He held The sceptre; Vulcan’s skill had fashioned it, And Vulcan gave it to Saturnian Jove, And Jove bestowed it on his messenger, The Argus-queller Hermes. He in turn Gave it to Pelops, great in horsemanship; And Pelops passed the gift to Atreus next, The people’s shepherd. Atreus, when he died, Bequeathed it to Thyestes, rich in flocks; And last, Thyestes left it to be borne By Agamemnon, symbol of his rule O’er many isles and all the Argive realm.—BRYANT. Footnote 104: Iliad i. 234–239. By this my sceptre, which can never bear A leaf or twig, since first it left its stem Among the mountains,—for the steel has pared Its boughs and bark away,—to sprout no more, And now the Achaian judges bear it,—they Who guard the laws received from Jupiter. BRYANT. Footnote 105: Iliad iv. 105–111. He uncovered straight His polished bow made of the elastic horns Of a wild goat, which, from his lurking-place, As once it left its cavern lair, he smote, And pierced its breast, and stretched it on the rock. Full sixteen palms in length the horns had grown From the goat’s forehead. These an artisan Had smoothed, and, aptly fitting each to each, Polished the whole and tipped the work with gold. BRYANT. Footnote 106: Von Haller’s Alps. The lofty gentian’s head in stately grandeur towers Far o’er the common herd of vulgar weeds and low; Beneath his banners serve communities of flowers; His azure brethren, too, in rev’rence to him bow. The blossom’s purest gold in curving radiations Erect upon the stalk, above its gray robe gleams; The leaflets’ pearly white with deep green variegations With flashes many-hued of the moist diamond beams. O Law beneficent! which strength to beauty plighteth, And to a shape so fair a fairer soul uniteth. Here on the ground a plant like a gray mist is twining, In fashion of a cross its leaves by Nature laid; Part of the beauteous flower, the gilded beak is shining, Of a fair bird whose shape of amethyst seems made. There into fingers cleft a polished leaf reposes, And o’er a limpid brook its green reflection throws; With rays of white a striped star encloses The floweret’s disk, where pink flushes its tender snows. Thus on the trodden heath are rose and emerald glowing, And e’en the rugged rocks are purple banners showing. Footnote 107: Breitinger’s kritische Dichtkunst, vol. ii. p. 807. Footnote 108: Georg. lib. iii. 51 and 79.