s: That wan'd to a wan line the half-half moon.<90.4>


s: Caesar himself would have look'd pale to see,


s: And in the height of all his triumphs feel


s: Himself but chain'd to such a mighty wheel.


s: And now me thinks we ape Augustus state,


s: Keep light and form with such deformitie,


s: With a small piece of glasse zany the sun.


s: Rome to her bard, who did her battails sing,


s: With the same lawrells were his temples fraught,


s: Who best had written, and who best had fought;


s: The self same fame they equally did feel,


s: One's style ador'd as much as t' other's steel.


s: The sons of Phoebus, we, an axe or cord;


s: And ours, the dear prerogative of a crown.


s: In marble statu'd walks great Lucan lay,


s: They the whole year with roses crownd would dine,


s: Disciplin'd, dieted, sure there hath bin


s: Commend this olio of this lord 'tis fit:


s: Nay, ten to one, but you have part of it;


s: There is that justice left, since you maintain


s: His table, he should counter-feed your brain.


s: Then write how well he in his sack hath droll'd,


s: Straight there's a bottle to your chamber roll'd,


s: Or with embroider'd words praise his French suit,


s: Month hence 'tis yours with his mans, to boot;


s: Or but applaud his boss'd legs: two to none,


s: 'Tis well, he cries, but living hair is dear.


s: Yet say that out of order ther's one curl,


s: And all the hopes of your reward you furl.<90.5>


s: Never so sowre did look so sweet a club.


s: You that do suck for thirst your black quil's blood,<90.6>


s: And chaw your labour'd papers for your food,


s: I will inform you how and what to praise,


s: Then skin y' in satin as young Lovelace plaies.


s: Beware, as you would your fierce guests, your lice,


s: To strip the cloath of gold from cherish'd vice;


s: Rather stand off with awe and reverend fear,


s: Court her as her adorers do their glasse,


s: Though that as much of a true substance has,


s: Whilst all the gall from your wild<90.7> ink you drain,


s: The beauteous sweets of vertues cheeks to stain;


s: Nor write, nor speak you more of sacred writ,


s: But what shall force up your arrested wit.


s: Be chast; religion and her priests your scorn,


s: Rayl, till your edged breath flea<90.8> your raw throat,


s: And burn remarks<90.9> on all of gen'rous note;


s: Each verse be an indictment, be not free


s: Libel your father, and your dam buffoon,


s: The noblest matrons of the isle lampoon,


s: Whilst Aretine and 's bodies you dispute,


s: And in your sheets your sister prostitute.


s: Yet there belongs a sweetnesse, softnesse too,


s: Which you must pay, but first, pray, know to who.


s: That unto which they do all prostrate fall)


s: Term'd mistress, when they'r angry; but, pleas'd high,


s: To this they sacrifice the whole days light,


s: And rob for pearl the closet of some fish.


s: Of all their sweets, for to supply her lip;


s: And steal new fire from heav'n, for to repair


s: Her unfledg'd scalp with Berenice's hair;


s: As now you're in your coach: save you, bright sir,


s: (O, spare your thanks) is not this finer far


s: Then walk un-hided, when that every stone


s: Has knock'd acquaintance with your ankle-bone?


s: When your wing'd papers, like the last dove, nere


s: Return'd to quit you of your hope or fear,


s: And your days fare, a fortified toast.<90.10>


s: Would have procur'd your head thatch from the rain


s: Not all the arms of Thebes and Troy would get


s: A funeral elegie, with a sad boon,<90.11>


s: Might make you (hei!) sip wine like maccaroon;<90.12>


s: But if perchance there did a riband<90.13> come,


s: Not the train-band so fierce with all its drum:


s: Yet with your torch you homeward would retire,


s: And heart'ly wish your bed your fun'ral pyre.


s: Upon a contract and the hopes 't might speed!


s: Doth wish like you the beauties of that day;


s: Hotter than all the roasted cooks you sat


s: Which sometimes would be drawn dough anagrame,<90.14>


s: Sometimes acrostick parched in the flame;<90.15>


s: Then posies stew'd with sippets, mottos by:


s: How many knots slip'd, ere you twist their name


s: With th' old device, as both their heart's the same!


s: Whilst like to drills the feast in your false jaw


s: You would transmit at leisure to your maw;


s: Then after all your fooling, fat, and wine,


s: Glutton'd at last, return at home to pine.


s: Tell me, O Sun, since first your beams did play


s: To night, and did awake the sleeping day;


s: Since first your steeds of light their race did start,


s: Did you ere blush as now?  Oh thou, that art


s: From thine owne altar which the gods adore,


s: Kindle the souls of gnats and wasps before?


s: Who would delight in his chast eyes to see


s: Faction and envy now are<90.16> downright rage.


s: Once a five-knotted whip there was, the stage:


s: To whip small errors, and the great ones tear;


s: Now, as er'e Nimrod the first king, he writes:


s: That's strongest, th' ablest deepest bites.


s: The muses weeping fly their hill, to see


s: Could there nought else this civil war compleat,


s: Tearing themselves and th' endlesse wreath, as though


s: Immortal they, their wrath should be so, too?


s: Parnassus hears these at his first alarms;


s: O more then conqu'ror of the world, great Rome!


s: Thy foes themselves, but one another first,


s: Whilst envy stript alone was left, and burst.


s: The learn'd Decemviri, 'tis true, did strive,


s: But to add flames to keep their fame alive;


s: Whilst the eternal lawrel hung ith' air:


s: Nor of these ten sons was there found one heir.


s: From this to this, till 't came to him, whose 'twas.


s: At last the temples of their god it bound.


s: I might believe at least, that each might have


s: Envy the living, not the dead, doth bite:


s: For after death all men receave their right.<90.17>


s: Their holy ashes, what is't then their flame?


s: He does that wrong unweeting<90.18> or in ire,


s: As if one should put out the vestal fire.


s: Let earths four quarters speak, and thou, Sun, bear


s: I was ally'd, dear Uncle,<90.19> unto thee


s: Your vertues, pow'rs, and mine differ'd at best,


s: As they whose springs you saw, the east and west.<90.20>


s: Might learned Waynman<90.21> rise, who went with thee


s: I should sit still; or mighty Falkland<90.22> stand


s: To justifie with breath his pow'rful hand;


s: The glory, that doth circle your pale urn,


s: Might hallow'd still and undefiled burn:


s: But I forbear. Flames, that are wildly thrown


s: At sacred heads, curle back upon their own;


s: Sleep, heavenly Sands, whilst what they do or write,


s: Is to give God himself and you your right.


s: There is not in my mind one sullen<90.23> fate


s: Vandall ore-runners, Goths in literature:


s: Ploughmen that would Parnassus new-manure;


s: A mercer now by th' yard does measure ore


s: An ode, which was but by the foot before;


s: It is the strongest and the finest wears.


s: If 'tis not his, 't may be the spir't of sack;


s: Whilst the fair bar-maid stroaks the muses teat,


s: For milk to make the posset up compleat.


s: Arise, thou rev'rend shade, great Johnson, rise!


s: Break through thy marble natural disguise!


s: Behold a mist of insects, whose meer breath


s: Will melt thy hallow'd leaden house of death.


s: What was Crispinus,<90.24> that you should defie


s: The age for him?<90.25>  He durst not look so high


s: As your immortal rod, he still did stand


s: Honour'd, and held his forehead to thy brand.


s: These scorpions, with which we have to do,


s: Are fiends, not only small but deadly too.


s: Well mightst thou rive thy quill up to the back,


s: And scrue thy lyre's grave chords, untill they crack.


s: For though once hell resented musick, these


s: Divels will not, but are in worse disease.


s: How would thy masc'line spirit, father Ben,


s: Justled from the prerog'tive of their bed,


s: Whilst wives are per'wig'd with their husbands head?


s: Each snatches the male quill from his faint hand,


s: And must both nobler write and understand,


s: O pen, nere truely justly slit till now!


s: And curls a line, as she would do a tresse;


s: Then prostitutes them both to publick aire.


s: Nor is 't enough, that they their faces blind


s: With a false dye; but they must paint their mind,


s: In meeter scold, and in scann'd order brawl,


s: Yet there's one Sapho<90.26> left may save them all.


s: And the whole gen'rous state of Venice be,


s: Shall boast inthron'd alone this new made star;


s: You, whose correcting sweetnesse hath forbad


s: Shame to the good, and glory to the bad;


s: Whose honour hath ev'n into vertue tam'd


s: These swarms, that now so angerly I nam'd.


s: Yet, as a virgin that heats all her blood


s: At the first motion of bad<90.27> understood,


s: Straight cools again the tempests of her sea:


s: All wrath and storms do end in calm and praise.


s: MERY TALES AND QUICKE ANSWERS, No. 23 (ed. Hazlitt).  I fear


s: that if Lovelace had derived his knowledge of this incident


s: sarcastic; for Louis, in the TALES AND QUICKE ANSWERS, is made


s: writer is said to have occupied twenty years in the composition


s: of his poem on the Birth of the Saviour, for which he probably


s: did not receive a sixth part of the sum paid to him for his


s: hexastic on Venice; and so he deserved this little windfal, which


s: times over.  See Corniano's VITA DI JACOPO SANNAZARO, prefixed to


s: is this very epigram of Sannazaro.  As in the case of THE ANT,


s: I have little doubt that the satire was suggested by the


s: implies a man about town who is rich enough to indulge


s: was attached to the breast of the fortunate recipient.  It


s: sometimes also stood for the armlet worn by gentlemen in our


s: poet's day, as a mark of some lady's esteem.  See Shirley's


s: that anagrams and acrostics were formerly one of the most


s: fashionable species of composition.  Lovelace here pictures


s: a poetaster "stewing" his brains with a poem of this description,


s: attention to the arrangement of the name of the individual


s: to whom the anagram or acrostic was to be addressed, and this


s: was especially the case, where the writer contemplated


s: Auchers, &c., but on the mother's side with the family of Sandys.


s: Edwin  !  da. of Sir R.     lator of the            Barnes, of


s: Sandys !  Bulkeley, of      Psalms, &c.,            Woolwich,


s: !  Anglesey.         ob. 1643-4,             the poet's


s: !                    Lovelace's              maternal


s: !                    GREAT-uncle.            grandfather.


s: Richard Sandys Esq.===Hester, da. of Edwin Aucher, second


s: of a Journey Begun A.D. 1610," &c., which became very popular,


s: Wainman not far off, which was very fair."


s: To see them about nothing keep such a wil;


s: APOLLO had spied him, but knowing his mind


s: Past by, and call'd FALKLAND, that sat just behind.


s: Though to say the truth (and APOLLO did know it)


s: He might have been both his priest and poet."


s: Lord Falkland was a contributor to JONSONUS VIRBIUS, 1638,


s: and was well known in his day as an occasional writer.


s: In Worcester's Dictionary an example is given of its employment


s: attacked in his POETASTER, 1602, under the name of CRISPINUS.


s: Decker retorted in SATIROMASTIX, printed in the same year,


s: in which Jonson appears as YOUNG HORACE.


s: Friendship," 1657, and Cowley wrote an ode upon her death.


s: Whilst this foot doth the watry mount aspire,


s: That Sinai's living and enlivening fire,


s: Behold my powers storm'd by a twisted light


s: O' th' Sun and his, first kindled his sight,


s: And my lost thoughts invoke the prince of day,


s: My right to th' spring of it and him do pray.


