That seeing, I levelled again, As thick as it had hailed. So long I shot that all was spent, But soon it sore increased; And now it rankleth more and more, Ne wot I how to cease it. WILLY. Thomalin, I pity thy plight! Perdy with Love thou diddest fight, I know him by a token; (Whereof he will be wroken) That in our pear-tree haunted! Tho said he was a winged lad, But bow and shafts as then none had, Else had he sore be daunted. But, see the welkin thicks apace, And stooping Phoebus steeps his face, It's time to haste us homeward. WILLY'S EMBLEM. TO BE WISE, AND EKE TO LOVE, IS GRAUNTED SCARCE TO GODS ABOVE. THOMALIN'S EMBLEM. OF HONEY AND OF GALL IN LOVE THERE IS STORE; THE HONEY IS MUCH, BUT THE GALL IS MORE. GLOSSARY TO THE ABOVE. Sitten, sit; alegg, allay; siker, surely; quell, diminish in force; welkin, sky; thilk, this; utter, put forth; Maia, May; uprist, uprisen, tho, then; sporten, sport; wex, grow; Lethe, oblivion,' a lake of the fabled Hades, or spirit-world of classical writers, a draught from which gave forgetfulness; sot, fool; bewray, show; for-thy, therefor; ylike, alike; eke, also; adays, every day; swerve, wander; sithens, since that time; clouted, tied up with a rag; mought, might, if it had; jointed, divided at a joint; attones, at once; need, needed; spell, care; elf, fairy; trow, know, think; ne, not, nor; gang, go; grooms, hired shepherds; han, have; cast, undertook; bolts, arrows; tooting, seeking; tod, thick bunch; quick, living bush; earn'd, moved; lope, leaped; gilden, gilt; pumy, pumice; hent, gathered up, took up; wimble, shifting; wight, quick, energetic; latched, caught; earst, at first, before; wote, know; perdy, par Dieu, verily; wroken, revenged; tho, at that time; be, been; Phoebus, the sun; steeps, descends steeply. GRAY'S "VICISSITUDE:" OR, THE HARMONY OF NATURAL AND MORAL CHANGES. A LYRIC IDYL. Now the golden morn aloft New-born flocks, in rustic dance The birds his presence greet: Yesterday the sullen year Saw the snowy whirlwind fly; Mute was the music of the air, The herd stood drooping by ; Their raptures now, that wildly flow, No yesterday nor morrow know; 'Tis man alone that joy descries, With forward and reverted eyes. Smiles on past misfortune's brow Soft reflection's hand can trace, And o'er the cheek of sorrow throw A melancholy grace: While hope prolongs our happier hour; Or deepest shades, that dimly lower, And blacken round our weary way, Gilds with a gleam of distant day. Still where rosy pleasure leads, See a kindred grief pursue, Behind the steps that misery treads Approaching comfort view: The hues of bliss more brightly glow, Chastised by sabler tints of woe; And blended form, with artful strife, The strength and harmony of life. See the wretch that long has tost On the thorny bed of pain, At length repair his vigor lost, And breathe and walk again! The meanest flow'ret of the vale, The simplest note that swells the gale, The common sun, the air, the skies, To him are opening Paradise. THEOCRITUS'S "DAPHNIS."'1 TRANSLATED BY J. M. CHAPMAN, M.A. THYRSIS. SWEET is the music which the whispering pine Makes to the murmuring fountain; sweet is thine, Breathed from the pipe: the second prize thy dueTo Pan, the hornéd ram; to thee, the ewe; And thine the yearling, when the ewe he takes A savory mess the tender yearling makes. GOATHERD. Sweeter thy song than yonder gliding down Of water from the rock's o'erhanging crown; If a ewe-sheep for fee the Muses gain, Thou, shepherd! shalt a stall-fed lamb obtain ; But if it rather please the tuneful nine To take the lamb, the ewe shall then be thine. THYRSIS. O, wilt thou, for the Nymphs' sake, goatherd! fill Thy pipe with music on this sloping hill, Where grow the tamarisks? Wilt sit, dear friend, And play for me while I thy goats attend? GOATHERD. [seat: We must not pipe at noon in any case; For then Pan rests him, wearied from the chase. Him, quick to wrath, we fear, as us befits; On his keen nostril sharp gall ever sits. But thou -to thee the griefs of Daphnis known, And the first skill in pastoral song thine ownCome to yon elm, into whose shelter deep Afront Priapus and the Naiads peepWhere the thick oaks stand round the shepherd's There, sitting with me in that cool retreat, If thou wilt sing as when thou didst contest With Lybian Chromis which could sing the best, Thine, Thyrsis, this twin-bearing goat shall be, That fills two milk-pails thrice a day for me; And this deep ivy-cup, with sweetest wax Bedewed, twin-eared, that of the graver smacks. Around its lips lush ivy twines on high, Sprinkled with drops of bright cassidony; And as the curling ivy spreads around, On every curl the saffron fruit is found. With flowing robe and Lydian head-dress on, Within, a woman to the life is doneAn exquisite design! on either side Two men with flowing locks each other chide, By turns contending for the woman's love; But not a whit her mind the pleadings move. One while she gives to this a glance and smile, And turns and smiles on that another while. 