GRAY'S “VICISSITUDE:”

OR, THE HARMONY OF NATURAL AND MORAL CHANGES.

A LYRIC IDYL.

That seeing, I levelled again,
And shot at him with might and main,

As thick as it had hailed.
So long I shot that all was spent,
Though pumy stones I hastily hent,

And threw, but nought availed.
He was so nimble and so wight,
From bough to bough he leaped light,

And oft the pumies latched : Therewith, afraid, I ran away ; But, he that earst seemed but to play,

A shaft in earnest snatched,
And hit me, running, in the heel;
For then I little smart did feel,

But soon it sore increased ;
And now it rankleth more and more,
And inwardly it fostreth sore,

Ne wot I how to cease it.

Now the golden morn aloft

Waves her dew-bespangled wing, With vermil cheek and whisper soft,

She woos the tardy Spring; Till April starts, and calls around The sleeping fragrance from the ground, And lightly o'er the living scene Scatters his freshest, tenderest green.

WILLY.

New-born flocks, in rustic dance

Frisking, ply their feeble feet; Forgetful of their wintry trance,

The birds his presence greet: But chief the skylark warbles high His trembling, thrilling ecstasy ; And, lessening from the dazzled sight, Melts into air and liquid light.

Thomalin, I pity thy plight!
Perdy with Love thou diddest fight, -

I know him by a token;
For once I heard my father say
How he him caught upon a day

(Whereof he will be wroken)
Entangled in a fowling-net,
Which he for carrion crows had set,

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.

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.

WILLY'S EMBLEM.

TO BE WISE, AND EKE TO LOVE,
IS GRAUXTED SCARCE TO GODS ABOVE.

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.

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.

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.

Sitten, sit ; alegg, allay ; siker, surely ; quell, diminish in force ; welkin, sky; thilk, this ; utter, put rth ; Maia, May ; uprist, uprisentho, 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, yo; 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 ; Phæbus, the sun ; steeps, descends steeply.

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 due — To Pan, the hornéd ram ; to thee, the ewe ; And thine the yearling, when the ewe he takes A savory mess the tender yearling makes.

GOATUERD.

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.

But neither any certain favor gains -
Only their eyes are swollen for their pains.
Hard by, a rugged rock an

fisher old,
Who drags a mighty net, and seems to hold,
Preparing for the cast : he stands to sight,
A fisher putting forth his utmost might.
A youth's strength in the gray-head seems to dwell,
So much the sinews of his neck outswell.
And near that old man with his sea-tanned hue,
With purple grapes a vineyard shines to view.
A little boy sits by the thorn-hedge trim,
To watch the grapes. two foxes watching him :
One through the ranges of the vines proceeds,
And on the hanging vintage slyly feeds;
The other plots and vows his scrip to search,
And for his breakfast leaves him — in the lurch.
Meanwhile he twines and to a rush fits well
A locust-trap, with stalks of asphodel ;
And twines away with such absorbing glee,
Of scrip or vines he never thinks — not he!
The juicy, curled acanthus hovers round
Th' Æolian cup

when seen a marvel found. Hither a Caledonian skipper brought it, For a great cheese-cake and a goat I bought it ; Untouched by lip, this cup shall be thy hire, If thou wilt sing that song of sweet desire, I envy not : begin! the strain outpour ; 'T will not be thine on dull Oblivion's shore.

TUYRSIS.

THYRSIS.

0, 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. 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 peep - [seat : Where 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 done An 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.

Begin, dear Muses ! the bucolic strain ; For Thyrsis sings, your own Ætneän swain. Where were ye, nymphs! when Daphnis pined away, Where through his Tempé Peneus I loved to stray, Or Pindus lifts himself? Ye were not here Where broad Anapus flows or Acis a clear, Or where tall Ætna looks out on the main.

Begin, dear Muses ! the bucolic strain : From out the mountain-lair the lions growled, Wailing his death — the wolves and jackals howled.

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?”

Begin, &c.
Then cowherds, goatherds, shepherds, thronging came,
And asked what ailed him. E'en Priapus + went,
And said: “Sad Daphnis, why this languishment?
In every grove, by fountains far and near,

Begin, &c.
Thee the loved girl is seeking everywhere.

1 Daphnis, son of Mercury, was a famous shepherd of Sicily, educated hy 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.

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,
Miscalled a cowherd, with a goatherd's mind !

Begin, &o.
The goatherd, when he sees his goats at play,
Envies their wanton sport, and pines away.
And thou, at sight of virgins, when they smile,
Dost look with longing eyes, and pine the while,
Because with them the dance thou dost not lead.”
No word he answered, but his grief did feed,
And brought to end his love, that held him fast,
And only ended with his life at last.

Begin, &c.
Then Cypris ? came, the queen of soft desire,
Smiling in secret, but pretending ire,
And said: “To conquer love did Daphnis boast;
But, Daphnis, is not love now uppermost ? ”

Begin, &c.
Her answered he: “ Thou cruel sorrow-feeder.
Curst Cypris ! mankind's hateful mischief-breeder!
'T is plain my sun is set : but I shall show
The blight of love in Hades' house below.

Begin, &c. "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.

Begin, &c. Go! challenge Diomede to fight with thee "I tame the cowherd Daphnis, fight with me.'

Begin, &c.
Ye bears, who in the mountain hollows dwell,
Ye tawny jackals, bounding wolves, farewell !
The cowherd Daphnis never more shall rove
In quest of you, through thicket, wood, and grove !
Farewell, ye rivers, that your stream profuse
From Thymbris 3 pour ! farewell, sweet Arethuse !

Begin, &c.
I drove my kine - a cowherd whilome here -
To pleasant pasture, and to water clear.

