are his giant-stature rears,
And lo, his iron hand prepares
To grasp its feeble prey.
III. 2.
Who now will guard bewildered youth
Safe from the fierce assaults of hostile rage?
Such war can Virtue wage,
Virtue, that bears the sacred shield of Truth!
Alas! full oft on Guilt's victorious car
The spoils of Virtue are in triumph borne;
While the fair captive, marked with many a scar,
In lone obscurity, oppressed, forlorn,
Resigns to tears her angel form.
Ill-fated youth, then, whither wilt thou fly?
No friend, no shelter now is nigh,
And onward rolls the storm.
III. 3.
But whence the sudden beam that shoots along?
Why shrink aghast the hostile throng?
Lo, from amidst Affliction's night,
Hope bursts, all radiant, on the sight:
Her words the troubled bosom sooth.
"Why thus dismayed?
"Though foes invade,
"Hope ne'er is wanting to their aid,
"Who tread the path of truth.
"'Tis I, who smooth the rugged way,
"I, who close the eyes of Sorrow,
"And with glad visions of to-morrow
"Repair the weary soul's decay.
"When Death's cold touch thrills to the freezing heart,
"Dreams of heaven's opening glories I impart,
"Till the freed spirit springs on high,
"In rapture too severe for weak Mortality."
_PYGMAEO-GERANO-MACHIA_,
THE BATTLE OF
THE PIGMIES AND CRANES.
FROM THE LATIN OF ADDISON.
The pygmy-people, and the feathered train,
Mingling in mortal combat on the plain,
I sing. Ye Muses, favour my designs,
Lead on my squadrons, and arrange the lines;
The flashing swords and fluttering wings display,
And long bills nibbling in the bloody fray;
Cranes darting with disdain on tiny foes,
Conflicting birds and men, and war's unnumbered woes!
The wars and woes of heroes six feet long
Have oft resounded in Pierian song.
Who has not heard of Colchos' golden fleece,
And Argo, manned with all the flower of Greece?
Of Thebes' fell brethren, Theseus, stern of face,
And Peleus' son, unrivalled in the race,
AEneas, founder of the Roman line,
And William, glorious on the banks of Boyne?
Who has not learned to weep at Pompey's woes,
And over Blackmore's epic page to doze?
'T
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