1 Daphnis, son of Mercury, was a famous shepherd of Sicily, educated by the Nymphs, and inspired by the Muses with the love of poetry. He is represented as dying for love. This beautiful poem is the first of the Idyls of Theocritus, who flourished in the latter part of the third century B. C. He is called the father of pastoral poetry, such as the 'eclogue,' 'bucolic,' 'idyl,' 'pastoral,' &c., and is imitated by all other writers of pastorals, from Virgil downwards. But the Hebrew idyl, called 'Solomon's Song,' is earlier by seven hundred years, and the pastoral poem of 'Job' is still more ancient. J. But neither any certain favor gains- A youth's strength in the gray-head seems to dwell, Begin, dear Muses! the bucolic strain : Around him, in a long and mournful train, Sad-faced, a number of the hornéd kind, Heifers, bulls, cows, and calves, lamenting pined. Begin, &c. First, Hermes 3 from the mountain came and said: "Daphnis, by whom art thou disquieted? For whom dost thou endure so fierce a flame?" Then cowherds, goatherds, shepherds, thronging came, Thee the loved girl is seeking everywhere. 1 2 3 4 Peneus is a river flowing from Mount Pindus through Tempé, a valley of Thessaly; Anapus and Acis are streams of Sicily; Hermes is the Greek for Mercury; Priapus was the god of gardens. Ah, foolish lover! to thyself unkind, The goatherd, when he sees his goats at play, Begin, &c. 1 Then Cypris came, the queen of soft desire, And said: "To conquer love did Daphnis boast; Her answered he: "Thou cruel sorrow-feeder. 'Where Cypris kissed a cowherd'-men will speak — Hasten to Ida! thine Anchises 2 seek! Around their hives swarmed bees are humming here, Here the low galingale thick oaks are there. Begin, &c. Adonis, the fair youth, a shepherd too, Wounds hares, and doth all savage beasts pursue. Go! challenge Diomede to fight with thee- Ye bears, who in the mountain hollows dwell, In quest of you, through thicket, wood, and grove! I drove my kine -a cowherd whilome here- 1 Venus, particularly worshipped on the island of Cyprus, whence she is called the Paphian queen, the Cyprian queen, and Cypris. 2 Daphnis, determined not to yield to the passion of love, with which Venus, the goddess of Love, afflicted him even to death, taunts her with Anchises, Adonis, and Diomede, her lovers at various times. See the Classical Dictionaries. 3 Thymbris is the name of a mountain of Sicily. Pan! Pan! if seated on a jagged peak Cease, cease, ye Muses! the bucolic strain. Now violets ye thorns and brambles bear! And on the pine-tree pears! Since Daphnis dies, He said, and ceased: and Cypris wished, indeed, Cease! cease, ye Muses! the bucolic strain. All hail, ye Muses! hail, and favor me, Hesiod's Works and Days." 900 TO 1000 B. C. TRANSLATED FROM THE GREEK BY C. A. ELTON. (EXTRACTS.) THE AGES OF HUMANITY. WHEN gods alike and mortals rose to birth, A golden race the immortals formed on earth Of many-languaged men; they lived of old, When Saturn reigned in heaven, an age of gold. Like gods they lived, with calm, untroubled mind; Free from the toils and anguish of our kind: Nor e'er decrepid age misshaped their frame, The hand's, the foot's proportions still the same. Strangers to ill, their lives in feasts flowed by ; Wealthy in flocks; dear to the blest on high: Dying they sank in sleep, nor seemed to die. Theirs was each good; the life-sustaining soil Yielded its copious fruits, unbribed by toil; They with abundant goods, midst quiet lands, All willing shared the gatherings of their hands. ORIGIN OF GUARDIAN ANGELS. When earth's dark womb had closed this race around, [ground. High Jove as dæmons raised them from the Earth-wandering spirits they their charge began, The ministers of good, and guards of man. Mantled with mist of darkling air they glide, And compass earth, and pass on every side; And mark, with earnest vigilance of eyes, Where just deeds live, or crooked wrongs arise; Their kingly state; and, delegate from heaven, By their vicarious hands the wealth of fields is given. 1 The dæmons, or daimones, among the ancients, were spirits, either good or bad. Our modern word demons is always used in a bad sense. An immortality of the soul is here distinctly enunciated, and also the origin of angels from the human race. 3 Compare Job 1: 7. 4 Compare Heb. 1: 14; Gen. 19: 1, 15; 17: 2, 8; 2 Kings 6: 17. Compare Daniel 4: 17; 1 Corinthians 4: 9; Colossians 2: 18. 6 That is, their state is kingly,' implying, says Elton, the administration of forensic justice.' • The original and it is the closing sentence of the description is simply, and they (got or) had this kingly (gift, endowment) office;' which means, as I understand it, the truly kingly office of being suns, Pharaohs, gods, or dealers of goods, benefactors, evergetai, i. e., mediums of the divine bounties to man. Compare Luke 22: 25; Mark 10: 44; Rom. 13: 4, 6.