VIII.

50 Or wert thou that just Maid who once before Forsook the hated earth, oh tell me sooth, And cam'st again to visit us once more?

55

Or wert thou [Mercy], that sweet-smiling Youth?
Or that crowned Matron, sage white-robèd Truth?
Or any other of that heavenly brood

Let down in cloudy throne to do the world some
good?

IX.

Or wert thou of the golden-winged host,
Who, having clad thyself in human weed,
To earth from thy prefixed seat didst post,
60 And after short abode fly back with speed;

As if to show what creatures Heaven doth breed ;
Thereby to set the hearts of men on fire

To scorn the sordid world, and unto Heaven aspire?

X.

But oh! why didst thou not stay here below 65 To bless us with thy heaven-loved innocence, To slake his wrath whom sin hath made our foe, To turn swift-rushing black perdition hence, 2. Or drive away the slaughtering pestilence,

To stand 'twixt us and our deservèd smart?

thou canst best perform that office where thou
kt.

7

A

XI.

Then thou, the mother of so sweet a child,
Her false-imagined loss cease to lament,
And wisely learn to curb thy sorrows wild;
Think what a present thou to God hast sent,
75 And render him with patience what he lent;
This if thou do, he will an offspring give,

That till the world's last end shall make thy name to
live.

AT A VACATION EXERCISE IN THE COLLEGE,
PART LATIN, PART ENGLISH.

ANNO ÆTATIS XIX. (1628.)

The Latin Speeches ended, the English thus began :—

HALL, Native Language, that by sinews weak

Didst move my first endeavouring tongue

to speak;

And mad'st imperfect words with childish trips,
Half-unpronounced, slide through my infant lips
5 Driving dumb Silence from the portal door,
Where he had mutely sat two years before
Here I salute thee, and thy pardon ask
That now I use thee in my latter ta

Small loss it is that thence can c

Io I know my tongue but little grace can do thee.
Thou need'st not be ambitious to be first,
Believe me I have thither packed the worst ;
And, if it happen as I did forecast,

The daintiest dishes shall be served up last. 15 I pray thee then deny me not thy aid

For this same small neglect that I have made;
But haste thee straight to do me once a pleasure,
And from thy wardrobe bring thy chiefest treasure ;
Not those new-fangled toys, and trimming slight
20 Which takes our late fantastics with delight;
But cull those richest robes and gayest attire,
Which deepest spirits and choicest wits desire.
I have some naked thoughts that rove about
And loudly knock to have their passage out;
25 And weary of their place do only stay

Till thou hast decked them in thy best array;
That so they may, without suspect or fears,
Fly swiftly to this fair assembly's ears.
Yet I had rather, if I were to choose,

hy service in some graver subject use;

as they make thee search thy coffers round, hou clothe my fancy in fit sound;

the deep transported mind may soar ling poles, and at Heaven's door ach blissful deity

.ome unto thee,

nderous throne doth lie,

Apollo sings

while Hebè brings

e;

40 Then, passing through the spheres of watchful fire, And misty regions of wide air next under,

And hills of snow and lofts of pilèd thunder, May tell at length how green-eyed Neptune raves, In Heaven's defiance mustering all his waves; 45 Then sing of secret things that came to pass When beldam Nature in her cradle was; And last, of kings and queens and heroes old; Such as the wise Demodocus once told In solemn songs at King Alcinous' feast, 50 While sad Ulysses' soul and all the rest Are held with his melodious harmony

In willing chains and sweet captivity.

But fie, my wandering Muse, how thou dost stray !
Expectance calls thee now another way,

55 Thou know'st it must be now thy only bent
To keep in compass of thy predicament.
Then quick about thy purposed business come,
That to the next I may resign my room.

Then ENS is represented as father of the Predicaments, his ten sons, whereof the eldest stood for SUBSTANCE with his canons, which ENS, thus speaking, explains:—

Good luck befriend thee, Son; for at thy birth 60 The faery ladies danced upon the hearth;

Thy drowsy nurse hath sworn she did the
Come tripping to the room where tho
And, sweetly singing round about

Strew all their blessings on thy

65 She heard them give thee this, that thou shouldst

still

From eyes of mortals walk invisible;

Yet there is something that doth force my fear;
For once it was my dismal hap to hear
A Sibyl old, bow-bent with crooked age,
70 That far events full wisely could presage,
And in Time's long and dark prospective glass
Foresaw what future days should bring to pass.
"Your son," said she, "(nor can you it prevent)
Shall subject be to many an Accident.

75 O'er all his brethren he shall reign as king,
Yet every one shall make him underling,
And those that cannot live from him asunder
Ungratefully shall strive to keep him under ;
In worth and excellence he shall outgo them,
So Yet, being above them, he shall be below them;
From others he shall stand in need of nothing,
Yet on his brothers shall depend for clothing,
To find a foe it shall not be his hap,

d peace shall lull him in her flowery lap;
all he live in strife, and at his door
war shall never cease to roar ;
he his natural property
that are at enmity."

.em spy

didst lie,

thy bed, sleeping head.

、་

Το

2. Or dir

To stan

thou can

kt.

force, what mighty spell, if not loose this Gordian knot?

TY, spake in prose, then

is name.