It will be needless, I hope, to apologize for the Pastoral, and the poem upon Chess, which were done as early as at the age of sixteen or seventeen years, and were saved from the fire, in preference to a great many others, because they seemed more correctly versified than the rest.

It must not be supposed, from my zeal for the literature of Asia, that I mean to place it in competition with the beautiful productions of the Greeks and Romans; for I am convinced that, whatever changes we make in our opinions, we always return to the writings of the ancients, as to the standard of true taste.

If the novelty of the following poems should recommend them to the favour of the reader, it may probably be agreeable to him to know, that there are many others of equal or superior merit, which have never appeared in any language of Europe; and I am persuaded that a writer, acquainted with the originals, might imitate them very happily in his native tongue, and that the public would not be displeased to see the genuine compositions of Arabia and Persia in an English dress. The heroic poem of Ferdusi might be versified as easily as the Iliad, and I see no reason why The Delivery of Persia by Cyrus should not be a subject as interesting to us as the anger of Achilles or the wandering of Ulysses. The Odes of Hafez, and of Mesihi, would suit our lyric measures as well as those ascribed to Anacreon; and the seven Arabic elegies, that were hung up in the temple of Mecca, and of which there are several fine co

pies at Oxford, would, no doubt, be highly acceptable to the lovers of antiquity, and the admirers of native genius. But when I propose a translation of these Oriental pieces, as a work likely to meet with success, I only mean to invite my readers, who have leisure and industry, to the study of the languages in which they are written; and am very far from insinuating that I have the remotest design of performing any part of the task myself. For, to say the truth, I should not have suffered even the following trifles to see the light, if I were not very desirous of recommending to the learned world a species of literature, which abounds with so many new expressions, new images, and new inventions,

MISCELLANIES.

IMITATION OF HORACE,

ODE XIV. LIB. II.

WRITTEN AT FOURTEEN YEARS OF AGE.

1760.

How quickly fades the vital flower!
Alas! my friend! each silent hour
Steals unperceived away:
The early joys of blooming youth,
Sweet innocence, and dove-eyed truth,
Are destined to decay.

Can zeal drear Pluto's wrath restrain?
No; though an hourly victim stain
His hallow'd shrine with blood,
Fate will recall her doom for none;
The sceptred king must leave his throne,
To pass the Stygian flood.

In vain, my Parnell, wrapp'd in ease,
We shun the merchant-marring seas;
In vain we fly from wars;

In vain we shun the' autumnal blast
(The slow Cocytus must be pass'd):
How needless are our cares!

Our house, our land, our shadowy grove,
The very mistress of our love,

Ah me, we soon must leave!
Of all our trees, the hated boughs
Of cypress shall alone diffuse
Their fragrance o'er our grave.

To others shall we then resign
The numerous casks of sparkling wine,
Which, frugal, now we store;
With them a more deserving heir,
(Is this our labour, this our care?
Shall stain the stucco floor.

ARCADIA.

A PASTORAL POEM.

Advertisement.

THE following pastoral was written in the year 1762; but the author, finding some tolerable passages in it, was induced to correct it afterwards, and to give it a place in his collection of poems, published in 1772. He took the hint of it from an allegory of Mr. Addison, in the thirty-second paper of the Guardian; which is set down in the margin, that the reader may see where he has copied the original, and where he has deviated from it. In this piece, as it now stands, Menalcas, king of the shepherds, means Theocritus; the most ancient, and perhaps the best, writer of Pastorals: and by his two daughters, Daphne and Hyla, must be understood the two sorts of pastoral poetry; the one elegant and polished, the other simple and unadorned; in both of which he excelled. Virgil, whom Pope chiefly followed, seems to have borne away the palm in the higher sort; and Spenser, whom Gay imitated with success, had equal merit in the more rustic style: these two poets, therefore, may justly be supposed in this allegory to have inherited his kingdom of Arcadia.

ARCADIA*.

IN those fair plains, where glittering Ladon roll'd
His wanton labyrinth o'er sands of gold,

Menalcas reign'd; from Pan his lineage came :
Rich were his vales, and deathless was his fame,
When youth impell'd him, and when love inspired,
The listening nymphs his Doric lays admired:
To hear his notes the swains with rapture flew;
A softer pipe no shepherd ever blew.
But, now, oppress'd beneath the load of
Beloved, respected, venerable, sage,—
Of heroes, demigods, and gods he sung';
His reed neglected on a poplar hung:
Yet all the rules that young Arcadians keep
He kept, and watch'd, each morn, his bleating.
sheep.

age,

Two lovely daughters were his dearest care;
Both mild as May, and both as April fair:
Love, where they moved, each youthful breast
inflamed;

And Daphne this, and Hyla that was named.

IMITATIONS.

*Guardian, No 32.-In ancient times there dwelt, in a pleasant vale of Arcadia, a man of very ample possessions, named Menalcas, who, deriving his pedigree from the god Pan, kept very strictly up to the rules of the pastoral life, as it was in the golden age.

This couplet alludes to the higher Idyllia of Theocritus; as the Ἐγκωμιον εις Πτολεμαίον, the Διοσκεροι, and others which are of the heroic kind.

D