On th' other part, Apollo in his friend Form'd th' art of wisdom, to the binding end

Of his vow'd friendship; and (for further meed)

Gave him the far-heard fistulary reed.

For all these forms of friendship, Phoebus yet

Fear'd that both form and substance were not met

In Mercury's intentions; and, in plain, Said (since he saw him born to craft and gain,

And that Jove's will had him the honour done

To change at his will the possession

Of others' goods) he fear'd his breach of

Vows;

In stealing both his lute and cunning bows;

And therefore wish'd, that what the Gods attest

Himself would witness; and to his request His head bow, swearing by th' impetuous flood

Of Styx, that of his whole possessions not a good

He would diminish; but therein maintain The full content in which his mind did reign.

And then did Maia's son his forehead bow;

Making, by all that he desired, his vow,
Never to prey more upon anything
In just possession of the far-shot King,
Nor ever to come near a house of his.
Latonian Phoebus bow'd his brow to
this,

With his like promise; saying, "Not any

one

Of all the Gods, nor any man, that son
Is to Saturnius, is more dear to me,
More trusted, nor more honour'd is than
thee.

Which yet with greater gifts of Deity
In future I'll confirm; and give thy state
A rod that riches shall accumulate;

Nor leave the bearer thrall to death or fate,

Or any sickness. All of gold it is;
Three-leaved, and full of all felicities.
And this shall be thy guardian; this shall
give

The Gods to thee in all the truth they live,
And, finally, shall this the tutress be

Of all the words and works informing me From Jove's high counsels, making known to thee

All my instructions. But to prophesy

(O brother) when the golden rod is held In thy strong hand, seek not to have reveal'd

Any sure fate that Jove will have conceal'd.

For no man shall, by knowing, prevent his fate;

And therefore will I hold in my free state The power to hurt and help what man I will,

Of all the greatest, or least touch'd with ill,

That walk within the circle of mine eye,
In all the tribes and sexes it shall try.

Yet, truly, any man shall have his will
To reap the fruits of my prophetic skill;
Whoever seeks it by the voice or wing
Of birds, born truly such events to sing.
Nor will I falsely, nor with fallacies,
Infringe the truth on which his faith relies,
But he that truths in chattering plumes
would find

(Quite opposite to them that prompt my mind),

And learn by natural forgers of vain lies
The more-than-ever-certain Deities;
That man shall sea-ways tread, that leave
no tracts,

And false or no guide find for all his facts.
And yet will I his gifts accept as well
As his to whom the simple truth I tell.

One other thing to thee I'll yet make
known,

Maia's exceedingly renowned son,
And Jove's, and of the Gods' whole session
The most ingenious genius: There dwell
Within a crooked cranny, in a dell
Beneath Parnassus, certain sisters born,
Call'd Parcæ; whom extreme swift wings
adorn ;

Their number three; that have upon their heads

White barley-flour still sprinkled, and are maids;

And these are schoolmistresses of things to

come,

Without the gift of prophecy. Of whom (Being but a boy, and keeping oxen near) learn'd their skill, though my great Father

were

Careless of it, or them. These flying from home

To others' roofs, and fed with honeycomb,

Command all skill; and (being enraged then)

Will freely tell the truths of things to men. But if they give them not that Gods' sweet meat,

They then are apt to utter their deceit, And lead men from their way. And these will I

Give thee hereafter; when their scrutiny And truth thou hast both made and learn'd; and then

Please thyself with them; and the race of

men

(Wilt thou know any) with thy skill endear,

Who will, be sure, afford it greedy ear,
And hear it often, if it prove sincere.

Take these, O Maia's son, and in thy

care

Be horse and oxen; all such men as are

Patient of labour; lions, white-tooth'd boars,

Mastiffs, and flocks that feed the flowery shores;

And every four-foot beast; all which shall stand

In awe of thy high imperatory hand.
Be thou to Dis, too, sole Ambassador;
Who, though all gifts and bounties he
abhor,

On thee he will bestow a wealthy one."

Thus king Apollo honour'd Maia's son With all the rights of friendship; all whose love

Had imposition from the will of Jove.

