Tunc, dico, "deus est Amor deorum!
"Et nullus deus est Amore major!
"Si quisquam tamen est Amore major,
"Tu, Tu sola mihi es, Neæra, major !”

[Tunc, dico, &c.] Thus beautifully again the French

imitator:

Alors je renais: et m'écrie;

L'Amour soumet la Terre, assujetit les Cieux,
Les Rois sont à ses pieds, il gouverne les Dieux,
Il mêle en se jouant des pleurs á l'ambroisie,
Il est maître absolu; mais Thaïs aujourd'hui
L'emporte sur les Rois, sur les Dieux, et sur lui.

DORAT. BAISER VI.

Then, more than blest, I fondly swear,

"No pow'r can with love's pow'r compare ! "None in the starry court of Jove

"Is greater than the god of love! "If any can yet greater be,

"Yes, my Neæra! yes, 'tis Thee!"

t

BASIUM VI.

DE meliore notâ bis basia mille paciscens
Basia mille dedi, basia mille tuli.
Explesti numerum, fateor, jucunda Neæra !
Expleri numero sed nequit ullus amor.

Quis laudet Cererem numeratis surgere aristis?
Grumen in irriguâ quis numeravit humo?

Quis tibi, Bacche, tulit pro centum vota racemis?
Agricolumve Deum mille puposcit apeis?
Cùm pius irrorat sitienteis Juppiter agros,
Decidua guttas non numeramus aquæ.

Sic

quoque, cùm ventis concussus inhorruit aër, Sumpsit et iratá Juppiter arma manu,

[Agricolumve Deum, &c.] Aristæus, one of the rural deities, who is said to have first discovered the use of honey; vide Pausanias, in Arcadicis. A pretty history of him may be found in Virgil, Georg. iv.

KISS. VI.

TWO thousand Kisses of the sweetest kind,
'Twas once agreed, our mutual love should bind;
First from my lips a rapt'rous thousand flow'd,
Then you a thousand in your turn bestow'd;
The promis'd numbers were fulfill'd, I own,
But Love suffic'd with numbers ne'er was known!
What mortal strives to count each springing blade,
That spreads the surface of a grassy mead ?
Who prays for number'd ears of rip'ning grain,
When lavish Ceres yellows o'er the plain?
Or to a scanty hundred would confine

The clust'ring grapes, when Bacchus loads the vine?
Who asks the Guardian of the honied store
To grant a thousand bees, and grant no more?
Or tells the drops, while o'er some thirsty field
The liquid stores are from above distill'd?
When Jove with fury hurls the moulded hail,
And earth and sea destructive storms assail,
Or when he bids, from his tempestuous sky,
The winds unchain'd with wasting horror fly,,

Grandine confusâ terras et cœrula pulsat,
Securus sternat quot sata, quotve locis.

Seu bona, seu mala sunt, veniunt uberrima cœlo:
Majestas domui convenit illa Jovis.

Tu quoque cùm dea sis, diva formosior illá, Concha per æquoreum quam vaga ducit iter; Basia cur numero, cœlestia dona, coërces?

Nec numeras gemitus, dura puella, meos ?

Nec lachrymas numeras, quæ per faciemque si

numque,

Duxerunt rivos semper-euntis aquæ?

[Concha per æquoreum, &c.] The shell of Venus has been celebrated by classics, both ancient and modern;

Et faveas conchâ Cypria vecta tuâ

TIBULL. LIB. III. EL. 3.

And aid me, Venus! from thy pearly car.

And thus Hercules Strozza:

GRAINGER,

Nabat Erythreâ materna per æquora conchâ,

Qualis erat spumis edita, nuda Venus.

HERC. STROZ. AMO. L. 11. EL. 5.

In Erythrean shell the sea-born Queen

Rode on her native waves, her native beauties seen.

[Duxerunt rivos semper-euntis, &c.] Sidronius Hosschius, a Latin poet, of Marke, in Germany, who flourished