s: Say, happy youth, crown'd with a heav'nly ray


s: Of the first flame, and interwreathed bay,


s: While which t' adore th' amaz'd world cannot tell,


s: Heark! how the moving chords temper our brain,


s: Old Ocean smooths his sullen furrow'd front,


s: And Nereids do glide soft measures on't;


s: Whilst th' air puts on its sleekest, smoothest face,


s: And each doth turn the others looking-glasse;


s: And former thundering and lightning lines,


s: And verse now in its native lustre shines.


s: How wert thou hid within thyself! how shut!


s: Not hearing of thee thou dost break out strong,


s: Now find ourselves at once surprised and beat,


s: Whilst the most valiant of our wits now sue,


s: Fling down their arms, ask quarter too of you.


s: So cabin'd up in its disguis'd coarse<91.2> rust,


s: And scurf'd all ore with its unseemly crust,


s: The diamond, from 'midst the humbler stones,


s: Sparkling shoots forth the price of nations.


s: Ye safe unriddlers of the stars, pray tell,


s: Thou strange inverted Aeson, that leap'st ore


s: That to thine own self hast the midwife play'd,


s: And from thy brain spring'st forth<91.3> the heav'nly maid!


s: Thou staffe of him bore<91.4> him, that bore our sins,


s: Which, but set down, to bloom and bear begins!


s: Thou rod of Aaron, with one motion hurl'd,


s: Bud'st<91.5> a perfume of flowers through the world!


s: You<91.6> strange calcined<91.7> seeds within a glass,


s: Bright vestal flame that, kindled but ev'n now,


s: That now had three times ore out-liv'd the stage,


s: And all those beams contracted into one,


s: But all these flour'shing hiews, with which I die


s: For 'bove the poets Heav'n th' art taught to shine


s: Whence that mole-hill Parnassus thou dost view,


s: And us small ants there dabbling in its dew;


s: Whence thy seraphic soul such hymns doth play,


s: As those to which first danced the first day,


s: Where with a thorn from the world-ransoming wreath


s: Thou stung, dost antiphons and anthems breathe;


s: Where with an Angels quil dip'd i' th' Lambs blood,


s: Thou sing'st our Pelicans all-saving flood,


s: And bath'st thy thoughts in ever-living streams,


s: Rench'd<91.8> from earth's tainted, fat and heavy steams.


s: There move translated youth inroll'd i' th' quire,


s: And th' royal prophet-priest his harp hath lent;


s: Which thou dost tune in consort unto those


s: Clap wings for ever at each hallow'd close:


s: Whilst we, now weak and fainting in our praise,


s: which will be found among the Elegies at the end of the volume.


s: The present lines were apparently written for a projected edition


s: published.  Revett has also verses prefixed to THE ROYAL GAME


s: from LUCASTA of the employment of an intransitive verb in a


s: formerly a very common and favourite metaphor.  Thus Lord


s: I'm un-ore-clowded, too! free from the mist!


s: The blind and late Heaven's-eyes great Occulist,


s: Obscured with the false fires of his sceme,


s: Not half those souls are lightned by this theme.


s: (After th' Eclipse our Sun doth brighter shine),


s: Recant your false grief, and your true joys know;


s: Your blisse is endlesse, as you fear'd your woe!


s: What fort'nate flood is this! what storm of wit!


s: Oh, who would live, and not ore-whelm'd in it?


s: Once more the mighty Fletcher doth arise,


s: Roab'd in a vest studded with stars and eyes


s: Of all his former glories; his last worth


s: Imbroiderd with what yet light ere brought forth.


s: See! in this glad farewel he doth appear


s: Stuck with the Constellations of his Sphere,


s: Hath curl'd all his fires in this one ONE:


s: Which (as they guard his hallowed chast urn)


s: Smiling she<92.2> calls for pearl and vinegar,


s: First pledges him in's BREATH, then at one draught


s: Hear, oh ye valiant writers, and subscribe;


s: (His force set by) y'are conquer'd by this bribe.


s: Though you hold out your selves, he doth commit


s: Give up: this overture must buy you out.


s: Thus with some prodigal us'rer 't doth fare,


s: That keeps his gold still vayl'd, his steel-breast bare;


s: That doth exceed his coffers all but's eye,


s: That cannot lock his mines with half the art


s: As some rich beauty doth his wretched heart;


s: First startles her with th' emerald Mad-Lover<92.3>


s: The ruby Arcas,<92.4> least she should recover


s: Her dazled thought, a Diamond he throws,


s: Splendid in all the bright Aspatia's woes;<92.5>


s: Then to sum up the abstract of his store,


s: He flings a rope of Pearl of forty<92.6> more.


s: Ah, see! the stagg'ring virtue faints! which he


s: Beholding, darts his Wealths Epitome;<92.7>


s: Shows this one Carbuncle, that darkens all.


s: with singular applause at the BLACKFRIERS.  Being the Noble,


s: Last, and Onely REMAINES of those Incomparable DRAMATISTS,


s: edition of Beaumont and Fletcher's Works in 1647?


s: Thy Odes first their own harmony did break:


s: For singing, troth, is but in tune to speak.


s: Nor trus<93.3> thy golden feet and wings.


s: Not only stocks perswade, but ravish us.


s: As if earth too would blesse Heav'ns ears;


s: But yet the spoaks, by which they scal'd so high,


s: Lovelace wrote these lines for AYRES AND DIALOGUES.  TO BE SUNG


s: Printed by William Godbid for the Author, 1656. folio. [The words


s: conjectures that many of the songs in the above collection


s: (Gamble's AYRES, &c. 1659), were written by the learned Thomas


s: Stanley, Esq., author of the HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY, and seemingly


s: translations from Anacreon, Bion, Moschus and others."--Hawkins.


s: "Hol.  Old Mantuan! Old Mantuan! who understandeth thee not,


s: Sir, how unravell'd is the golden fleece:


s: Men, that could only fool at FOX AND GEESE,


s: Are new-made polititians<94.2> by thy book,


s: And both can judge and conquer with a look.


s: The hidden fate<94.3> of princes you unfold;


s: Court, clergy, commons, by your law control'd.


s: Strange, serious wantoning all that they


s: were originally prefixed to "The Royal Game of Chesse-Play.


s: Sometimes the Recreation of the late King, with many of the


s: Nobility. Illustrated with almost an hundred gambetts.  Being


s: the Study of Biochino, the famous Italian [Published by Francis


s: Tis not from cheap thanks thinly to repay


s: Th' immortal grove of thy fair-order'd bay


s: Thou planted'st round my humble fane,<95.2> that I


s: Stick on thy hearse this sprig of Elegie:


s: Nor that your soul so fast was link'd in me,


s: That now I've both, since't has forsaken thee:


s: That thus I stand a Swisse before thy gate,


s: And dare, for such another, time and fate.


s: Our Minds and Merits brake two several ways;


s: Justice commands I wake thy learned dust,


s: And truth, in whom all causes center must.


s: Behold! when but a youth, thou fierce didst whip


s: Upright the crooked age, and gilt vice strip;


s: Rank'd with the sage, ere blossome did thy chin,


s: Sleeked without, and hair all ore within,


s: Who in the school could'st argue as in schools:


s: At nineteen, what ESSAYES<95.5> have we beheld!


s: That well might have the book of Dogmas swell'd;


s: Didst heat thee with, when snowy was thy brow,


s: When thy undown'd face mov'd the Nine to shake,


s: What shall I say? by what allusion bold?


s: Young reverend shade, ascend awhile! whilst we


s: This victory, that doth contract in death


s: Ev'n all the pow'rs and labours of thy breath.


s: Thou pull'st the house of learning on us all.


s: And as that soldier conquest doubted not,


s: Who but one splinter had of Castriot,<95.7>


s: But would assault ev'n death so strongly charmd,


s: So we, secure in this fair relique, stand<95.10>


s: The slings and darts shot by each profane hand.


s: These soveraign leaves thou left'st us are become


s: Sear clothes against all Times infection.


s: Sacred Hierocles, whose heav'nly thought


s: First acted ore this comment, ere it wrote,<95.11>


s: That's turning of this gold to something more


s: Pretious than gold, we never knew before.


s: Of the great Author, that shall peruse this?


s: Let others dream thy shadow wandering strays


s: Or that, snatcht up in th' upper region,


s: I have inform'd me, and declare with ease


s: upon the Golden Verses of Pythagoras.  Teaching a Virtuous


s: OPUS POSTHUMUM." Lond. 1657, 12mo. (The copy among the King's


s: pamphlets in the British Museum appears to have been purchased


s: and 1659 are chiefly literal, but a careful collation has enabled


s: CASTRIOT is also one of the DRAMATIS PERSONAE in Fletcher'<s>


s: written by the poet.  Lucasta, <1>659, erroneously has THIS.


s: Viderat Adriacis quondam Neptunus in undis


s: Nunc mihi Tarpeias<96.1> quantumvis, Jupiter, Arces


s: Seu pelago Tibrim praefers, urbem aspice utramque,


s: Illam homines dices, hanc posuisse deos.


s: The city stand, and give the seas a law:


s: Now i' th' Tarpeian tow'rs Jove rival me,


s: And Mars his walls impregnable, said he;


s: Let seas to Tyber yield; view both their ods!<96.2>


s: You'l grant that built by men, but this by gods.


s: Pastor, arator, eques; pavi, colui, superavi;


s: Capras, rus, hostes; fronde, ligone, manu.


s: A swain, hind, knight: I fed, till'd, did command:


s: Lictorem pro rege necans nunc mutius ultro


s: Sacrifico propriam concremat igne manum:


s: Miratur Porsenna virum, paenamque relaxans


s: Maxima cum obscessis faedera a victor init,


s: Plus flammis patriae confert quam fortibus armis,


s: The hand, by which no king but serjeant<97.1> dies,


s: The prince admires the Hero, quits his pains,


s: And Victor from the seige peace entertains;


s: Rome's more oblig'd to flames than arms or pow'r,


s: When one burnt hand shall the whole war devour.<97.2>


s: character of these translations; but it is only just to Lovelace


s: to suggest that they were probably academic exercises only,


s: and at the same time to submit that they are not much worse than


s: Marlowe's translation of Ovid, and many other versions of the


s: Invictus victis in partibus omnia Caesar


s: Vincere qui potuit, te, Cato, non potuit.


s: The world orecome, victorious Caesar, he


s: That conquer'd all, great Cato, could not thee.


s: Ictu non potuit primo Cato solvere vitam;


s: Altius inseruit digitos, qua spiritus ingens


s: Opposuit fortuna moram, involvitque, Catonis


s: One stabbe could not fierce Cato's<98.1> life unty;


s: Onely his hand of all that wound did dy.


s: Open, through which his mighty soul might stray.


s: That Cato's hand more then his sword could do.


s: Jussa manus sacri pectus violare Catonis


s: Haesit, et inceptum victa reliquit opus.


s: Ille ait, infesto contra sua vulnera vultu:


s: Estne aliquid, magnus quod Cato non potuit?


s: His breast, did start, and the made wound forbear;


s: Then to the gash he said with angry brow:


s: And is there ought great Cato cannot do?


s: Dextera, quid dubitas? durum est jugulare Catonem;


s: Sed modo liber erit: jam puto non dubitas!


s: Fas non est vivo quenquam servire Catone,


s: Nedum ipsum vincit nunc Cato si moritur.


s: What doubt'st thou, hand? sad Cato 'tis to kill;


s: But he'l be free: sure, hand, thou doubt'st not still!


s: It is not, y' are deceav'd, it is not blisse


s: To have your hands with rubies bright to glow,


s: Then on your tortoise-bed your body throw,


s: And sink your self in down, to drink in gold,


s: And have your looser self in purple roll'd;


s: With royal fare to make the tables groan,


s: Or else with what from Lybick fields is mown,


s: Nor in one vault hoard all your magazine,


s: But at no cowards fate t' have frighted bin;


s: Nor with the peoples breath to be swol'n great,


s: He that dares this, nothing to him's unfit,


s: But proud o' th' top of fortunes wheel may sit.


