All sorts there thrust together by the heart With thirst of wisdom spent on either part; Horrid examples made of Life and Death From their fine stuff wov’n; yet when once the breath Of sentence leaves them, all their worth is drawn As dry as dust, and wears like cobweb lawn: So these men set a price upon their worth, That no man gives but those that trot it forth Though Need’s foul ways, feed Humours with all cost Though Judgment sterves in them; rout, State engrost (At all tobacco-benches, solemn tables, Where all that cross their envies are their fables) In their rank faction; shame and death approv’d Fit penance for their opposites; none lov’d But those that rub them; not a reason heard That doth not soothe and glorify their preferr’d Bitter opinions. When, would Truth resume The cause to his hands, all would fly in fume Before his sentence; since the innocent mind Just God makes good, to Whom their worst is wind. For, that I freely all my thoughts express, My conscience is my thousand witnesses; And to this stay my constant comforts vow, _You for the world I have, or God for you._ CERTAIN ANCIENT GREEK EPIGRAMS TRANSLATED All stars are drunk-up by the fiery sun, And in so much a flame lies shrunk the moon. Homer’s all-liv’d name all names leaves in death, Whose splendour only Muses’ bosoms breathe. ANOTHER Heav’n’s fires shall first fall darken’d from his sphere, Grave Night the light weed of the Day shall wear, Fresh streams shall chase the sea, tough ploughs shall tear Her fishy bottoms, men in long date dead Shall rise and live, before Oblivion shed Those still-green leaves that crown great Homer’s head. ANOTHER The great Mæonides doth only write, And to him dictates the great God of Light. ANOTHER Sev’n kingdoms strove in which should swell the womb That bore great Homer, whom Fame freed from tomb; Argos, Chios, Pylos, Smyrna, Colophone, The learn’d Athenian, and Ulyssean throne. ANOTHER Art thou of Chios? No. Of Salamine? As little. Was the Smyrnean country thine? Nor so. Which then? Was Cuma’s? Colophone? Nor one nor other. Art thou, then, of none That fame proclaims thee? None. Thy reason call. If I confess of one I anger all. THE FIRST BOOK OF HOMER’S ODYSSEYS THE ARGUMENT The Gods in council sit, to call Ulysses from Calypso’s thrall, And order their high pleasures thus: Grey Pallas to Telemachus (In Ithaca) her way addrest; And did her heav’nly limbs invest In Mentas’ likeness, that did reign King of the Taphians, in the main Whose rough waves near Leucadia run. Advising wise Ulysses’ son To seek his father, and address His course to young Tantalides, That govern’d Sparta. Thus much said, She shew’d she was Heav’n’s martial Maid, And vanish’d from him. Next to this, The Banquet of the Wooers is. ANOTHER ARGUMENT _Ἂλφα._ The Deities sit; The Man retired; Th’ Ulyssean wit By Pallas fired.