If the desire of glory speak a mind More nobly operative and more refin'd, What vast soule moves thee, or what hero's spirit (Kept in'ts traduction pure) dost thou inherit, That, not contented with one single fame, Dost to a double glory spread thy name, And on thy happy temples safely set Both th' Delphick wreath and civic coronet? Was't not enough for us to know how far Thou couldst in season suffer, act and dare But we must also witnesse, with what height And what Ionick sweetnesse thou canst write, And melt those eager passions, that are Stubborn enough t' enrage the god of war Into a noble love, which may expire<9.1> In an illustrious pyramid of fire; Which, having gained his due station, may Fix there, and everlasting flames display. This is the braver path: time soone can smother The dear-bought spoils and tropheis of the other. How many fiery heroes have there been, Whose triumphs were as soone forgot as seen? Because they wanted some diviner one To rescue <thee> from night, and make <thee> known. Such art thou to thy selfe. While others dream Strong flatt'ries on a fain'd or borrow'd theam, Thou shalt remaine in thine owne lustre bright, And adde unto 't LUCASTA'S chaster light. For none so fit to sing great things as he, That can act o're all lights of poetry. Thus had Achilles his owne gests design'd, He had his genius Homer far outshin'd. Jo. Hall.<<9.2>> <9.1> Original has ASPIRE. <9.2> The precocious author of HORAE VACIVAE, 1646, and of a volume of poems which was printed in the same year. In the LUCASTA are some complimentary lines by Lovelace on Hall's translation of the commentary of Hierocles on the Golden Verses of Pythagoras, 1657. TO THE HONORABLE, VALIANT, AND INGENIOUS COLONEL RICHARD LOVELACE, ON HIS EXQUISITE POEMS.