s: Tully to thee, Rome's eloquent sole heir,


s: The best of all that are, shall be, and were,


s: I the worst poet send my best thanks and pray'r:


s: Three hundred thousand times I'de kisse,


s: Cum puero bello praeconem qui videt esse,


s: What should we think, but he would not be sold?<99.1>


s: to read rather, "but that he would be sold!"


s: Si Phoebi soror es, mando tibi, Delia, causam,


s: Scilicet, ut fratri quae peto verba feras:


s: Marmore Sicanio struxi tibi, Delphice, templum,


s: Nunc, si nos audis, atque es divinus Apollo,


s: Dic mihi, qui nummos non habet unde petat.


s: O Delphick god, I built thy marble fane,


s: And sung thy praises with a gentle cane,<100.1>


s: Where he, whose purse is empty, may go fill.


s: Quocunque placuit, nulla parendi mora est;


s: Adsum impiger; fac nolle, comitabor gemens,


s: Malusque patiar facere, quod licuit bono.


s: Parent and Prince of Heav'n, O lead, I pray,


s: Where ere you please, I follow and obey.


s: And suffer bad what to the good was law.


s: Fates lead the willing, but unwilling draw.


s: Constiteram exorientem Auroram forte salutans,


s: Pace mihi liceat, coelestes, dicere vestra.


s: Blanditur puero satyrus vultuque manuque;


s: Quem non commoveat, quamvis de marmore? fundit


s: Pene preces satyrus, pene puer lachrymas.


s: O' th' sudden Roscius breaks in a bright ray:


s: Gods with your favour, I've presum'd to see


s: With looks and hands a satyre courts the boy,


s: Who draws back his unwilling cheek as coy.


s: Although of marble hewn, whom move not they?


s: The boy ev'n seems to weep, the satyre, pray.


s: Phoebus me in somnis vetuit potare Lyaeum,


s: Carminis iliaci libros consumpsit asellus;


s: Hoc fatum Troiae est: aut equus, aut asinus.


s: A wretched asse the Aeneids did destroy:


s: A horse or asse is still the fate of Troy.


s: Trinarii quodam currentem in littoris ora


s: At<101.1> lepus: in me omnis terrae pelagique rapina est,


s: Forsitan et coeli, si canis astra tenet.


s: On the Sicilian strand a hare well wrought


s: Before the hounds was by a dog-fish caught;


s: Quoth she: all rape of sea and earth's on me,


s: Perhaps of heav'n, if there a dog-star be.


s: Polla, potenta, tribon, baculus, scyphus: arcta supellex


s: Haec fuerant Cinici, sed putat hanc nimiam:


s: Namque cavis manibus cernens potare bubulcum,


s: Cur, scyphe, te, dixit, gusto supervacuum?


s: The Cynicks narrow houshould stuffe of crutch,


s: A stool and dish, was lumber thought too much:


s: For whilst a hind drinks out on's palms o' th' strand


s: He flings his dish: cries: I've one in my hand!


s: Thesauro invento qui limina mortis inibat,


s: Liquit ovans laqueum, quo periturus erat;


s: At qui, quod terrae abdiderat, non repperit aurum,


s: A treasure found one, entring at death's gate,


s: Triumphing leaves that cord, was meant his fate;


s: But he the gold missing, which he did hide,


s: The halter which he found he knit: so dy'd.


s: Mes souspirs et mes pleurs tesmoignent mon torment;


s: Mais mon respect<102.1> m'empeche de parler.


s: My sighs and tears may testifie my harms;


s: Vane, quid affectas faciem mihi ponere, pictor,


s: Auribus in vestris habito penetrabilis echo;


s: Si mihi vis similem pingere, pinge sonos.


s: Vain painter, why dost strive my face to draw


s: With busy hands? a goddesse eyes nere saw.


s: In empty shouts; (without a mind) a voice.


s: And, if you'l paint me like, then paint a sound.


s: Toxica zelotypo dedit uxor maecha marito,


s: Nec satis ad mortem credidit esse datum;


s: Ergo, inter sese dum noxia pocula certant,


s: Protinus in vacuos alvi petiere recessus,


s: Quam pia cura Deum! prodest crudelior uxor.


s: Sic, cum fata volunt, bina venena juvant.


s: Cold poysons, to[o] weak she thought for's grave;


s: Now whilst within themselves they are at strife,


s: The deadly potion yields to that of life,


s: And straight from th' hollow stomack both retreat


s: To th' slippery pipes known to digested meat.


s: Strange care o' th' gods the murth'resse doth avail!


s: So, when fates please, ev'n double poysons heal.


s: Emptis quod libris tibi bibliotheca referta est,


s: Doctum et grammaticum te, philomuse, putas.


s: Quinetiam cytharas, chordas et barbita conde:


s: Because with bought books, sir, your study's fraught,


s: A learned grammarian you would fain be thought;


s: Nay then, buy lutes and strings; so you may play


s: The merchant now, the fidler, the next day.


s: Rure morans, quid agam, respondi, pauca rogatus:


s: Mane, deum exoro famulos, post arvaque viso,


s: Inde lego, Phoebumque cio, Musamque lacesso;


s: Tunc oleo corpus fingo, mollique palaestra


s: Stringo libens animo, gaudensque ac foenore liber


s: Prandeo, poto, cano, ludo, lavo, caeno, quiesco.


s: Ask'd in the country what I did, I said:


s: I view my men and meads, first having pray'd;


s: Then each of mine hath his just task outlay'd;


s: Then I anoynt me, and stript willing loose


s: My self on a soft plat, from us'ry blest;


s: I dine, drink, sing, play, bath, I sup, I rest.


s: Haec si, inquam, attuleris, Fabulle noster,


s: Shortly, if the kind gods will favour thee.


s: If thou dost bring with thee a del'cate messe,


s: Brisk wine, sharp tales, all sorts of drollery,


s: These if thou bringst (I say) along with thee,


s: You shall feed highly, friend: for, know, the ebbs


s: Of my lank purse are full of spiders webs;


s: But then again you shall receive clear love,


s: Or what more grateful or more sweet may prove:


s: Of which once smelt, the gods thou wilt implore,


s: Fabullus, that they'd make thee nose all ore.


s: Casta suo gladium cum traderet Arria Paeto,


s: Si qua fides, vulnus quod feci non dolet, inquit:


s: Sed quod tu facies, hoc mihi, Paete, dolet.


s: When brave chast Arria to her Poetus gave


s: The sword from her own breast did bleeding wave:


s: If there be faith, this wound smarts not, said she;


s: But what you'l make, ah, that will murder me.


s: Conjugis audisset fatum cum Portia Bruti,


s: Et substracta sibi quaereret arma dolor,


s: Nondum scitis, ait, mortem non posse negari,


s: Credideram satis hoc vos docuisse patrem.


s: Dixit, et ardentes avido bibit ore favillas.


s: When Portia her dear lord's sad fate did hear,


s: And noble grief sought arms were hid from her:


s: Know you not yet no hinderance of death is,


s: Cato, I thought, enough had taught you this,


s: So said, her thirsty lips drink flaming coales:


s: Dum Phaetontea formica vagatur in umbra,


s: Dignum tantorum pretium tulit illa laborum:


s: Whilst in an amber-shade the ant doth feast,


s: A gummy drop ensnares the small wild-beast,


s: A full reward of all her toyls hath she;


s: 'Tis to be thought she would her self so die.


s: Et latet et lucet, Phaetontide condita gutta


s: Sic modo, quae fuerat vita contempta manente,


s: Both lurks and shines, hid in an amber tear,


s: So she, who in her life time was contemn'd,


s: Pauper videri Cinna vult, et est pauper.


s: A fool, much bit by fleas, put out the light;


s: You shall not see me now (quoth he); good night.


s: Noli admirari, quare tibi foemina nulla,


s: Non ullam rarae labefactes munere vestis,


s: Laedit te quaedam mala fabula, qua tibi fertur


s: Hunc metuunt omnes, neque mirum: nam mala valde est


s: Bestia, nec quicum<106.1> bela puella cubet.


s: Quare aut crudelem nasorum interfice pestem,


s: That no fair woman will, wonder not why,


s: Clap (Rufus) under thine her tender thigh;


s: Not a silk gown shall once melt one of them,


s: Nor the delights of a transparent gemme.


s: A scurvy story kills thee, which doth tell,


s: That in thine armpits a fierce goat doth dwell.


s: Him they all fear full of an ugly stench:<106.2>


s: Nor 's 't fit he should lye with a handsome wench;


s: Wherefore this noses cursed plague first crush,


s: Or cease to wonder, why they fly you thus.


s: Dicit; sed mulier cupido quod dicit amanti,


s: In vento et rapida scribere oportet aqua.


s: My mistresse sayes she'll marry none but me;


s: She sayes so; but what women say to kind


s: Lovers, we write in rapid streams and wind.


s: Dicebas quondam, solum to nosse Catullum,


s: Dilexi tum te, non tantum ut vulgus amicam,


s: Nunc te cognovi, quare et impensius uror,


s: Qui potis est inquis, quod amantem injuria talis


s: Cogat amare magis, sed bene velle minus?


s: Odi et amo; quare id faciam, fortasse requiris;


s: That me alone you lov'd, you once did say,


s: Nor should I to the king of gods give way.


s: But as a father doth his children chear.


s: Yet thou to me more light and cheaper art.


s: What pow'r is this? that such a wrong should press


s: Me to love more, yet wish thee well much lesse.


s: I hate and love; would'st thou the reason know?


s: Huc est mens deducta tua, mea Lesbia, culpa,


s: Ut jam nec bene velle queam tibi, si optima sias:


s: By thy fault is my mind brought to that pass,


s: For be'est thou best, I cannot wish thee well,


s: And be'est thou worst, then I must love thee still.


s: Quinti, si tibi vis oculos debere Catullum,


s: Quintius, if you'l endear Catullus eyes,


s: Or what he dearer then his eyes doth prize,


s: Ravish not what is dearer then his eyes,


s: Or what he dearer then his eyes doth prize.


s: Quintia formosa est multis, mihi candida, longa,


s: Recta est; haec ego sic singula confiteor:


s: Tota illud formosa nego: nam multa venustas;


s: Nulla in tam magno est corpore mica salis.


s: Lesbia formosa est quae, cum pulcherrima tota est,


s: Tum omnibus una omneis surripuit veneres.


s: Quintia is handsome, fair, tall, straight: all these


s: But she all ore 's not handsome; here's her fault:


s: In all that bulk there's not one corne of salt,


s: Whilst Lesbia, fair and handsome too all ore,


s: All graces and all wit from all hath bore.


s: Nulla potest mulier tantum se dicere amatam


s: Vere, quantum a me Lesbia amata mea est;


s: Nulla fides ullo fuit unquam faedere tanta,


s: Quanta in amore suo ex parte reperta mea est.


s: No one can boast her self so much belov'd,


s: No faith was ere with such a firm knot bound,


s: Aut sodes mihi redde decem sestertia, Sylo,


s: Deindo esto quam vis saevus et indomitus;


s: Aut si te nummi delectant, desine, quaeso,


s: Leno esse, atque idem saevus et indomitus.


s: Then rant and roar as much as you shall please;


s: Or if that mony takes [you,]<107.1> pray, give ore


s: the metre, and perhaps the poet wrote TAKES YOU, i.e. captivates


s: As honest men should what they justly owe,


s: Were to write better of thy life, then can


s: The assured'st pen of the most worthy man.