And thus with Gods and mortals Hermes lived;

Who truly help'd but few, but all deceived

With an undifferencing respect; and made Vain words and false persuasions his trade.

His deeds were all associates of the night, In which his close wrongs cared for no man's right.

So all salutes to Hermes that are due, Of whom, and all Gods, shall my Muse sing true.

THE END OF THE HYMN TO HERMES.

her fire :

All air's wing'd nation, all the belluine That or the earth feeds, or the seas confine.

To all which appertain the love and care Of well-crown'd Venus' works. Yet three there are

Whose minds she neither can deceive nor move;

Pallas, the seed of Ægis-bearing Jove, Who still lives indevirginate, her eyes Being blue, and sparkling like the freezing skies;

Whom all the gold of Venus never can Tempt to affect her facts with God or

man.

Chiefly with brass arm'd, and adorn'd for

war.

Where Venus only soft-skinn'd wenches fills

With wanton house-works, and suggests those skills

Still to their studies. Whom Diana neither, | That bears the golden distaff, and together

|Calls horns, and hollows, and the cries of hounds,

And owns the epithet of loving sounds For their sakes, springing from such spritely sports,

Can catch with her kind lures. But hill

resorts

To wild-beasts' slaughters; accents far-off heard

Of harps and dances; and of woods unshear'd

The sacred shades she loves; yet likes as well

Cities where good men and their offspring dwell.

The third, whom her kind passions nothing please,

Is virgin Vesta; whom Saturnides
Made reverend with his counsels, when his
Sire,

That adverse counsels agitates, life's fire
Had kindled in her, being his last begot.
Whom Neptune woo'd to knit with him

the knot

Of honour'd nuptials, and Apollo too; Which with much vehemence she refused to do,

And stern repulses put upon them both. Adding to all her vows the Gods' great oath,

And touching Jove's chin, which must

consummate

All vows so bound, that she would hold her state,

And be th' invincible Maid of Deities Through all her days' dates. For Saturnides

Gave her a fair gift in her nuptials' stead;

To sit in midst of his house, and be fed With all the free and richest feast of heaven :

In all the temples of the Gods being given
The prize of honour. Not a mortal man
(That either, of the powers Olympian
His half-birth having, may be said to be
A mortal of the Gods, or else that he,
Deities' wills doing, is of Deity)

But gives her honour o. the amplest kind.
Of all these three can Venus not a mind
Deceive, or set on forces to reflect.

Of all powers else yet, not a sex, nor sect,
Flies Venus; either of the blessed Gods,
Or men, confined in mortal periods.
But even the mind of Jove she doth
seduce,

That chides with thunder so her lawless

use

In human creatures; and by lot is given Of all most honour, both in earth and heaven.

And yet even his all-wise and mighty mind She, when she lists, can forge affects to blind,

And mix with mortal dames his Deity: Conceal'd at all parts from the jealous eye

Of Juno, who was both his sister born,
And made his wife; whom beauty did
adorn

Past all the bevy of immortal Dames;
And whose so chiefly-glorified flames
Cross-counsell'd Saturn got, and Rhæa
bore,

And Jove's pure counsels (being conqueror)
His wife made of his sister. Ay, and more,
Cast such an amorous fire into her mind
As made her (like him) with the mortal
kind

Meet in unmeet bed; using utmost haste, Lest she should know that he lived so unchaste,

Before herself felt that fault in her heart, And gave her tongue too just edge of desert

To tax his lightness. With this end, beside,

Lest laughter-studying Venus should de

ride

The Gods more than the Goddesses, and say

That she the Gods commix'd in amorous play

With mortal dames, begetting mortal seed T'immortal sires, and not make Goddesses breed

The like with mortal fathers. But, t acquite

Both Gods and Goddesses of her despite, Jove took (even in herself) on him her power,

And made her with a mortal paramour
Use as deform'd a mixture as the rest;
Kindling a kind affection in her breast
To God-like-limb'd Anchises, as he kept,
On Ida's top-on-top-to-heaven's-pole
heapt,1

Amongst the many fountains there, his herd.

