Or else assiduously to dwell, In conscious eloquence elate, But at what price the cask, so rare, And who shall strew the blooming flowers; Beneath what roof we next salute, And when shall smile these gloomy skies, Nor here may graver topics rise.-— her of total inconnection. When the latent meaning in the concluding verses is perspicuously paraphrased, it accounts for the poet's preference at that period, of trifling to literary subjects. These slight, and often obscure allusions, closely, and what is called faithfully translated, give a wild and unmeaning air to the Odes of Horace, which destroys their interest with the unlearned admirers of poetry. To give distinct shape and form to these embryo ideas, often capable of acquiring very interesting form and shape, is the aim of these Paraphrases. Telephus, who was a Greek, appears to have been a youth of noble birth-being mentioned as such in the Ode to Phyllis, which will be found farther on amongst these Paraphrases. From that to Lydia, so well known, and so often translated, we learn that he had a beautiful form, and was much admired by the Roman ladies, Fill a bright bumper to the moon! Of jocund thought, and festal mirth! And one to him, for whom the feasts With solemn honours, sacred trust! Kind omens shall his voice convey, Will Love be ours, and Fortune smile? Arrange the cups of various size, The least containing bumpers three, All but the Bard's-the bowl of nine 1. 6. Poignant gust-The translator was doubtful about using that word, till she recollected it in the gravest of Pope's Poems, "Destroy all creatures for thy sport and gust; Essay on Man. The Muses number to decline For here the Sisters shall preside, Yet they, in kind and guardian care, Would stint us to their number, three. Away, ye prudes!—the caution wise That every dull restraint defies, And laughs at all their frigid power.— Thou say'st I rave;—and true thou say'st, Nor must thou check the flowing vein, For sprightly nonsense suits him best Whom grave reflection leads to pain. Why mute the pipe's enlivening note? Why sleeps the charming lyre so long? O! let their strains around us float, Mix'd with the sweet and jocund song! And lavish be the roses strewn ! Ye flutes, ye lyres, exulting breathe! The festal hour disdains to own The mournful note, the niggard wreath. Old Lycon, with the venal fair, Who courts yet hates his vile embrace, Our lively strains shall muttering hear, While Envy pales each sullen face: Thou, with thy dark luxuriant hair, Thy utmost wish the fair-one crowns, From themes, that wake the powers of mind, The wounded spirit sickening turns; To those be then this hour consign'd, That Mirth approves, tho' Wisdom spurns. They shall disarm my LYCE's frown, ΤΟ PHYLLIS. EXHORTING HER TO BE CONTENT WITH A FRUGAL SACRIFICE. BOOK THE THIRD, ODE THE TWENTY-THIRD. MY PHIDYLE, retired in shady wild, If thou thy virgin hands shalt suppliant raise, If primal fruits are on thy altars pil'd, And incense pure thy duteous care conveys, To sooth the Lares, when the moon adorns, With their first modest light, her taper horns; And if we pierce the throat of infant swine, |