s: Such was thy composition, such thy mind,


s: Improv'd from vertue, and from vice refin'd;


s: Thy youth an abstract of the world's best parts,


s: Thine and thy countries piramids of fame.


s: Two glorious lights to guide our hopeful youth


s: These parts (so rarely met) made up in thee,


s: What man should in his full perfection be:


s: And each affection breath'd an influence,


s: As smooth'd them to a calme, which still withstood


s: Thy stable breast could a<108.2> disturbance know.


s: In fortune humble, constant in mischance;


s: Expert in both, and both serv'd to advance


s: Thy name by various trialls of thy spirit,


s: Good as the best in both and great, but yet


s: These ever serv'd the one for to defend,


s: To times succeeding: yet I hence must go,


s: But what respect, acknowledgement and love,


s: What these together, when improv'd, improve:


s: And though thy vertues many friends have bred


s: To love thee liveing, and lament thee dead,


s: In characters far better couch'd then these,


s: Mine will not blott thy fame, nor theirs encrease.


s: 'Twas by thine own great merits rais'd so high,


s: That, maugre time and fate, it shall not dye.


s: The rose and<109.2> other fragrant flowers smell best,


s: When they are pluck'd and worn in hand or brest,


s: So this fair flow'r of vertue, this rare bud


s: Of wit, smells now as fresh as when he stood;


s: And in these Posthume-Poems lets us know,


s: He on<109.3> the banks of Helicon did grow.


s: With his sweet out-side: nay, it went<109.4> beyond.


s: Lovelace, the minion<109.5> of the Thespian dames,


s: Apollo's darling, born with Enthean flames,


s: Which in his numbers wave and shine so clear,


s: As sparks refracted from<109.6> rich gemmes appear;


s: Such flames that may inspire, and atoms cast,


s: To make new poets not like him in hast.<109.7>


s: by Payne Fisher in his collection of Howell's Poems, 1663,


s: superscription in his ill-edited book to "Upon the Posthume-POEMS


s: Pardon (blest shade), that I thus crowd to be


s: And that I think unvalu'd reliques spread,


s: And am the first that pillages the dead;


s: Since who would be thy mourner as befits,


s: How my tears strive to do thee fairer right,


s: And from the characters divide my sight.


s: Untill it (dimmer) a new torrent swells,


s: And what obscur'd it, falls my spectacles


s: Let the luxurious floods impulsive rise,


s: As they would not be wept, but weep the eyes,


s: The while earth melts, and we above it lye


s: Until our griefs are drawn up by the Sun,


s: How in thy dust we humble now our pride,


s: And bring thee a whole people mortifi'd!


s: For who expects not death, now thou art gone,


s: The golden dance, when the first mover's gon?


s: And the snatch'd fires (which circularly hurl'd)


s: In their strong rapture glimmer to the world,


s: Can the chords move in tune, when thou dost dye,


s: But where Apollo's harp (with murmur) laid,


s: They by some pebble summon'd would reply


s: May we dare speak thee dead, that wouldest be


s: Earth could not lift thee higher then it did!


s: And thou, that didst grow up so ever nigh,


s: So near to where thou art, thou here didst dwell,


s: To what could not be circumscrib'd, gave way,


s: And the more spacious tennant to return,


s: Crack'd (in the two restrain'd estate) its urn.


s: The soul's first buried in his bodies dust.


s: Thou more thy self, now thou art less confin'd,


s: Art not concern'd in what is left behind;


s: While we sustain the losse that thou art gone,


s: And under what (now) covert must I sing,


s: When thou hast tane thy flight hence, and art nigh


s: Where a bright wreath of glories doth but set


s: And thou, above our humble converse gon,


s: Our lutes (as thine was touch'd) were vocall by,


s: And thence receiv'd the soul by sympathy,


s: That did above the threds inspiring creep,


s: And with soft whispers broke the am'rous sleep;


s: Which now no more (mov'd with the sweet surprise)


s: But with their silent mistress do comply,


s: How from thy first ascent thou didst disperse


s: A blushing warmth throughout the universe,


s: While near the morns Lucasta's fires did glow,


s: And to the earth a purer dawn did throw.


s: And though it could but be above its fate,


s: Before a Spaniard spread their crowded plate,


s: So learn't from that exchequer but the more


s: Thus when the Greek and Latin muse we read,


s: As but the<110.1> cold inscriptions of the dead,


s: Who did'st live on still with thy poesie;


s: But now we have the last dear ingots gain'd,


s: And the free vein (however rich) is drein'd;


s: Though what thou hast bequeathed us, no space


s: Of this worlds span of time shall ere embrace.


s: But as who sometimes knew not to conclude


s: That it might comprehend what could not it,


s: Thou, who<110.2> art layd up in thy precious cave,


s: And from the hollow spaces of thy grave,


s: We still may mourn in tune, but must alone


s: No more the chirping sonnets with shrill notes


s: Must henceforth volley from our treble throtes;


s: But each sad accent must be humour'd well


s: Why should some rude hand carve thy sacred stone,


s: When we can shed the tribute of our tears


s: So long, till the relenting marble wears;


s: Which shall such order in their cadence keep,


s: Untill each letter spelt distinctly lyes,


s: Cut by the mystick droppings of our eyes.


s: truly wretched lines was probably the same person, on whose


s: MORAL AND DIVINE POEMS Lovelace has some verses in the LUCASTA.


s: The poems of E. R. appear to be lost, which, unless they were


s: far superior to the present specimen, cannot be regarded as


s: Me thinks, when kings, prophets, and poets dye,


s: We should not bid men weep, nor ask them why,


s: But the great loss should by instinct impair


s: And in a moment men should feel the cramp


s: Of grief, like persons poyson'd with a damp.


s: All things in nature should their death deplore,


s: And the sun look less lovely than before;


s: The fixed stars should change their constant spaces,


s: And comets cast abroad their flagrant<111.1> faces.


s: Men look about, as if they nere had known


s: Lovelace hath long been dead, and he<111.2> can be


s: Are you all turn'd to silence, or did he


s: That kept all branches living? must his fall


s: So when a spring-tide doth begin to fly<111.3>


s: From the green shoar, each neighbouring creek grows dry.


s: Anothers worth to make his own seem brave;


s: And this was not his aim: nor is it mine.


s: I now conceive the scope of their designe,


s: Which is with one consent to bring and burn


s: Where each mans love and fancy shall be try'd,


s: As when great Johnson or brave Shakespear dyed.


s: Yet neither shall nor can it blast the fame


s: Whose own LUCASTA can support his credit


s: Amongst all such who knowingly have read it;


s: But who that praise can by desert discusse


s: And if the last conceptions are the best,


s: Those by degrees do much transcend the rest;


s: So full, so fluent, that they richly sute


s: With Orpheus lire, or with Anacreons lute,


s: And he shall melt his wing, that shall aspire


s: Holland and France have known his nobler parts,


s: And found him excellent in arms and arts.


s: To sum up all, few men of fame but know,


s: like Lovelace, wielded both the sword and the pen.


s: Thy pious hand, planting fraternal bayes,


s: Clear spirit! how much we are bound to thee


s: The truer worth of which by much exceeds


s: The western wealth, which such contention breeds!


s: Like the Infusing-God, from the well-head


s: Our brows with holy drops, the very last,


s: Which from your Brother's happy pen were cast:


s: Yet as the last, the best; such matchlesse skill


s: Your honour'd Brother in the Elyzian shade


s: By your religious care, and that his urn


s: Your self you have a good physician shown


s: To his much grieved friends and to your own,


s: Sir, from your Brother y' have convey'd us bliss;


s: Now, since your genius so concurs with his,


s: Let your own quill our next enjoyments frame;


s: All must be rich, that's grac'd with Lovelace name.


s: Thy sacred soul to look down from above,


s: Whose happy pen so pleased amorous ears,


s: And, lifting bright LUCASTA to the sphears,


s: By which to sing forth their Pythonick fits.


s: Shall we bring tears and sighs? no, no! then we


s: Should but bemone our selves for loosing thee,


s: Then, whilst we chant out thine immortal praise,


s: Our offerings shall be onely sprigs of bays;


s: And if our tears will needs their brinks out-fly,


s: To tell the world, how deep fates wounded wit,


s: How th' active fire, which cloath'd thy gen'rous mind,


s: Consum'd the water, and the earth calcin'd


s: Untill a stronger heat by death was given,


s: Which sublimated thy poor soul to heaven.


s: Thou knew'st right well to guide the warlike steed,


s: And yet could'st court the Muses with full speed


s: And such success, that the inspiring Nine


s: Have fill'd their Thespian fountain so with brine.


s: But biting satyres through the world must stray.


s: Whom thus she queries: could not you awhile


s: Of poems such as these had been drawn up?


s: The fates reply'd that thou wert taken up,


s: Since things most perfect please their holy eyes,


s: With so much learning and true virtue crown'd.


s: Tis very just that God should have the best.


s: Lovelace is dead! then let the world return


s: May the great eye of day weep out his light,


s: Pale Cynthia leave the regiment of night,


s: Send forth no corruscations to our sight,


s: Statu'd with grief, attend upon his shrine,


s: Whose worth, whose loss, should we but truly rate,


s: Th' accompt of vertu's so transcendent high,


s: Did I pronounce him dead! no, no! he lives,


s: Spice-breathed fumes, whose odoriferous scent


s: (In zephre-gales which never can be spent)


s: Doth spread it self abroad, and much out-vies


s: Or Father Phoebus, who to th' world derives


s: Such various and such multiformed lives,


s: Took notice that brave Lovelace did inspire


s: And snatcht him hence, before his thread was spun,


s: En'ving that here should be another Sun.     T. L.<113.1>


s: And shipwrackt shades, with steady hand,


s: Flames a long, lightening wind.  On high


s: The steel-blue arch shines clear, and far,


s: Towns smoke.  And swift, a haze, a gleam,--


s: Reddening with morn.  Tall spires of ships,


s: The lone foot-traveller shakes his feet,


s: Grey North, red South, and burnished West


s: Green glens are shining, stream and mill,


s: Finds the great rest that wanderers seek!


s: The fighter's strength, the echoing strife


s: despatched from Venice, contain the following short narrative....


s: admixture is something fantastic and unpredictable.  I forgot my


s: She spoke in Italian.  "Your pardon, signor, but I fear my good


s: Cristine has done you unwittingly a wrong."


s: "My name," said I, "is Hervey-Townshend, an Englishman travelling


s: "My worthy aunt," I replied, with a tender recollection of that


s: Madame turned to Cristine, and spoke rapidly in a whisper.


s: The Tre Croci had been in happier days a Bishop's lodging, and


s: Gianbattista, to attend on my wants.  Presently Madame d'Albani


s: scribbled a line of acceptance and went to dress.


s: I answered that she did famously, and wondered what cause of


s: "My aunt must be a voluminous correspondent, sir," I said.


s: I replied that I had visited Scotch cousins, but had no great


s: He was staring into a fire, which burned small and smokily.


s: Charlotte, my dear, bid Oliphant fetch glasses and hot water and


s: "Tell me,"  I said in a whisper, "who is the Count d'Albani, your


s: regnant brethren.  I had heard tales of a growing sottishness, a


s: therefore sought from a friend's friend, meaning myself.


s: I was very really embarrassed.  Not that I would not have given


s: A flicker of a smile crossed his face.  "I'll lee like a Scotch


s: Versailles, of Avignon where she had spent some years, and of the


s: delivered as if 'twere a pot-house catch--


s: "This is the inn called the Tre Croci, sir?" he asked.


s: "And now,"  I said, "having won, you have the greatest of human


s: It seemed to me that they exchanged glances.


