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Translation of a Passage from Statius.

THEB. LIB. VI. VER. 704-724.

This translation, which Gray sent to West, consisted of about a hundred and ten lines. Mr. Mason selected twenty-seven lines, which he published, as Gray's first attempt in English verse.

THIRD in the labors of the disc came on,

With sturdy step and slow, Hippomedon;

Artful and strong he poised the well-known weight,
By Phlegyas warn'd, and fired by Mnestheus' fate,
That to avoid, and this to emulate.

His vigorous arm he tried before he flung,
Braced all his nerves, and every sinew strung,

Then, with a tempest's whirl, and wary eye,

Pursued his cast, and hurl'd the orb on high ;

The orb on high tenacious of its course,
True to the mighty arm that gave it force,

Far overleaps all bound, and joys to see
Its ancient lord secure of victory.

The theatre's green height and woody wall
Tremble ere it precipitates its fall;

The ponderous mass sinks in the cleaving ground,
While vales and woods and echoing hills rebound.—
As when from Etna's smoking summit broke,
The eyeless Cyclops heaved the craggy rock;
Where Ocean frets beneath the dashing oar,
And parting surges round the vessel roar;
'Twas there he aim'd the meditated harm,
And scarce Ulysses scaped his giant arm.
A tiger's pride the victor bore away,
With native spots and artful labor gay,
A shining border round the margin roll'd,
And calm'd the terrors of his claws in gold.

CAMBRIDGE, May 8, 1736.

The Alliance of Education and Government.

A FRAGMENT.

"Instead of compiling tables of chronology and natural history, why did not Mr. Gray apply the powers of his genius to finish the philosophic poem of which he has left such an exquisite specimen ?" GIBBON.

ESSAY I.

-Πόταγ ̓ ὦ' γαθέ· τὴν γαρ ἀοιδὰν

Ουτι πω εἰς Αἴδαν γε τὸν εκλελάθοντα φυλαξεῖς.
THEOCRITUS, ID. I. 63.

As sickly plants betray a niggard earth,
Whose barren bosom starves her generous birth,
Nor genial warmth, nor genial juice retains,
Their roots to feed, and fill their verdant veins :
And as in climes, where winter holds his reign,
The soil, though fertile, will not teem in vain,
Forbids her gems to swell, her shades to rise,
Nor trusts her blossoms to the churlish skies.
So draw mankind in vain the vital airs,

Unform'd, unfriended, by those kindly cares,

That health and vigor to the soul impart,

Spread the young thought, and warm the opening heart:

So fond instruction on the growing powers

Of nature idly lavishes her stores,

If equal justice with unclouded face
Smile not indulgent on the rising race,
And scatter with a free though frugal hand,
Light golden showers of plenty o'er the land:
But tyranny has fix'd her empire there,

To check their tender hopes with chilling fear,
And blast the blooming promise of the year.

This spacious animated scene survey,

From where the rolling orb, that gives the day,
His sable sons with nearer course surrounds
To either pole, and life's remotest bounds,
How rude soe'er the' exterior form we find,
Howe'er opinion tinge the varied mind,
Alike to all, the kind, impartial Heaven

The sparks of truth and happiness has given.

With sense to feel, with memory to retain,

They follow pleasure, and they fly from pain;
Their judgment mends the plan their fancy
The' event presages, and explores the cause;
The soft returns of gratitude they know,
By fraud elude, by force repel the foe;
While mutual wishes, mutual woes endear
The social smile and sympathetic tear.

Say, then, through ages by what fate confined
To different climes seem different souls assign'd?
Here measured laws and philosophic ease
Fix, and improve the polish'd arts of peace;
There industry and gain their vigils keep,
Command the winds, and tame the' unwilling deep:

Here force and hardy deeds of blood prevail;
There languid pleasure sighs in every gale.
Oft o'er the trembling nations from afar
Has Scythia breathed the living cloud of war;
And, where the deluge burst, with sweepy sway

Their arms, their kings, their gods were roll'd away.

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