The fresh lustration ready in his hands. Thus Linus5 liv'd, and thus, as poets write, Tiresias, wiser for his loss of sight,6 Thus exil'd Chalcas,7 thus the bard of Thrace,8 Melodious tamer of the savage race! 70 Thus train'd by temp'rance, Homer led, of yore, His chief of Ithaca9 from shore to shore, Through magic Circe's monster-peopled reign, And shoals insidious with the siren train; And through the realms, where griesly spectres dwell, Whose tribes he fetter'd in a gory spell; For these are sacred bards, and, from above, Drink large infusions from the mind of Jove. Would'st thou (perhaps 'tis hardly worth thine ear) Would'st thou be told my occupation here? 80 The promised King of peace employs my pen, Th'eternal cov'nant made for guilty men, The new-born Deity with infant cries Filling the sordid hovel, where he lies; The hymning Angels, and the herald star That led the Wise who sought him from afar, And idols on their own unhallow'd floor Dash'd at his birth, to be revered no more! This theme10 on reeds of Albion I rehearse; The dawn of that blest day inspired the verse; 90 Verse that, reserv'd in secret, shall attend Thy candid voice, my Critic and my Friend! 1 A poet native to Teios in Ionia. 2 See Horace's Odes (i, 19-23). 3 Cerberus, the guardian of Hades. 4 Pythagoras. 5 A son of Apollo. 6 Tiresias was gifted by Pallas with the power of understanding the language of birds to atone for his loss of sight. 7 The Grecian soothsayer at the siege of Troy. 8 Orpheus. 9 Odysseus. 10 "The Hymn" from "On the Morning of Christ's Nativity." Elegy VI. Anno Aetates undevigesimo.1