s: Again a smile seemed to pass among the four.


s: "You have seen him?" they cried.  "What is he like?"


s: travels with him and tends his old age."


s: The four looked at each other, and then Mr. Galloway rose.


s: Presently they returned and seated themselves at the table.


s: I nodded.  "It is a thin disguise to one familiar with history."


s: "By so much the better.  We do not wish a young king who may be


s: fractious.  An old man tempered by misfortune is what our purpose


s: At that one of the Sylvesters spoke sharply.  "I have heard such


s: gossip, but I do not credit it.  I have not forgotten Preston and


s: I made my last objection.  "He has no posterity--legitimate


s: The four gentlemen smiled.  "That happens to be his chiefest


s: I did, and I also perceived the colossal absurdity of the whole


s: business. But I could not convince them of it, for they met my


s: "You wish me to make this proposal on your behalf?"  I asked.


s: The lady's control was at breaking-point.  Another moment and I


s: "They will be honoured, madame, but I do not think they will be


s: "So be it.  They shall see him.  Oh, I am sick to death of fine


s: It was true. The company came late indeed--too late by forty


s: When storms have stripped the wide champaign,


s: The hills are feathered with young trees,


s: The laggard years have quenched my pride;


s: It happened that Lord Caerlaverock cook's came from the same


s: Caerlaverock was stroking his beard, his legs astraddle on the


s: Mr. Vennard was addressing the dinner-table as if it were a large


s: "Can't you get hold of Mr. Vennard and forcibly cut his hair?"


s: He was talking I recall, to Lady Lavinia Dobson, renowned in two


s: Suffragists, but for breaking the peace.  Why, goodness me, if we


s: preferential treatment because he was a Christian Scientist or a


s: Mr. Cargill was becoming excited, and exchanging his ordinary


s: Edinburgh-English for a broader and more effective dialect.


s: Lady Lavinia folded her hands.  "We slaughter our black


s: "I never swore in my life," said Lady Lavinia.


s: Lord Caerlaverock rose to join the ladies with an air of outraged


s: I did not say that I thought Mulross's accident a merciful


s: "We must disavow him," said Caerlaverock.


s: "I hope I may congratulate you,"  I said.


s: approached convalescence, the hives of politics were humming with


s: interviewed, using blasphemous language about our free Press; and


s: "We have come back," she said, "to meet our accusers."


s: "I really don't know what you mean, Mrs. Cargill."


s: "He is well, but heartbroken.  His is a sensitive nature, Lady


s: Caerlaverock, and he feels a stain like a wound."


s: appeared in the Liberal Press; but Vennard took not the slightest


s: temperament.  It scattered current convictions, roused dormant


s: "I want a leader who governs as well as reigns," said Vennard. "I


s: "They are not the only members who fail in discipline."


s: Cargill was in tremendous form. He began to tell Scotch stories,


s: This lasted till the entree, the famous Caerlaverock curry.


s: As I have said, I was not in the secret, and did not detect the


s: transition.  As I partook of the dish I remember feeling a sudden


s: "You should go off for a change,"  I said.


s: willingly give earth and water.  It was the whim of a fantastic


s: Atta had played this game often in the little island wars.  Very


s: certain, unless he kept moving.  Already he was retching with the


s: "Greeting, stranger," said the voice.  "By Hermes, you choose the


s: The sentries laughed.  One quoted a proverb about island courage.


s: Delphi seemed beyond the moon, and his errand a child's dream.


s: Then the King, for so he thought of the tall man, spoke--


s: Troops were filing fast to the east--Thebans, Corinthians.  "Time


s: The King's eyes glittered; they seemed to peer into his heart.


s: As it happened, the deed was not quite forgotten.  An islander, a


s: Stretch mild meadows, flower-decked, thyme-scented,


s: Tarry not long, but come swift o'er the sea-path,


s: They will crush me and grind me to mire,


s: So that none will know the man that once was me.


s: Singing, flitting, o'er the grey waters,


s: heather.  Leithen's eyes were looking vacantly before him.


s: "But at that point I fell asleep and left Hollond to repeat his


s: questions to a guide who knew no English and a snoring porter.


s: "He said that he had come to me because we were old friends.  He


s: "'You mean what people call a sense of direction,' I put in.


s: "Hollond's eye had kindled, and he sat doubled up in his chair,


s: intelligible and real, though not with our common reality.'


s: obedient to certain mathematical laws.  Space, I gathered, was


s: perpetually 'forming fours' in some fancy way.


s: I shook my head.  It seemed to me pure craziness.


s: account Space was a sort of mathematical pandemonium."


s: sometimes--well, you know I haven't much in the way of nerves or


s: inexorable laws.  I never could get quite clear as to what this


s: consciousness was like.  When I asked he used to look puzzled and


s: "How long was it before he went mad?"  I asked.


s: I asked if it made him happy or miserable.


s: prophet.' He would spend hours travelling those eerie shifting


s: "But Hollond did not cheer up.  He seemed strangely languid and


s: Great tracts of lands there may be found,


s: "He stopped for a second or two, then suddenly leaned forward and


s: "I got to Chamonix in time for his funeral.  An ordinary climbing


s: Aiguilles.  Dupont told me that they had found a new route up the


s: Which men have wrought from wood or clay,


s: Where the blue heaven the sun enthrones,


s: The heights of cloud that veer and roll,


s: The unplumb'd Abyss, the drift of Space--


s: These are the fears that drain the soul.


s: Fear nought. Perchance your gods are strong


s: And quell the deeps with all their throng.


s: Wrought with my hands, to serve or break,


s: And hear without the strange winds blow.--


s: "As streams of water in the south, Our bondage, Lord, recall."


s: --PSALM cxxvi.  (Scots Metrical Version).


s: I made my passages side by side with my friend the shepherd, and


s: "Ay," said I, "and why 'Streams of Water'?"


s: crossed the moor toward his dwelling, his thoughts relaxed and he


s: captivated by the nameless mystery of his appearance.  There was


s: something startling to one accustomed to the lack-lustre gaze of


s: Then I remembered all I had heard of the old man's craze, and I


s: humoured him.  "It's a fine countryside for burns,"  I said.


s: I asked him how he had done since I saw him last.


s: "It's an ill world now," he said in a slow, querulous voice.


s: I conceived dimly that the cause of his wrath was a scheme for


s: "You are looking ill,"  I said.  "What has come over you?"


s: And then he fell to wild telling of the ruin of the place and the


s: foreheads of steel-like grey.  The autumn blue faded in the far


s: Then his spirit failed him, his voice sank, and he was almost the


s: 'As streams o' water in the South, Our bondage Lord, recall.'


s: And as we went down the slopes to the darkening vale I heard him


s: "Whae are ye?" says he, in a thin voice that gaed to my hert.


s: "Ye ken me fine, ye auld fule," says I.  "I'm Jock Rorison o' the


s: "But I never yet cam to the water I couldna ford," says he.  "But


s: "That's the salt, for we're at the sea here, the mighty ocean.


s: "I've nae need o' it," said he.  "I'm find and warm"; and he sits


s: But as I lookit I saw some folk comin' up frae the beach carryin'


s: No mumbling priest shall speed thy soul,


s: "I don't think I shall go back to England," he said, kicking a


s: To hint such a thing would have meant a breach of friendship, for


s: telephone.  I'll grow most of my supplies, and start a colony to


s: He talked for a good hour of what he would do, and his dream grew


s: satisfied the eye that for the sheer wonder of its perfection we


s: stopped and stared in silence for many minutes.


s: "My firm, as like as not.  We have miles of land about here.  But


s: Christian wood.  It was not a copse, but a "grove,"--one such as


s: "Yes," he said slowly, "there is no place like it--in the world."


s: extraordinarily successful in his speculations, and that from his


s: I could have given no reason for my impression but there it was.


s: moonlight.  I remember that the alabaster moon shimmered like


s: I lit a reading-lamp and tried to interest myself in "La Cruelle


s: Jobson was looking at me very seriously and frankly.  I risked a


s: He lay back on his pillows.  "You needn't trouble.  I only want a


s: The man promised, and I thought I saw some relief in his face.


s: "For Solomon went after Ashtaroth, the goddess of the Zidonians."


s: That was all, but it was like a key to a cipher.  Instantly there


s: alabaster!  Some dark priest had worn it on his forehead when he


s: half-believer in casual faiths, was in the presence of some hoary


s: Without any conscious purpose I rose and followed, kicking off my


s: something, too, in his hand,--something which glittered.


s: "I thought you would," he replied.  "I've had the same experience


s: "Ay, the wud," was the answer in broad Scots.


s: There was no mistaking the air.  I had found my Tishbite.


s: "I want men,"  I said, "--as many as we can get."


s: "And he brake in Pieces the images, and cut down the groves, and


s: filled their places with the bones of men....'


s: "Moreover the altar that was at Beth-el, and the high place which


s: It was as if someone were pleading with me.  A gentle voice, not


s: heartsick, the whole loveliness of Nature seemed to plead for its


s: I would see to it that this grove should be utterly forgotten.


s: I will walk warily in the wise woods on the fringes of eventide,


s: For the covert is full of noises and the stir of nameless things.


s: And down in the marish hollow I have heard the lady who sings.


s: And once in an April gleaming I met a maid on the sward,


s: All marble-white and gleaming and tender and wild of eye;--


s: I, Jehan the hunter, who speak am a grown man, middling hard,


s: But I dreamt a month of the maid, and wept I knew not why.


s: Down by the edge of the firs, in a coppice of heath and vine,


s: Is an old moss-grown altar, shaded by briar and bloom,


s: Denys, the priest, hath told me 'twas the lord Apollo's shrine


s: In the days ere Christ came down from God to the Virgin's womb.


s: I never go past but I doff my cap and avert my eyes--


s: (Were Denys to catch me I trow I'd do penance for half a year)--


s: For once I saw a flame there and the smoke of a sacrifice,


s: Mary the Blessed Mother, and the kindly Saints as well,


s: I will give glory and praise, and them I cherish the most,


s: For they have the keys of Heaven, and save the soul from Hell.


s: But likewise I will spare for the Lord Apollo a grace,


s: And a bow for the lady Venus-as a friend but not as a thrall.


s: 'Tis true they are out of Heaven, but some day they may win the


s: For gods are kittle cattle, and a wise man honours them all.


s: The last rays of October daylight that filtered through the straw


s: The peat smoke got into his throat and brought on a fresh fit of


s: "Ninemileburn.  Bewcastle's marching.  They riped the place at


s: cockcrow, and took twenty-six kye, five horse and a walth o'


s: plenishing.  They were seen fordin' Teviot at ten afore noon, but


s: He stared hopelessly up at a darkening sky.  Then he went to the


s: The company grew, as men dropped in from left and right.  Sim


s: They were now in a land of low hills, which made ill-going.  A


s: There'll be bluidy war on Tarras side ere the nicht's dune."


s: reproachful.  He would be one of the plain folk who had to ride,


s: "How mony beasts were killed?" he asked incuriously, and was told


s: Men were drawn by lot to drive the cattle, and others to form a


s: "The coo, Sim," she said faintly. "Hae ye brocht the coo?"


s: The rushlight dropped on the floor. Now he knew the price of his


s: riding.  He fell into a fit of coughing.


s: And ground the grain and boiled the pot.


s: And made great roads from south to north;


s: The earth shall have to work their will;


s: When they have topped the last long hill.


s: Though kings may boast and knights cavort,


s: When odds were wild and hopes were down,


s: Then crowns would tumble down like nuts,


s: "An ape and a lion lie side by side in the heart of a man."


s: hill-station in Persia to which I had been sent post-haste by an


s: passion of the Red Gods are in its pages.


