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We are informed by Rabelais, B. IV. Ch. VIII. that Panurge, in a voyage at fea, had a quarrel with a merchant, who carried a flock of sheep to fell, The paffengers interpofed, and made them fhake hands and drink together. Panurge, ftill meditåting revenge, fo contrives it by a stratagem, as to drown all the fheep, and the merchant along with them: and, rejoicing over his exploit, fays to his companion, Friar John, "Hear this from me: No man ever did me a difpleafure, without repent ing of it, either in this world, or in the next.”

TRANSLATIONS

TRANSLATIONS

FROM THE

LUSUS POETICI,

TRANSLATION OF ODE II,

CASSANDRA'S PROPHECY. *

Hector cum Patria mania linqueret, &c. WHEN Hector dauntless left the Trojan walls, No more, alas! to view his native home, Thus with prophetic voice his fifter calls,

Her locks difhevell'd:--Hark, CASSANDRA'S Come

Whither, O Phoebus?-Whence that loud acclaim?
See, their chiefs fly: refounds my Hector's name!
See, the fleet burns :-the fea's on fire,
Ting'd Grecian with th' empurpled hue of ire.

Frail, fondeft joys,-how quick ye fade away!
Ay me! great Priam's bands recede !
And thou, lov'd brother, wretched I furvey,

How foon for Juno's vengeance thou must bleed.

See P. 8.

Ο Tower

O Tower of Troy! her honour, and her pain!
Yet happy, doom'd to fall in her defence:
Happy, for lo, in fam'd Mæonian strain,

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Glory thy deeds fhall through the world dispense.

All, all must yield :-'Tis but the general doom:
Darkness and filence may furround thy tomb:
But tuneful lays, by Poet lifted high,
Forbid,the brave, the virtuous man to die."

B.

TRANSLATION OF ODE III. *
Qualis per nemorum nigra filentia, &&c.
As through the filence of the grove,

And through the meadow's verdant way,
The placid riv❜let loves to rove,

Whilft murmurs foft its course betray:

*See Page 9. This, and the poem "On the Nature of the Soul," P. 463, are found in the Gentleman's Magazine, for Auguft 1789, with the following note. "The Translator has not the vanity to think he has transferred much of the spirit of the original into his verses. His claim to praise has no foundation, if he wants that of fidelity. He wishes to give the English reader fome idea of JORTIN's elegance of fancy, and to excite the scholar to peruse fome of the most classical Latin verses which modern times have produced."

It may not be improper to take notice of a fingular mistake made by the editor of Vincent Bourne's Miscellaneous Poems, publifhed in 4to. 1772, who in Page 314, has reprinted, with fome variations, the above third Ode of Dr. JORTIN, Qualis per nemo-rum, &c. as the production of Mr. Bourne, under the title of "Vorum."

1

Awhile, around its native mead
It strives a winding courfe to keep
Till, as the flope improves its speed,
It gains the bofom of the deep:

Thus, through the fecret path of life
May I, unclogg'd by riches, glide!
Nor tangled in the thorns of ftrife,

Nor with the blood of conqueft dyed!

And when the shades of night increase,
When cloy'd with pleasure, prefs'd by woes,
May Sleep's kind brother bring me peace,
And his cold hand my dull eyes clofe!

TRANSLATION OF ODE IV.

Vix triftis dubia luce rubet Polus, &c. WITH fainteft gleam now dies the languid ray, In peaceful filence wrapt, creation sleeps ; While with lone ftep thro' these fad fhades I ftray, And love, with me, the penfive vigil keeps.

Unpitying JULIA! whither doft thou fly ?

Wilt thou, regardless, tempt the ocean's rage ? Shall billows waft thee from my raptur'd eye,No diftant hope my ling'ring woe t' affuage?

Where,

Where, where are now thofe plighted vows of love,
Which once in tendereft looks and words you gave?
Ah, may the boift'rous winds lefs cruel prove!
Ah, less destructive be the rolling wave!

ON THE NATURE OF THE SOUL.

AN TOTI MORIMUR NULLAQUE PARS MANET
NOSTRI ? *

SAY, intellectual spark of heavenly flame,
Does rigorous death await thee? Shall cold fleep
Ever benumb thy powers? Thy thought in vain.
Soars her bold flight, and plans eternal schemes,
If Fate and Nature unrelenting join

To blast the bloffoms of thy future joys.

First, then, thyfelf explore: the latent truth
Thy eager fearch may from its dark recefs
Draw forth, and haply reafon may display
Thy real nature, and thy origin.

If thou material art, the Elements

Were thy first parents; and, as from that fource
Thou flow'ft, thy diffolution fhall restore
Thy compound fubftance to the fame again.
If order, motion, figure, all unite

* See p. 23.

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