-J. THE SILVER AGE. The gods then formed a second race of man, Degenerate far; and silver years began. Unlike the mortals of a golden kind : Unlike in frame of limbs and mould of mind. Yet still a hundred years beheld the boy Beneath the mother's roof, her infant joy; All tender and unformed but when the flower Of manhood bloomed, it withered in an hour. Their frantic follies wrought them pain and woe; Nor mutual outrage could their hands forego; Nor would they serve the gods; nor altars raise, That in just cities shed their holy blaze. Them angry Jove ingulfed; who dared refuse The gods their glory and their sacred dues : Yet named the second-blest in earth they lie, And second honors grace their memory. THE BRAZEN AGE. The Sire of heaven and earth created then Huge, nerved with strength, each hardy giant stands, THE FOURTH, OR HEROIC AGE. Them when the abyss had covered from the skies, Lo! the fourth age on nurturing earth arise: Jove formed the race a better, juster line; A race of heroes and of stamp divine; Lights of the age that rose before our own; As demigods o'er earth's wide region known. Yet these dread battle hurried to their end: Some where the seven-fold gates of Thebes ascend; The Cadmian realm, where they with fatal might Strove for the flocks of Edipus in fight. Some war in navies led to Troy's far shore; And death for Helen's sake o'erwhelmed them there. THE FIFTH, OR IRON AGE. O, would that Nature had denied me birth Midst this fifth race; this iron age of earth : That long before within the grave I lay, Or long hereafter could behold the day! Corrupt the race; with toils and griefs opprest, Nor day nor night can yield a pause of rest. Still do the gods a weight of care bestow, Though still some good is mingled with the woe. Jove on this race of many-languaged man, Speeds the swift ruin which but slow began: For scarcely spring they to the light of day, Ere age untimely strews their temples gray. No fathers in the sons their features trace: The sons reflect no more the fathers' face: The host with kindness greets his guest no more, And friends and brethren love not as of yore. Reckless of heaven's revenge, the sons behold The hoary parents wax too swiftly old: And impious point the keen dishonoring tongue, With hard reproofs and bitter mockery hung: Nor, grateful, in declining age repay The nurturing fondness of their better day. Now man's right hand is law: for spoil they wait, And lay their mutual cities desolate. Unhonored he by whom his oath is feared; Nor are the good beloved, the just revered. With favor graced the evil-doer stands, Nor curbs with shame nor equity his hands; With crooked slanders wounds the virtuous man, And stamps with perjury what hate began. Lo! ill-rejoicing Envy, winged with lies, Scattering calumnious rumors as she flies, The steps of miserable men pursue With haggard aspect, blasting to the view. Till those fair forms in snowy raiment bright Leave the broad earth, and heavenward soar from Justice and Modesty from mortals driven, Rise to the immortal family of heaven: Dread sorrows to forsaken man remain ; No cure of ills, no remedy of pain.' * [sight: 1 We are apt to represent to ourselves our own age as the worst of all ages, because we feel its inconveniences and vices most intimately and keenly. It has ever been so. Compare Ecclesiastes, particularly 7: 10; and Hesiod wrote the above full nine hundred years before the Christian era. ANCIENT GREEK HUSBANDRY. FROM "WORKS," PART II. SUBJECT. PRECEPTS FOR THE LABORS OF HUSBANDRY.— When, Atlas-born, the Pleiad stars arise1 Plough naked 2 still, and naked sow the soil, INDUSTRY COMMENDED AND ENFORCED. BEGGARY. O, foolish Perses! be the labors thine Which the good gods to earthly man assign; Lest with thy spouse, thy babes, thou vagrant ply, And sorrowing crave those arms which all deny. Twice may thy plaints benignant favor gain, And haply thrice may not be poured in vain ; If still persisting plead thy wearying prayer, Thy words are naught, thy eloquence is air. Did exhortation move, the thought should be, From debt releasement, days from hunger free. PROVIDE WELL AVOID IDLENESS AND PROCRASTINATION. Or the third sun the unfinished work surprise; The idler never shall his garners fill, Nor he that still defers and lingers still. Lo! diligence can prosper every toil; The loiterer strives with loss, and execrates the soil. WHEN TO FELL TIMBER. When rests the keen strength of the o'erpowering From heat that made the pores in rivers run; [sun, 1 This was, then, about May 11; their cosmical setting was early in November; their heliacal, on April 3d. 2 That is, stripped of the outer garments, as the word is used John 21: 7; Comp. Mat. 24: 18. The precept is equivalent to saying, Do your work thoroughly and earnestly; 'strip to it,' and keep at it diligently, for winter is coming. |