From the FIFTH BOOK of LUCRETIU S. "Tum porrò puer, &c." THUS, like a failor by a tempeft hurl'd

Afhore, the babe is shipwreck'd on the world:

Naked he lies, and ready to expire;

Helpless of all that human wants require ;

Expos'd upon unhofpitable earth,

From the first moment of his hapless birth.
Straight with foreboding cries he fills the room;
Too true prefages of his future doom.
But flocks and herds, and every favage beaft,
By more indulgent nature are increas'd.

They want no rattles for their froward mood,
Nor nurse to reconcile them to their food,
With broken words; nor winter blafts they fear,
Nor change their habits with the changing year:
Nor, for their fafety, citadels prepare,

Nor forge the wicked inftruments of war:
Unlabour'd earth her bounteous treasure grants,
And nature's lavish hand fupplies their common wants.

TRANS

TRANSLATIONS

FROM

H OR A C E.

VOL. IV.

Y

THE

THIRD ODE of the FIRST BOOK

HOR

OF

A CE.

Infcribed to the Earl of ROSCOMMON, on his intended Voyage to Ireland.

So may th' aufpicious queen of love,

And the twin ftars the feed of Jove,

And he who rules the raging wind,
To thee, O facred ship, be kind;
And gentle breezes fill thy fails,
Supplying foft Etefian gales:

As thou, to whom the Mufe commends
The best of poets and of friends,
Doft thy committed pledge restore,
And land him fafely on the shore i
And fave the better part of me,
From perishing with him at fea,
Sure he, who firft the paffage try'd,
In harden'd oak his heart did hide,
And ribs of iron arm'd his fide;
Or his at leaft, in hollow wood
Who tempted firft the briny flood:

Nor fear'd the winds contending roar,
Nor billows beating on the fhore;
Nor Hyades portending rain ;
Nor all the tyrants of the main.
What form of death could him affright,
Who unconcern'd, with ftedfaft fight,
Could view the furges mounting fteep,
And monfters rolling in the deep !
Could through the ranks of ruin go,
With ftorms above, and rocks below!
In vain did Nature's wife command
Divide the waters from the land,
If daring fhips and men prophane
Invade th' inviolable main;
Th' eternal fences over-leap,...
And pafs at will the boundless deep.
No toil, no hardship, can restrain
Ambitious man inur'd to pain;
The more confin'd, the more he tries,
And at forbidden quarry flies.

Thus bold Prometheus did aspire,

1

And ftole from Heaven the feeds of fire:

A train of ills, a ghaftly crew,

The robber's blazing track pursue:
Fierce famine with her meagre face,
And fevers of the fiery race,

In fwarms th' offending wretch surround,
All brooding on the blasted ground :
And limping death, lafh'd on by fate,
Comes up to shorten half our date.