincere repose

Flies froin thy flow'ry couch and downy bed. For thou art only tir’d with indolence :

Nor is thy fleep with toil and labour bought, Th’imperfect sleep, that lulls thy languid sense

In dull oblivious interval of thought ; That kindly steals th' inactive hours away From the long ling’ring space, that lengthens out the day.

From

From bounteous nature's unexhausted stores.

Flows the pure fountain of fincere delights : Averse to her, you walte the joyless hours ;

Sleep drowns thy days, and riot rules thy nightsé Immortal tho' thou art, indignant Jove

Hurl'd thee from heaven, th' immortals blissful place.. For ever banish'd from the realms above,

To dwell on earth with man's degenrate race :
Fitter abode ! on earth alike disgrac'd ;
Rejected by the wise, and by the fool embrac’d..

Fond wretch, that vainly weeneit all delight

To gratify the fense, reserv'd for thee ! Yet the most pleasing object to the fight,

Thine own fair action, never didft thou see..
Tho' lull'd with softer sounds thou lieft along,

Soft music, warbling voices, melting lays ;
Ne’er didst thou hear, more sweet than sweetest song

Charming the foul, thou ne'er didst hear thy praise !
No—to thy revels let the fool repair ;
To such go smooth thy speech, and spread thy tempting

fnare.

Vaft happinefs enjoy thy gay allies !

A youth of follies, an old age of cares;
Young yet enervate, old yet never wise,
Vice wastes their vigour, and their mind impairs,

Vain,

Vain, idle, delicate, in thoughtless ease.

Reserving woes for age, their prime they spend ; All wretched, hopeless, in the evil days,

With sorrow to the verge of life they tend. Griev'd with the present, of the pall afham'd, They live and are despis'd; they die, nor more are nam'd.

But with the gods, and godlike men, I dwell ;

Me, his supreme delight, th'Almighty Sire
Regards well-pleas'd : whatever works excel,

All, or divine or human, I inspire,
Counsel with strength, and industry with art,

In union meet conjoin'd, with me reside :
My dictates arm, instruct, and mend the heart,

The furelt policy, the wiselt guide. With me true friend hip dwells : fhe deigns to bind Those generous fouls alone, wha:n I before have join'd.

Nor need my friends the various colly feait ;

Hunger to them th' effects of art supplies ; Labour prepares their weary limbs to res;

Sweet is their fisep; light, chearful, strong they rise. Thro' health, thro’joy, thro' pleasure, and renown

They tread my paths; and by a soft descent,
At length to age all gently finking down,

Look back with transport on a life well spent;
In which no hour flew unimprov'd away ;
In which fome gen'rous deed diftinguish ev'ry day,

And

.).

And when, the destin'd term at lengths complete,

Their ashes rest in peace, eternal fame
Sounds wide their praise : triumphant over fate,

In sacred song for ever lives their name.
This, Herculus, is happiness ! obey

My voice, and live: let thy celestial birth
Lift and enlarge thy thoughts : behold the way

That leads to fame, and raises thee from earth
Immortal ! Lo, I guide thy steps. Arise,
Pursue the glorious path, and claim thy native skies,"

Her words breathe fire celelal, and impart,

New vigour to his soul, that sudden caught The generous flame : with great intent his heart

Swells full, and labours with exalted thought. The mift of error from his eyes difpellid,

Thro' all her fraud ful arts, in clearest light,
Sloth in her native form he now beheld ;

Unveil'd lhe flood confess’d before his fight :
False Siren! All her vaunted charms, that flone
So fresh erewhile and fair, now wither'd, pale, and gone.

No more the rosy bloom in sweet disguise
Masks her dissembled looks; each borrow'd

grace Leaves her wan cheek; pale fickness clouds her eyes Livid and sunk, and pallions dim her face.

As