Thy modesty, worthy of an earlier age, surpassed even that of modest girlhood. Less chaste than thee was that daughter of Alcinous whom Homer, in his praises of her, compares to Diana; she who spread her clothes on the shore to dry and sported with her attendant maids, throwing a golden ball from hand to hand until she fled in alarm from Ulysses issuing forth from the thicket where he had been enjoying sleep after his shipwreck. The study of the Muses and the songs of poets of olden time were thy delight. Turning the pages of Homer, bard of Smyrna, or those of Virgil, * * * * * Page 250 percurrens damnas Helenam nec parcis Elissae. nobiliora tenent animos exempla pudicos: Laodamia sequens remeantem rursus ad umbras 150 Phylaciden et prona ruens Capaneia coniunx communes ardente viro mixtura favillas, et gravis incumbens casto Lucretia ferro, vulnere quae proprio facinus testata tyranni armavit patriae iustos in bella dolores 155 exule Tarquinio, memorandaque concidit uno ulta pudicitiam libertatemque cruore. talia facta libens non tu virtute minore, sed fato meliore legis. Iam nubilis aetas principe sollicito votis erexerat aulam 160 incertis, quem tanta tori fortuna maneret. Antiquos loquitur Musarum pagina reges, quod dura sub lege procos certare iuberent, empturos thalamum dubii discrimine leti, et sua crudeles gauderent pignora mortis 165 ambitione peti. curru Pisaea marino fugit praeda Pelops; nam perfidus obice regis prodidit Oenomai deceptus Myrtilus axem. Hippomenes trepidus cursu ferroque secutam aurato volucrem flexit Schoeneida pomo. 170 Herculeas vidit Fluvio luctante palaestras moenibus ex altis Calydon pretiumque labori Deianira fuit, cum pectore victor anhelo Alcides fremeret retroque Acheloius iret decolor: attonitae stringebant vulnera Nymphae; 175 saucia truncato pallebant flumina cornu. * * * * * Page 251 poet of Mantua, thou findest fault with Helen nor canst approve of Dido. Thy chaste mind fastens upon examples more noble: Laodamia following Protesilaus as he returned to the shades; Euadne who cast herself on the flaming pyre whereon her husband Capaneus perished, wishing to mingle her ashes with his; grave Lucrece who fell upon a chaste sword, she who self-slain bore witness to the tyrant’s crime, aroused to war her country’s righteous wrath, drove Tarquin into exile and died gloriously, having avenged by her one sacrifice both chastity and freedom. Of such deeds thou dost read with joy, thyself not less in virtue though more blessed of fortune.