s: deucedly comfortable, and the water's better."


s: "What did he actually do?"  I asked after a short silence.


s: "'The Kings of Orion have come to earth,'"  I quoted.


s: "His wife was my cousin, and when she died Tommy was left a very


s: experiences, and I had hopes of big game.


s: railway had been built, and there were several biggish mining


s: representative of the sovereign people, that I was a member of an


s: zinc-lined boxes--your big paper-backed German books which mean


s: "But, oddly enough, there was one thing which stirred him with an


s: civilisation, and natural barriers against all invasion.'


s: "'I suppose they never found the man,' I said.


s: "He agreed.  'Their princes were sots, or they were barbarians of


s: property, but perfectly careless about any danger to himself.


s: Governor, he would take his orders from me.


s: "For three days I had a baddish time.  We steered by the stars,


s: travelling chiefly by night, and we showed extraordinary skill in


s: interfered with us, and the nearer we got the greater grew my


s: "'He made this laddie put on his braws, and he commandeered this


s: awaited our coming in a silence like the tomb.


s: "'And so we left him.  I will not describe how I spent last night


s: war-paint complete.  After him trooped about thirty of the great


s: To the rickle of stones on the red rock's edge


s: When we sang of home, and sighed, and dreamed,


s: The walls are to build from west to east,


s: The Courts of the Lord are a heap of dust


s: There's a deal to do ere we patch it anew


s: --Is it mortal guile, if once in a while


s: But loves and lures from the ends of the earth


s: Next year he too may have sailed strange seas


s: Out from the hills and the laggard brooks


s: Once upon a time, says the tale, there was a Great Godly Man, a


s: hunting the deer and rinnin' on the high moors, and bidin' in the


s: "Can ye sing it, bird?" said the man, "for I am keen to hear it."


s: "I am willing and brawly willing," said the man.


s: Then the melody changed to a fiercer and sadder note.  He saw his


s: The next morning the man rose and went to the manse.


s: "And where would ye go?" asked the minister, aghast.


s: And the old wife shook with her coughing.  So the man put up his


s: But while unmoved their sleep they take,


s: Follow, through all my favourite haunts,


s: The second sniffed and answered:  'Pooh!


s: Sometime their course they watched; and then -


s: Long through the hills their way they took,


s: Soon shall the empurpled glutton sprawl -


s: 'What have you caught?' the peasant cries.


s: Robin was rough, and through and through


s: Takes lodgings at the 'Crown and Anchor.'


s: Strange that the sordid clowns should show


s: Something that did not seem to suit all -


s: Something, O call it bluff, not brutal -


s: Something at least, howe'er it's called,


s: Who picks his farthings hot from danger.


s: Regard your friend and school companion,


s: With Heaven knows how much land in dowry),


s: 'Well,' answered Robin--'well, and how?'


s: 'Rob,' he replied, 'this throbbing brain


s: The attendant sharks that chew the cud -


s: The cut-throat crew--the Captain's curse -


s: The tempest blustering worse and worse -


s: With boisterous voice, with eagle glance


s: For thrift of bricks and greed of guilders,


s: 'For surely, sir--with your permeession -


s: Bricks here, sir, in the main parteetion. . . . '


s: The builder goggled, gulped, and stared,


s: 'Crescents are crescents, trade is trade.


s: Built, I believe, for different reasons -


s: To use their stone, to spite their neighbours,


s: With bulging walls, with sinking floors,


s: Called clerk and parson to their perches,


s: Time, too, the iron-toothed and sinewed,


s: Thrones rose and fell; and still the crescent,


s: And the lamps winked through all the city.


s: Before that house, where lights were shining,


s: And tore the trees and tossed the ships,


s: Had this good house, in frame or fixture,


s: The years were full, the house was fated,


s: Mother of Rome, delight of Gods and men,


s: Dear Venus that beneath the gliding stars


s: And fruitful lands--for all of living things


s: Through thee alone are evermore conceived,


s: Through thee are risen to visit the great sun--


s: Before thee, Goddess, and thy coming on,


s: For thee the daedal Earth bears scented flowers,


s: Smile, and the hollows of the serene sky


s: For soon as comes the springtime face of day,


s: And procreant gales blow from the West unbarred,


s: First fowls of air, smit to the heart by thee,


s: And leap the wild herds round the happy fields


s: Or swim the bounding torrents. Thus amain,


s: Seized with the spell, all creatures follow thee


s: Whithersoever thou walkest forth to lead,


s: And thence through seas and mountains and swift streams,


s: Through leafy homes of birds and greening plains,


s: Kindling the lure of love in every breast,


s: Thou bringest the eternal generations forth,


s: Kind after kind. And since 'tis thou alone


s: Guidest the Cosmos, and without thee naught


s: Is risen to reach the shining shores of light,


s: Thee do I crave co-partner in that verse


s: For Memmius mine, whom thou hast willed to be


s: Wherefore indeed, Divine one, give my words


s: O'er sea and land the savage works of war,


s: For thou alone hast power with public peace


s: The savage works of battle, puissant Mars,


s: How often to thy bosom flings his strength


s: O'ermastered by the eternal wound of love--


s: And there, with eyes and full throat backward thrown,


s: Gazing, my Goddess, open-mouthed at thee,


s: Pastures on love his greedy sight, his breath


s: Hanging upon thy lips. Him thus reclined


s: Pour from those lips soft syllables to win


s: Peace for the Romans, glorious Lady, peace!


s: With thought untroubled, nor mid such events


s: The illustrious scion of the Memmian house


s: Throughout the lands lay miserably crushed


s: Would show her head along the region skies,


s: Glowering on mortals with her hideous face--


s: Raise mortal eyes that terror to withstand,


s: Whom nor the fame of Gods nor lightning's stroke


s: Nor threatening thunder of the ominous sky


s: Abashed; but rather chafed to angry zest


s: His dauntless heart to be the first to rend


s: The crossbars at the gates of Nature old.


s: The flaming ramparts of the world, until


s: What things can rise to being, what cannot,


s: And by what law to each its scope prescribed,


s: Its boundary stone that clings so deep in Time.


s: And us his victory now exalts to heaven.


s: To tell the dark discoveries of the Greeks,


s: Chiefly because our pauper-speech must find


s: Strange terms to fit the strangeness of the thing;


s: Of thy sweet friendship do persuade me on


s: To bear all toil and wake the clear nights through,


s: Seeking with what of words and what of song


s: For thee the light beyond, wherewith to view


s: And for the rest, summon to judgments true,


s: Withdrawn from cares; lest these my gifts, arranged


s: For thee with eager service, thou disdain


s: Before thou comprehendest: since for thee


s: I prove the supreme law of Gods and sky,


s: And the primordial germs of things unfold,


s: Whence Nature all creates, and multiplies


s: And fosters all, and whither she resolves


s: Each in the end when each is overthrown.


s: This ultimate stock we have devised to name


s: Procreant atoms, matter, seeds of things,


s: Or primal bodies, as primal to the world.


s: I fear perhaps thou deemest that we fare


s: An impious road to realms of thought profane;


s: With Agamemnon's daughter, foully slain.


s: She felt the chaplet round her maiden locks


s: And fillets, fluttering down on either cheek,


s: And at the altar marked her grieving sire,


s: The priests beside him who concealed the knife,


s: And all the folk in tears at sight of her.


s: She dropped; nor might avail her now that first


s: 'Twas she who gave the king a father's name.


s: They raised her up, they bore the trembling girl


s: To give the ships auspicious winds for Troy:


s: Such are the crimes to which Religion leads.


s: And there shall come the time when even thou,


s: Forced by the soothsayer's terror-tales, shalt seek


s: To break from us. Ah, many a dream even now


s: Can they concoct to rout thy plans of life,


s: And trouble all thy fortunes with base fears.


s: Some fixed end to ills, they would be strong


s: But now nor skill nor instrument is theirs,


s: Since men must dread eternal pains in death.


s: For what the soul may be they do not know,


s: Whether 'tis born, or enter in at birth,


s: And whether, snatched by death, it die with us,


s: Or visit the shadows and the vasty caves


s: Enter the brute herds, as our Ennius sang,


s: Who first from lovely Helicon brought down


s: A laurel wreath of bright perennial leaves,


s: Renowned forever among the Italian clans.


s: Proclaims those vaults of Acheron to be,


s: Though thence, he said, nor souls nor bodies fare,


s: But only phantom figures, strangely wan,


s: And tells how once from out those regions rose


s: Old Homer's ghost to him and shed salt tears


s: And with his words unfolded Nature's source.


s: Then be it ours with steady mind to clasp


s: The purport of the skies--the law behind


s: The wandering courses of the sun and moon;


s: To scan the powers that speed all life below;


s: Of what the mind, of what the soul is made,


s: Dead men whose bones earth bosomed long ago.


s: This terror, then, this darkness of the mind,


s: Not sunrise with its flaring spokes of light,


s: Nor glittering arrows of morning can disperse,


s: So much the cause whereof no wise they know,


s: Meantime, when once we know from nothing still


s: More clearly what we seek: those elements


s: From which alone all things created are,


s: And how accomplished by no tool of Gods.


s: Suppose all sprang from all things: any kind


s: No fixed seed required. Men from the sea


s: Might rise, and from the land the scaly breed,


s: And, fowl full fledged come bursting from the sky;


s: The horned cattle, the herds and all the wild


s: Would haunt with varying offspring tilth and waste;


s: Nor would the same fruits keep their olden trees,


s: But each might grow from any stock or limb


s: By chance and change. Indeed, and were there not


s: For each its procreant atoms, could things have


s: But, since produced from fixed seeds are all,


s: Each birth goes forth upon the shores of light


s: From its own stuff, from its own primal bodies.


s: Again, why see we lavished o'er the lands


s: At spring the rose, at summer heat the corn,


s: The vines that mellow when the autumn lures,


s: If not because the fixed seeds of things


s: At their own season must together stream,


s: When the due times arrive and pregnant earth


s: Safely may give unto the shores of light


s: Her tender progenies? But if from naught


s: Were their becoming, they would spring abroad


s: With no primordial germs, to be preserved


s: From procreant unions at an adverse hour.


s: Would space be needed for the growth of things


s: The tiny babe forthwith would walk a man,


s: And from the turf would leap a branching tree--


s: Wonders unheard of; for, by Nature, each


s: And through that increase shall conserve its kind.


s: Whence take the proof that things enlarge and feed


s: From out their proper matter. Thus it comes


s: That earth, without her seasons of fixed rains,


s: Could bear no produce such as makes us glad,


s: And whatsoever lives, if shut from food,


s: Prolongs its kind and guards its life no more.


s: Thus easier 'tis to hold that many things


s: The single letters common to many words)


s: Or rend the mighty mountains with their hands,


s: Or conquer Time with length of days, if not


s: The changeless stuff, and what from that may spring


s: How far the tilled surpass the fields untilled


s: Their more abounding crops; there are indeed


s: Within the earth primordial germs of things,


s: Which, as the ploughshare turns the fruitful clods


s: And kneads the mould, we quicken into birth.


s: Else would ye mark, without all toil of ours,


s: Confess then, naught from nothing can become,


s: Since all must have their seeds, wherefrom to grow,


s: Wherefrom to reach the gentle fields of air.


s: Hence too it comes that Nature all dissolves


s: Into their primal bodies again, and naught


s: For, were aught mortal in its every part,


s: Before our eyes it might be snatched away


s: Unto destruction; since no force were needed


s: To sunder its members and undo its bands.