For, after his brave person had appear'd To her bright eye, her heart flew all on fire;

And to amaze she burn'd in his desire. Flew straight to Cyprus, to her odorous fane

And altars, that the people Paphian Advanced to her. Where, soon as enter'd, she

The shining gates shut; and the Graces three

Wash'd; and with oils of everlasting scent Bathed, as became, her deathless linea

ment.

1'Aкpomóλos. Altissimum habens verticem, cujus summitas ipsum polum attingit.

And through the hill she went, the ready way

T' Anchises' oxstall, where did fawn and play

About her blessed feet wolves grisly-gray,
Terrible lions, many a mankind bear,
And lybberds swift, insatiate of red deer.
Whose sight so pleased, that, ever as she
past,

Through every beast a kindly love she cast, That, in their dens obscured with shadows deep,

Made all, distinguish'd, in kind couples, sleep.

And now she reach'd the rich pavilion Of the heroe, in whom heavens had shown A fair and goodly composition; And whom she in his oxstall found, alone; His oxen feeding in fat pastures by; He walking up and down, sounds clear and high

From his harp striking. Then before him she

Stood like a virgin, that invincibly

Had borne her beauties; yet alluringly Bearing her person, lest his ravish'd eye Should chance t' affect him with a stupid fear.

Anchises seeing her, all his senses were With wonder stricken, and high-takenheeds

Both of her form, brave stature, and rich weeds.

For, for a veil, she shined in an attire That cast a radiance past the ray of fire. Beneath which wore she, girt to her, a gown

Wrought all with growing-rose-buds, reaching down

T her slender smalls, which buskins did divine,

Such as taught Thetis' silver feet to shine.

The hearts of all with all-commanding loves ;

Or generous Themis; or the blue-eyed
Maid;

Or of the Graces any that are laid
With all the Gods in comparable scales,
And whom fame up to immortality calls?
Or any of the Nymphs, that unshorn
groves,

Or that this fair hill-habitation loves?
Or valleys flowing with earth's fattest
goods,

Or fountains pouring forth eternal floods? Say, which of all thou art; that in some place

Of circular prospect, for thine eyes' dear grace,

I may an altar build, and to thy powers Make sacred all the year's devoted hours,

With consecrations sweet and opulent.
Assured whereof, be thy benign mind bent
To these wish'd blessings of me give me
parts

Of chief attraction in Trojan hearts;
And, after, give me the refulgency
Of most renown'd and rich posterity;
Long, and free life, and heaven's sweet
light as long;

The people's blessings, and a health so strong

That no disease it let my life engage,
Till th' utmost limit of a human age."
To this Jove's seed this answer gave
again:

"Anchises, happiest of the human strain !

I am no Goddess: why, a thrall to death

Think'st thou like those that immortality breathe?

name

Of infinite multitude, to see so shown
Our maiden pastimes. Yet, from all the
fair

Of this so forceful concourse, up in air
The golden-rod-sustaining-Argus' Guide
Rapt me in sight of all, and made me
ride

Along the clouds with him; enforcing me
Through many a labour of mortality,
Through many an unbuilt region, and a
rude,

Where savage beasts devour'd preys warm and crude,

And would not let my fears take one foot's tread

On her by whom are all lives comforted; But said my maiden state must grace the bed

Of king Anchises, and bring forth to thee
Issue as fair as of divine degree.
Which said, and showing me thy moving
grace,

Away flew he up to th' Immortal Race.
And thus came I to thee; Necessity,"
With her steel stings, compelling me t'
apply

To her high power my will. But you

must I

Are held in reverence." All this while she said,

Into his bosom jointly she convey'd
The fires of love; when, all-enamour'd,
he

In these terms answer'd: "If mortality
Confine thy fortunes, and a woman were
Mother to those attractions that appear
In thy admired form, thy great father
given

High name of Otreüs; and the Spy of heaven

(Immortal Mercury) th' enforceful cause That made thee lose the prize of that applause

That modesty immaculate virgins gives : My wife thou shalt be call'd through both our lives.

Nor shall the powers of men nor Gods withhold

My fiery resolution to enfold
Thy bosom in mine arms; which here I

This said, he took her hand and she T

took way

With him; her bright eyes casting round; whose stay