LIBER IV.

ODE IX.

N'

E forte credas interitura, quae Longe fonantem natus ad Aufidum Non ante vulgatas per artes

Verba loquor focianda chordis; Non, fi priores Maeonius tenet Sedes Homerus, Pindaricae latent Ceaeque, et Alcaei minaces

Stefichorique graves Camenae:

Nec, fi quid olim lufit Anacreon,
Delevit aetas fpirat adhuc amor,
Vivuntque commiffi calores

Aeoliae fidibus puellae.

Vixere fortes ante Agamemnona
Multi; fed omnes illacrymabiles
Urgentur ignotique longa

Nocte, carent quia vate facro.

NOTES.

VER. S. Original-Stefichorique graves] The lofs of the works of no two writers is perhaps more to be lamented than of Stefichorus and Menander. The former is thus characterized by Quintilian, 1. 10. "Stefichorus quam fit Ingenio validus, materiæ quoq. oftendunt, maxima bella et clariffimos duces canentem, et epici carminis onera Lyrâ Suftinentem. Reddit enim perfonis in agendo fimul loquendoque debitam dignitatem; ac fi tenuiffet modum, videtur æmulari proximus Homerum potuiffe. Of the fragments of Menander, see a paper in the Adventurer, vol. iv.

P

ין

PART OF THE NINTH ODE

OF THE FOURTH BOOK.

A FRAGMENT.

L
EST you should think that verse shall die,
Which founds the Silver Thames along,
Taught on the wings of Truth to fly
Above the reach of vulgar fong;

Tho' daring Milton fits fublime,
In Spencer native Muses play;
yet shall Waller yield to time,
Nor penfive Cowley's moral lay-

Nor

Sages and Chiefs long fince had birth
Ere Caefar was, or Newton nam'd;
Thofe rais'd new Empires o'er the Earth,
And Thefe, new Heav'ns and Systems fram'd.

Vain was the Chief's, the Sage's pride!

They had no Poet, and they dy'd.

In vain they schem'd, in vain they bled!
They had no Poet, and are dead.

6

NOTES.

VER. 6. In Spencer] How much this author was his favourite from his early to his later years, will appear from what he said to Mr. Spence, from whofe Anecdotes I tranfcribe literally this paffage: "There is fomething in Spencer that pleases one as strongly in one's old age as it did in one's youth. I read the Fairy Queen when I was about twelve with a vast deal of delight; and I think it gave me as much when I read it over about a year or two ago."

VER. 13. Mifled by his ufual love of antithefis, he has formed a trifling epigram, inftead of giving us the manly plain fenfe of Horace.

MEMOIRS

OF THE

EXTRAORDINARY LIFE, WORKS, AND DISCOVERIES,

OF

MARTINUS SCRIBLERUS.