s: Whereas, of truth, because all things exist,


s: Destruction nor collapse of aught, until


s: Some outward force may shatter by a blow,


s: Or inward craft, entering its hollow cells,


s: Dissolve it down. And more than this, if Time,


s: That wastes with eld the works along the world,


s: Whence then may Venus back to light of life


s: Or how, when thus restored, may daedal Earth


s: Foster and plenish with her ancient food,


s: Which, kind by kind, she offers unto each?


s: Whence may the water-springs, beneath the sea,


s: And out of what does Ether feed the stars?


s: For lapsed years and infinite age must else


s: Have eat all shapes of mortal stock away:


s: But be it the Long Ago contained those germs,


s: By which this sum of things recruited lives,


s: And, too, the selfsame power might end alike


s: All things, were they not still together held


s: By matter eternal, shackled through its parts,


s: Now more, now less. A touch might be enough


s: To cause destruction. For the slightest force


s: Would loose the weft of things wherein no part


s: Because the fastenings of primordial parts


s: Unhurt and sure, until some power comes on


s: Strong to destroy the warp and woof of each:


s: Nothing returns to naught; but all return


s: At their collapse to primal forms of stuff.


s: Lo, the rains perish which Ether-father throws


s: Down to the bosom of Earth-mother; but then


s: Upsprings the shining grain, and boughs are green


s: Amid the trees, and trees themselves wax big


s: And lade themselves with fruits; and hence in turn


s: The race of man and all the wild are fed;


s: Hence joyful cities thrive with boys and girls;


s: And leafy woodlands echo with new birds;


s: Hence cattle, fat and drowsy, lay their bulk


s: Along the joyous pastures whilst the drops


s: Of white ooze trickle from distended bags;


s: Hence the young scamper on their weakling joints


s: Along the tender herbs, fresh hearts afrisk


s: With warm new milk. Thus naught of what so seems


s: Upbuilds one thing from other, suffering naught


s: To come to birth but through some other's death.


s: And now, since I have taught that things cannot


s: Be born from nothing, nor the same, when born,


s: To nothing be recalled, doubt not my words,


s: Because our eyes no primal germs perceive;


s: For mark those bodies which, though known to be


s: The winds infuriate lash our face and frame,


s: Unseen, and swamp huge ships and rend the clouds,


s: Or, eddying wildly down, bestrew the plains


s: With mighty trees, or scour the mountain tops


s: With forest-crackling blasts. Thus on they rave


s: With uproar shrill and ominous moan. The winds,


s: 'Tis clear, are sightless bodies sweeping through


s: The sea, the lands, the clouds along the sky,


s: Vexing and whirling and seizing all amain;


s: And forth they flow and pile destruction round,


s: Even as the water's soft and supple bulk


s: Which a wide downpour from the lofty hills


s: Swells with big showers, dashes headlong down


s: Fragments of woodland and whole branching trees;


s: Nor can the solid bridges bide the shock


s: As on the waters whelm: the turbulent stream,


s: Strong with a hundred rains, beats round the piers,


s: Crashes with havoc, and rolls beneath its waves


s: Down-toppled masonry and ponderous stone,


s: Even so must move the blasts of all the winds,


s: Which, when they spread, like to a mighty flood,


s: Hither or thither, drive things on before


s: And hurl to ground with still renewed assault,


s: Or sometimes in their circling vortex seize


s: And bear in cones of whirlwind down the world:


s: The winds are sightless bodies and naught else--


s: Since both in works and ways they rival well


s: Then too we know the varied smells of things


s: Yet never to our nostrils see them come;


s: With eyes we view not burning heats, nor cold,


s: Yet these must be corporeal at the base,


s: Since thus they smite the senses: naught there is


s: And raiment, hung by surf-beat shore, grows moist,


s: The same, spread out before the sun, will dry;


s: Yet no one saw how sank the moisture in,


s: Nor how by heat off-driven. Thus we know,


s: That moisture is dispersed about in bits


s: Too small for eyes to see. Another case:


s: Along the under side, with years and suns;


s: The drippings from the eaves will scoop the stone;


s: The hooked ploughshare, though of iron, wastes


s: The rock-paved highways worn by many feet;


s: And at the gates the brazen statues show


s: Their right hands leaner from the frequent touch


s: We see how wearing-down hath minished these,


s: The envious nature of vision bars our sight.


s: Little by little, constraining things to grow


s: Of these our eyes hath watched and known. No more


s: When things wax old with eld and foul decay,


s: Or when salt seas eat under beetling crags.


s: Thus Nature ever by unseen bodies works.


s: But yet creation's neither crammed nor blocked


s: About by body: there's in things a void--


s: Which to have known will serve thee many a turn,


s: Nor will not leave thee wandering in doubt,


s: And losing faith in these pronouncements mine.


s: There's place intangible, a void and room.


s: For were it not, things could in nowise move;


s: Since body's property to block and check


s: Would work on all and at an times the same.


s: Thus naught could evermore push forth and go,


s: Since naught elsewhere would yield a starting place.


s: But now through oceans, lands, and heights of heaven,


s: Before our eyes we mark how much may move,


s: Which, finding not a void, would fail deprived


s: Of stir and motion; nay, would then have been


s: Nowise begot at all, since matter, then,


s: Had staid at rest, its parts together crammed.


s: They yet are formed of matter mixed with void:


s: In rocks and caves the watery moisture seeps,


s: And beady drops stand out like plenteous tears;


s: And food finds way through every frame that lives;


s: The trees increase and yield the season's fruit


s: Because their food throughout the whole is poured,


s: Even from the deepest roots, through trunks and boughs;


s: Reverberant through shut doorways of a house;


s: And stiffening frost seeps inward to our bones.


s: Which but for voids for bodies to go through


s: 'Tis clear could happen in nowise at all.


s: Of heavier weight, but of no bulkier size?


s: The two should weigh alike, since body tends


s: To load things downward, while the void abides,


s: Therefore, an object just as large but lighter


s: Even as the heavier more of matter shows,


s: And how much less of vacant room inside.


s: That which we're seeking with sagacious quest


s: Exists, infallibly, commixed with things--


s: Forestalling something certain folk suppose,


s: Lest it avail to lead thee off from truth:


s: Waters (they say) before the shining breed


s: Of the swift scaly creatures somehow give,


s: And straightway open sudden liquid paths,


s: Because the fishes leave behind them room


s: To which at once the yielding billows stream.


s: Thus things among themselves can yet be moved,


s: And change their place, however full the Sum--


s: Received opinion, wholly false forsooth.


s: For where can scaly creatures forward dart,


s: Save where the waters give them room? Again,


s: Where can the billows yield a way, so long


s: Thus either all bodies of motion are deprived,


s: Where each thing gets its start in moving on.


s: Lastly, where after impact two broad bodies


s: Suddenly spring apart, the air must crowd


s: The whole new void between those bodies formed;


s: But air, however it stream with hastening gusts,


s: Can yet not fill the gap at once--for first


s: It makes for one place, ere diffused through all.


s: And then, if haply any think this comes,


s: When bodies spring apart, because the air


s: Somehow condenses, wander they from truth:


s: For then a void is formed, where none before;


s: And, too, a void is filled which was before.


s: Nor can air be condensed in such a wise;


s: Nor, granting it could, without a void, I hold,


s: Wherefore, despite demur and counter-speech,


s: Confess thou must there is a void in things.


s: Here scrape together credence for my words.


s: But for the keen eye these mere footprints serve,


s: Whereby thou mayest know the rest thyself.


s: As dogs full oft with noses on the ground,


s: Find out the silent lairs, though hid in brush,


s: Of beasts, the mountain-rangers, when but once


s: They scent the certain footsteps of the way,


s: Thus thou thyself in themes like these alone


s: Can hunt from thought to thought, and keenly wind


s: And drag out truth. But, if thou loiter loth


s: Or veer, however little, from the point,


s: This I can promise, Memmius, for a fact:


s: Such copious drafts my singing tongue shall pour


s: From the large well-springs of my plenished breast


s: That much I dread slow age will steal and coil


s: Along our members, and unloose the gates


s: Of life within us, ere for thee my verse


s: Hath put within thine ears the stores of proofs


s: At hand for one soever question broached.


s: All nature, then, as self-sustained, consists


s: Of twain of things: of bodies and of void


s: In which they're set, and where they're moved around.


s: For common instinct of our race declares


s: This primal faith, deep-founded, fail us not,


s: Naught will there be whereunto to appeal


s: On things occult when seeking aught to prove


s: That place and room, which we do call the inane,


s: Nowhere could bodies then be set, nor go


s: Hither or thither at all--as shown before.


s: Besides, there's naught of which thou canst declare


s: It lives disjoined from body, shut from void--


s: Exists must be a somewhat; and the same,


s: Will yet increase the count of body's sum,


s: To keep a thing from passing through itself


s: On any side, 'twill be naught else but that


s: Or else be that wherein things move and be:


s: Naught but the inane can furnish room. And thus,


s: Beside the inane and bodies, is no third


s: Under our senses, nor be seized and seen


s: Name o'er creation with what names thou wilt,


s: Thou'lt find but properties of those first twain,


s: Or see but accidents those twain produce.


s: Can be disjoined and severed from a thing


s: Weight to the rocks, heat to the fire, and flow


s: To the wide waters, touch to corporal things,


s: But state of slavery, pauperhood, and wealth,


s: Freedom, and war, and concord, and all else


s: Which come and go whilst nature stands the same,


s: We're wont, and rightly, to call accidents.


s: Even time exists not of itself; but sense


s: Reads out of things what happened long ago,


s: What presses now, and what shall follow after:


s: No man, we must admit, feels time itself,


s: Disjoined from motion and repose of things.


s: Thus, when they say there "is" the ravishment


s: Of Princess Helen, "is" the siege and sack


s: Of Trojan Town, look out, they force us not


s: To admit these acts existent by themselves,


s: (Of whom these acts were accidents) long since


s: But accidents, in one way, of mankind,--


s: Add, too, had been no matter, and no room


s: Wherein all things go on, the fire of love


s: Upblown by that fair form, the glowing coal


s: Had ne'er enkindled that renowned strife


s: Involved in flames old Pergama, by a birth


s: And thus thou canst remark that every act


s: As body is, nor has like name with void;


s: But rather of sort more fitly to be called


s: Are partly primal germs of things, and partly


s: And those which are the primal germs of things


s: No power can quench; for in the end they conquer


s: By their own solidness; though hard it be


s: To think that aught in things has solid frame;


s: For lightnings pass, no less than voice and shout,


s: Through hedging walls of houses, and the iron


s: White-dazzles in the fire, and rocks will burn


s: With exhalations fierce and burst asunder.


s: Totters the rigid gold dissolved in heat;


s: The ice of bronze melts conquered in the flame;


s: Warmth and the piercing cold through silver seep,


s: Since, with the cups held rightly in the hand,


s: We oft feel both, as from above is poured


s: The dew of waters between their shining sides:


s: But yet because true reason and nature of things


s: Constrain us, come, whilst in few verses now


s: The seeds of things, the primal germs we teach,


s: Whence all creation around us came to be.


s: First since we know a twofold nature exists,


s: Of things, both twain and utterly unlike--


s: Body, and place in which an things go on--


s: Then each must be both for and through itself,


s: And all unmixed: where'er be empty space,


s: There body's not; and so where body bides,


s: Thus primal bodies are solid, without a void.


s: But since there's void in all begotten things,


s: All solid matter must be round the same;


s: Nor, by true reason canst thou prove aught hides


s: And holds a void within its body, unless


s: Thou grant what holds it be a solid. Know,


s: That which can hold a void of things within


s: Can be naught else than matter in union knit.


s: Thus matter, consisting of a solid frame,


s: Hath power to be eternal, though all else,


s: The world were then a solid; as, without


s: Some certain bodies to fill the places held,


s: The world that is were but a vacant void.


