Thro' black smoke flaming, to the Phrygian pipe's
Shrill voice, and to the clashing cymbals, mix'd
With shrieks and frantic uproar. May the gods
From ev'ry unpolluted ear avert

Their orgies! If within the seats of men,
Within the walls, the gates, where Pallas holds
The guardian key, if haply there be found
Who loves to mingle with the revel band
And hearken to their accents, who aspires
From such instructers to inform his breast
With verse, let him, fit votarist! implore
Their inspiration. He perchance the gifts
Of young Lyæus and the dread exploits
May sing in aptest numbers ; he the fate
Of sober Pentheus, he the Paphian rites,
And naked Mars with Cytherea chain'd,
And strong Alcides in the spinster's robes,
May celebrate applauded; but with you
O Naiads far from that unhallow'd rout
Must dwell the man whoe'er to praised themes

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V. 297. Phrygian pipe's.] The Phrygian music was fantastic and turbulent, and fit to excite disorderly passions,

V 302. The gates, where Fallas bolds-The guardian key.] It was the office of Minerva to be the guardian of walled cities, whence she was named ПOAIAΣ and ПОAIOYXOE, and had her statues placed in their gates, being supposed to keep the keys, and on that a count styled ΚΛΗΔΟΥΧΟΣ

V. 31. Fate

Of sober Pentheus.] Pentheus was torn in pieces by the Bacchanalian priests and women for despising their mysteries.

Invokes th' immortal Muse. Th' immortal Muse
To your calm habitations, to the cave
Corycian or the Delphic mount, will guide
His footsteps, and with your unsully'd streams

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V. 318. The cave-Corycian.] Of this cave Pausanias in his tenth book gives the following description: "Be"tween Delphi and the eminences of Parnassus is a road "to the grotto of Corycium, which has its name from

the nymph Corycia, and is by far the most remarkable which I have seen. One may walk a great way into "it without a torch. It is of a considerable height, and hath several springs within it; and yet a much greater "quantity of water distils from the shell and roof so as to be continually dropping on the ground. The people round Parnassus hold it sacred to the Corycian nymphs " and to Pan."

V. 310. Delphic mount.] Delphi, the seat and oracle of Apollo, had a mountainous and rocky situation on the skirts of Parnassus.

V. 327. Cyrenaic.] Cyrene was the native country of Callimachus, whose Hymns are the most remarkable example of that mythological passion which is assumed in the preceding poem, and have always afforded particular pleasure to the author of it by reason of the mysterious solemnity with which they affect the mind. On this account he was induced to attempt somewhat in the same manner, solely by way of exercise, the manner itself being now almost entirely abandoned in poetry: and as the mere genealogy or the personal adventures of Heathen gods could have been but little interesting to a modern reader, it was therefore thought pr per to select some convenient part of the history of Nature, and to employ. these ancient divinities as it is probable they were first employed, to wit, in personifying natural causes, and in representing the mutual agreement or opposition of the corporeal and moral powers of the world, which hath been accounted the very highest office of poetry.

His lips will bathe, whether th' eternal lore
Of Themis or the majesty of Jove

To mortals he reveal, or teach his lyre
Th' unenvy'd guerdon of the patriot's toils,
In those unfading islands of the blest

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Where sacred bards abide. Hail, honour'd Nymphs!
Thrice hail for you the Cyrenaic shell
Behold I touch revering: to my songs
Be present ye with favourable feet,
And all profaner audience far remove,

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HYMN TO SCIENCE.

O vitae pitosophia dux! Ovirtutis and gatrix, expultrixque vitiorum. "Tu urbes peperisti; tu inventrix legum, tu magistra morum et disciplinae fuisti: ad te confugimus, a te opem petimus."

CIC. Tusc. Quaest.

I.

SCIENCE! thou fair effusive ray,
From the great source of mental day
Free, gen'rous and refin`d,

Descend with all thy treasures fraught,
Illumine each bewilder'd thought,

And bless my lab'ring mind!

II.

But first with thy resistless light

Disperse those phantoms from my sight,

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Those mimic shades of thee,

The scholiast's learning, sophist's cant,
The visionary bigot's rant,

The monk's philosophy.

III.

O let thy pow'rful charms impart
The patient head the candid heart
Devoted to thy sway,

Which no weak passions e'er mislead,
Which still with dauntless steps proceed
Where Reason points the way!

·IV.

Give me to learn each secret cause;

Let Number's, Figure's, Motion's, laws
Reveal'd before me stand;

These to great Nature's scenes apply,
And round the globe and thro' the sky
Disclose her working hand.

V.

Next to thy nobler search resign'd

The busy, restless, human mind
Thro' ev'ry maze pursue;
Detect perception where it lies,

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Catch the ideas as they rise,

And all their changes view.

VI.

Say from what simple springs began
The vast ambitious thoughts of man

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Which range beyond control,
Which seek eternity to trace,
Dive thro' th' infinity of space,
And strain to grasp the whole?

VII.

Her secret stores let Mem'ry tell,
Bid Fancy quit her Fairy cell
In all her colors drest,

While prompt her sallies to control

Reason the judge recalls the soul
To truth's severest test.

VIII.

Then launch thro' Being's wide extent j
Let the fair scale with just ascent
And cautious steps be trod,

And from the dead corporeal mass
Thro' each progressive order pass
To Instinct, Reason, God.
IX.

There, Science! veil thy daring eye,
Nor dive too deep nor soar too high
In that divine abyss,

To Faith content thy beams to lend,
Her hopes t'assure her steps befriend,
And light her way to bless.

X.

Then downwards take thy flight again,
Mix with the policies of men

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