Begin, &c.

Pan! Pan !! if seated on a jagged peak
Of tall Lyncaeus 2 now; or thou dost seek
The height of Maenalus 3 — leave them a while,
And hasten to thy own Sicilian isle.
The tomb which ever gods admire leave now -
Lycaon's 4 tomb and Helice's 5 tall brow.

Cease, cease, ye Muses! the bucolic strain.
Hasten, my king! and take this pipe that clips,
Uttering its honey breath, the player's lips.
For even now, dragged downward, must I go,
By love dragged down to Hades' house below.

Cease, cease, ye Muses, &c.
Now violets ye thorns and brambles bear !
Narcissus now on junipers appear !
And on the pine-tree pears! Since Daphnis dies,
To their own use all things be contraries !
The stag trail hounds ; in rivalry their song
The mountain-owls with nightingales prolong!”
Cease, cease,

&c.
He said, and ceased : and Cypris wished, indeed,
To raise him up, but she could not succeed ;
His fate-allotted threads of life were spent,
And Daphnis to the doleful river7 went. [scorned,
The whirlpool gorged him — by the Nymphs not
Dear to the Muses, and by them adorned.

Cease! cease, ye Muses! the bucolic strain.
Give me the cup and goat that I may drain
The pure milk from her; and, for duty's sake,
A due libation to the Muses make.
All hail, ye Muses ! hail, and favor me,
And my hereafter song shall sweeter be.

GOATHERD.

Honey and honey-combs melt in thy mouth, And figs from Aegilus 8 ! for thou, dear youth, The musical cicada o dost excel. Behold the cup! how sweetly doth it smell ! 'T will seem to thee as though the lovely Hours Had newly dipt it in their fountain showers. Hither, Cissaetha! milk her! yearling friskers, Forbear— behold the ram's huge beard and whiskers!

1 Venus, particularly worshipped on the island of Cyprus, whence she is called the Paphiau queen, the Cyprian queen, and Cypris.

2 Daphnis, determined not to yield to the passion of love, with which Venuz, the goddess of Love, amicted 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.

1 Pan, the deified personification of external nature as a whole,' was son of Mercury, and the god of shepherds, huntsmen, and country people.

2, 3, 4, 5 Lyncaeus and Maenalus are names of mountain ranges of Arcaria ; Lycaon was King of Arcadia ; Helice was a city of Achaia, or perhaps Arcadia.

6 Clips, an old word for embraces.' 7 Styx, or Acheron, rivers of the world of shades. 8 Aegilus, a canton of Attica, famous for the best figs. The screech-locust, of which there are several varieties.

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 band'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.

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.

TEE BRAZEN AGE.

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 3 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.

The Sire of heaven and earth created then A race, the third of many-languaged men. Unlike the silver they: of brazen mould, With ashen war-spears, terrible and bold ; Their thoughts were bent on violence alone, The deeds of battle, and the dying groan. Bloody their feasts, with wheaten food unblest; Of adamant was each unyielding breast. Huge, nerved with strength, each hardy giant stands, And mocks approach with unresisted hands : Their mansions, implements and armor shine In brass ; dark iron slept within the mine. They by each other's hands inglorious fell, In freezing darkness plunged, the house of hell ; Fierce though they were, their mortal course was run; Death gloomy seized and snatched them from the sun.

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 Ædipus in fight.

Some war in navies led to Troy's far shore;
O'er the great space of sea their course they bore ;
For sake of Helen with the beauteous hair :
And death for Helen's sake o'erwhelmed them there.
Them on earth's utmost verge the god assigned
A life, a seat distinct from human kind :
Beside the deepening whirlpools of the main,
In those blest isles where Saturn holds his reign,
Apart from heaven's immortals : calm they share
A rest unsullied by the clouds of care :
And yearly thrice with sweet luxuriance crowned,
Springs the ripe harvest from the teeming ground.

ANCIENT GREEK HUSBANDRY.

FROM “WORKS," PART II.
SUBJECT.- PRECEPTS FOR THE LABORS OF HUSBANDRY. -

PLOCGHING, SOWING, AND REAPING.
When, Atlas-born, the Pleiad stars arise 1
Before the sun above the dawning skies,
”T is time to reap; and when they sink below
The morn-illumined West, 't is time to sow.
Know too they set, immerged into the sun,
While forty days entire their circle run;
And with the lapse of the revolving year,
When sharpened is the sickle, reäppear.
Law of the fields, and known to every swain
Who turns the fallow soil beside the main ;
Or who, remote from billowy ocean's gales,
Tills the rich glebe of inland-winding vales.

Plough naked ? still, and naked sow the soil,
And naked reap; if kindly to thy toil
Thou hope to gather all that Ceres yields,
And view thy crops in season crown the fields ;
Lest thou to strangers' gates penurious rove,
And every needy effort fruitless prove.
E’en as to me thou cam'st ; but hope no more
That I shall give or lend thee of my store.

THE FIFTH, OR IRON AGE.

INDUSTRY COMMENDED AND ENFORCED. --BEGGARY.

0, 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 song reflect no more the fathers' face : The host with kindness grects his guest no more, And friends and brethren love not as of yore. Reckless of heaven's revenge, the sons behold Tho 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, [sight : Rise to the immortal family of heaven : Dread sorrows to forsaken man remain ; No cure of ills, no remedy of pain.!

0, 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.

house, a woman, and a steer provide, Thy slave to tend the cows, but not thy bride. Within let all fit implements abound, Lest, with refused entreaty wandering round, Thy wants still press, the season glide away, And thou with scanted labor mourn the day. Thy task defer not till the moon arise, 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 beliacal, on April 3d.

2 That is, stripped of the outer garinents, 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.