s: Since nature knows no wholly full nor void.


s: There are, then, certain bodies, possessed of power


s: And these can nor be sundered from without


s: By beats and blows, nor from within be torn


s: By any assault soever through the world--


s: For without void, naught can be crushed, it seems,


s: Nor broken, nor severed by a cut in twain,


s: Nor can it take the damp, or seeping cold


s: Or piercing fire, those old destroyers three;


s: But the more void within a thing, the more


s: Entirely it totters at their sure assault.


s: Thus if first bodies be, as I have taught,


s: Solid, without a void, they must be then


s: Eternal, long ere now had all things gone


s: We see around from nothing had been born--


s: But since I taught above that naught can be


s: From naught created, nor the once begotten


s: To naught be summoned back, these primal germs


s: And into these must each thing be resolved,


s: When comes its supreme hour, that thus there be


s: At hand the stuff for plenishing the world.


s: Nor otherwise could they have been conserved


s: Once more, if nature had given a scope for things


s: By now the bodies of matter would have been


s: That from them nothing could, at season fixed,


s: Be born, and arrive its prime and top of life.


s: For, lo, each thing is quicker marred than made;


s: Of days and all fore-passed time would now


s: By this have broken and ruined and dissolved,


s: That same could ne'er in all remaining time


s: Remaineth stablished 'gainst their breaking down;


s: Since we behold each thing soever renewed,


s: And unto all, their seasons, after their kind,


s: Wherein they arrive the flower of their age.


s: Again, if bounds have not been set against


s: The breaking down of this corporeal world,


s: Have still endured from everlasting time


s: By shocks of peril. But because the same


s: Are, to thy thinking, of a nature frail,


s: It ill accords that thus they could remain


s: (As thus they do) through everlasting time,


s: Vexed through the ages (as indeed they are)


s: How 'tis that, though the bodies of all stuff


s: The ways whereby some things are fashioned soft--


s: Air, water, earth, and fiery exhalations--


s: And by what force they function and go on:


s: The fact is founded in the void of things.


s: But if the primal germs themselves be soft,


s: Reason cannot be brought to bear to show


s: Great crags of basalt and the during iron;


s: For their whole nature will profoundly lack


s: And by their combinations more condensed,


s: All objects can be tightly knit and bound


s: And made to show unconquerable strength.


s: Again, since all things kind by kind obtain


s: Fixed bounds of growing and conserving life;


s: What each can do, what each can never do;


s: Since naught is changed, but all things so abide


s: The spots or stripes peculiar to their kind,


s: Spring after spring: thus surely all that is


s: Were open to conquest and to change, 'twould be


s: And what could not, and by what law to each


s: Its scope prescribed, its boundary stone that clings


s: So deep in Time. Nor could the generations


s: The nature, habits, motions, ways of life,


s: Since there is ever an extreme bounding point


s: Cannot perceive: That bounding point indeed


s: Since 'tis itself still parcel of another,


s: A first and single part, whence other parts


s: In a packed phalanx, filling to the full


s: Not self-existent, they must cleave to that


s: From which in nowise they can sundered be.


s: Which tightly packed and closely joined cohere


s: Nature, reserving them as seeds for things,


s: Permitteth naught of rupture or decrease.


s: The smallest bodies would have infinites,


s: Since then a half-of-half could still be halved,


s: Then what the difference 'twixt the sum and least?


s: Yet even the smallest would consist the same


s: Of infinite parts. But since true reason here


s: Protests, denying that the mind can think it,


s: Convinced thou must confess such things there are


s: As have no parts, the minimums of nature.


s: And since these are, likewise confess thou must


s: That primal bodies are solid and eterne.


s: Again, if Nature, creatress of all things,


s: Were wont to force all things to be resolved


s: Unto least parts, then would she not avail


s: Because whate'er is not endowed with parts


s: Cannot possess those properties required


s: Of generative stuff--divers connections,


s: Weights, blows, encounters, motions, whereby things


s: And on such grounds it is that those who held


s: The stuff of things is fire, and out of fire


s: Alone the cosmic sum is formed, are seen


s: Mightily from true reason to have lapsed.


s: Of whom, chief leader to do battle, comes


s: Who search for truth. For dolts are ever prone


s: Beneath distorted words, holding that true


s: Which sweetly tickles in their stupid ears,


s: Or which is rouged in finely finished phrase.


s: For how, I ask, can things so varied be,


s: If formed of fire, single and pure? No whit


s: 'Twould help for fire to be condensed or thinned,


s: If all the parts of fire did still preserve


s: But fire's own nature, seen before in gross.


s: The heat were keener with the parts compressed,


s: Milder, again, when severed or dispersed--


s: And more than this thou canst conceive of naught


s: That from such causes could become; much less


s: This too: if they suppose a void in things,


s: Then fires can be condensed and still left rare;


s: But since they see such opposites of thought


s: Rising against them, and are loath to leave


s: An unmixed void in things, they fear the steep


s: And lose the road of truth. Nor do they see,


s: That, if from things we take away the void,


s: All things are then condensed, and out of all


s: One body made, which has no power to dart


s: As throws the fire its light and warmth around,


s: Giving thee proof its parts are not compact.


s: But if perhaps they think, in other wise,


s: Fires through their combinations can be quenched


s: And change their substance, very well: behold,


s: If fire shall spare to do so in no part,


s: And out of nothing would the world be formed.


s: For change in anything from out its bounds


s: Means instant death of that which was before;


s: And thus a somewhat must persist unharmed


s: Amid the world, lest all return to naught,


s: And, born from naught, abundance thrive anew.


s: Now since indeed there are those surest bodies


s: Which keep their nature evermore the same,


s: And changed order things their nature change,


s: And all corporeal substances transformed,


s: 'Tis thine to know those primal bodies, then,


s: Should some depart and go away, and some


s: Be added new, and some be changed in order,


s: If still all kept their nature of old heat:


s: The truth, I fancy, this: bodies there are


s: Whose clashings, motions, order, posture, shapes


s: Produce the fire and which, by order changed,


s: Do change the nature of the thing produced,


s: Nor whatso else has power to send its bodies


s: With impact touching on the senses' touch.


s: Again, to say that all things are but fire


s: And no true thing in number of all things


s: Exists but fire, as this same fellow says,


s: Against the senses by the senses fights,


s: And hews at that through which is all belief,


s: Through which indeed unto himself is known


s: The thing he calls the fire. For, though he thinks


s: He thinks they cannot as regards all else,


s: Which still are palpably as clear to sense--


s: For whither shall we make appeal? for what


s: More certain than our senses can there be


s: Whereby to mark asunder error and truth?


s: The fire and still allow all else to be?--


s: Thus whosoe'er have held the stuff of things


s: To be but fire, and out of fire the sum,


s: And all whoever have held that of itself


s: Water alone contrives things, or that earth


s: A long way to have wandered from the truth.


s: Twofold, by joining air to fire, and earth


s: To water; add who deem that things can grow


s: Out of the four--fire, earth, and breath, and rain;


s: Whom that three-cornered isle of all the lands


s: Bore on her coasts, around which flows and flows


s: Splashing the brine from off their gray-green waves.


s: Here, billowing onward through the narrow straits,


s: Swift ocean cuts her boundaries from the shores


s: Charybdis; and here Aetna rumbles threats


s: To gather anew such furies of its flames


s: Belched from its throat, and skyward bear anew


s: Its lightnings' flash. And though for much she seem


s: The mighty and the wondrous isle to men,


s: Most rich in all good things, and fortified


s: With generous strength of heroes, she hath ne'er


s: Possessed within her aught of more renown,


s: Nor aught more holy, wonderful, and dear


s: Than this true man. Nay, ever so far and pure


s: Lifts up its voice and tells of glories found,


s: That scarce he seems of human stock create.


s: Yet he and those forementioned (known to be


s: So far beneath him, less than he in all),


s: Though, as discoverers of much goodly truth,


s: They gave, as 'twere from out of the heart's own shrine,


s: From out the triped and the Delphian laurel,


s: Made ruin of themselves, and, great men, great


s: Indeed and heavy there for them the fall:


s: First, because, banishing the void from things,


s: Things soft and loosely textured to exist,


s: As air, dew, fire, earth, animals, and grains,


s: Without admixture of void amid their frame.


s: Next, because, thinking there can be no end


s: Nor pause established to their breaking up,


s: They hold there is no minimum in things;


s: Albeit we see the boundary point of aught


s: Is that which to our senses seems its least,


s: Whereby thou mayst conjecture, that, because


s: The things thou canst not mark have boundary points,


s: They surely have their minimums. Then, too,


s: Since these philosophers ascribe to things


s: Soft primal germs, which we behold to be


s: Of birth and body mortal, thus, throughout,


s: The sum of things must be returned to naught,


s: And, born from naught, abundance thrive anew--


s: Thou seest how far each doctrine stands from truth.


s: And, next, these bodies are among themselves


s: Wherefore their congress will destroy them quite


s: Rains, winds, and lightnings all asunder fly.


s: Thus too, if all things are create of four,


s: How can the four be called the primal germs


s: Of things, more than all things themselves be thought,


s: Thou think'st the frame of fire and earth, the air,


s: As not by mingling to resign their nature,


s: From them for thee no world can be create--


s: No thing of breath, no stock or stalk of tree:


s: In the wild congress of this varied heap


s: Each thing its proper nature will display,


s: With earth together, unquenched heat with water.


s: But primal germs in bringing things to birth


s: From heaven, and from its fires; and first they feign


s: That fire will turn into the winds of air,


s: Next, that from air the rain begotten is,


s: That all, reversely, are returned from earth--


s: The moisture first, then air thereafter heat--


s: And that these same ne'er cease in interchange,


s: To go their ways from heaven to earth, from earth


s: Which in no wise at all the germs can do.


s: Since an immutable somewhat still must be,


s: Lest all things utterly be sped to naught;


s: For change in anything from out its bounds


s: Means instant death of that which was before.


s: Wherefore, since those things, mentioned heretofore,


s: Suffer a changed state, they must derive


s: Lest an things utterly return to naught.


s: Bodies with such a nature furnished forth


s: That, if perchance they have created fire,


s: Can still (by virtue of a few withdrawn,


s: Or added few, and motion and order changed)


s: Fashion the winds of air, and thus all things


s: "But facts in proof are manifest," thou sayest,


s: "That all things grow into the winds of air


s: And forth from earth are nourished, and unless


s: With rains enough to set the trees a-reel


s: And sun, for its share, foster and give heat,


s: No grains, nor trees, nor breathing things can grow."


s: True--and unless hard food and moisture soft


s: Recruited man, his frame would waste away,


s: And life dissolve from out his thews and bones;


s: For out of doubt recruited and fed are we


s: By certain things, as other things by others.


s: Common to many things are mixed in things,


s: No wonder 'tis that therefore divers things


s: By divers things are nourished. And, again,


s: Often it matters vastly with what others,


s: Are bound together, and what motions, too,


s: They give and get among themselves; for these


s: Same germs do put together sky, sea, lands,


s: Rivers, and sun, grains, trees, and breathing things,


s: But yet commixed they are in divers modes


s: With divers things, forever as they move.


s: Albeit thou must confess each verse, each word


s: Can bring about by change of order alone.


s: But those which are the primal germs of things


s: Have power to work more combinations still,


s: Whence divers things can be produced in turn.


s: So called by Greeks, for which our pauper-speech


s: Although the thing itself is not o'erhard


s: For explanation. First, then, when he speaks


s: Bones to be sprung from littlest bones minute,


s: And from minute and littlest flesh all flesh,