But strives in vain to conquer or divide,
Whom Nassau's arms defend and counsels guide.

Fir'd with the name, which I so oft have found
The diftant climes and diff'rent tongues refound,
I bridle in my struggling Mufe with pain,
That longs to lanch into a bolder strain.

But I've already troubled you too long,

Nor dare attempt a more advent'rous fong.
My humble verse demands a fofter theme,
A painted meadow, or a purling stream;
Unfit for heroes; whom immortal lays,

And lines like Virgil's, or like yours, fhou'd praife.

Milton's ftyle imitated, in a Tranflation of a Story out of the third Æneid.

OST in the gloomy horror of the night

LR

We

truck upon the court where

upon the coaft where Etna lies,

Horrid and waste, its entrails fraught with fire,
That now cafts out dark fumes and pitchy clouds,
Vaft showers of afhes hov'ring in the smoke;
Now belches molten ftones and ruddy flame
Incenft, or tears up mountains by the roots,
Or flings a broken rock aloft in air.

The bottom works with smother'd fire, involv’d
In peftilential vapours, ftench and smoke.

'Tis faid, that thunder-ftruck Enceladus

Groveling beneath th'incumbent mountain's weight Lies ftretch'd fupine, eternal prey of flames; And when he heaves against the burning load, Reluctant, to invert his broiling limbs,

A fudden earthquake shoots through all the isle,

And

And Etna thunders dreadful under ground,
Then pours out smoke in wreathing curls convolv'd,
And shades the fun's bright orb, and blots out day.
Here in the shelter of the woods we lodg'd,
And frighted heard strange sounds and dismal yells,
Nor faw from whence they came; for all the night
A murky ftorm deep louring o'er our heads
Hung imminent, that with impervious gloom
Oppos'd itself to Cynthia's filver ray,

And shaded all beneath. But now the fun
With orient beams had chas'd the dewy night
From earth and heav'n; all nature stood disclos'd:
When looking on the neighb'ring woods we faw
The ghaftly visage of a man unknown,

An uncouth feature, meagre, pale, and wild;
Affliction's foul and terrible difmay

Sat in his looks, his face impair'd and worn
With marks of famine, speaking fore distress;
His locks were tangled, and his fhaggy beard
Matted with filth; in all things elfe a Greek.

He first advanc'd in hafte; but when he faw Trojans and Trojan arms, in mid career

Stopt

Stopt short, he back recoil'd as one furpris❜d:

But foon recov❜ring speed, he ran, he flew
Precipitant, and thus with piteous cries

Our ears affail'd: "By heav'n's eternal fires,

"By ev'ry God that fits inthron'd on high,

By this good light, relieve a wretch forlorn, "And bear me hence to any distant shore, "So I may fhun this favage race accurst. "'Tis true I fought among the Greeks that late "With sword and fire o'erturn'd Neptunian Troy, "And laid the labour of the Gods in duft;

"For which, if so the fad offence deserves,

Plung'd in the deep, for ever let me lie

"Whelm'd under feas; if death must be my doom, "Let man inflict it, and I die well-pleas'd.

He ended here, and now profuse of tears In fuppliant mood fell proftrate at our feet: We bade him speak from whence, and what he was, And how by stress of fortune funk thus low; Anchifes too with friendly afpect mild Gave him his hand, fure pledge of amity, When, thus encourag'd, he began his tale.

I'm one, fays he, of poor defcent, my name

Is Achæmenides, my country Greece,

Ulyffes' fad compeer, who, whilft he fled
The raging Cyclops, left me here behind
Difconfolate, forlorn; within the cave

He left me, giant Polypheme's dark cave;
A dungeon wide and horrible, the walls
On all fides furr'd with mouldy damps, and hung
With clots of ropy gore, and human limbs,
His dire repaft: Himself of mighty fize,
Hoarfe in his voice, and in his visage grim,
Intractable, that riots on the flesh

Of mortal men, and swills the vital blood.
Him did I fee snatch up with horrid grasp
Two sprawling Greeks, in either hand a man:
I saw him when with huge tempeftuous fway
He dasht and broke 'em on the grundfil edge;
The pavement swam in blood, the walls around.
Were fpatter'd o'er with brains. He lapt the blood,
And chew'd the tender flesh still warm with life,
That fwell'd and heav'd itself amidft his teeth
As fenfible of pain. Not lefs mean while

Our