Mother of Romans, joy of men and gods, Kind Venus, who 'neath gliding signs of heaven Dost haunt the main where sail our argosies, Dost haunt the land that yieldeth crops of grain, Since 'tis of thee that every kind of breath Is born and riseth to behold the light; Before Thee, Lady, flit the winds; and clouds Part at thine advent, and deft-fingered earth Yields Thee sweet blooms; for Thee the sea hath smiles, And heaven at peace doth gleam with floods of light. Soon as the fair spring face of day is shown And zephyr kind to birth is loosed in strength; First do the fowls of air give sign of Thee, Lady, and of Thy entrance, smit at heart By power of Thine. Then o'er the pastures glad The wild herds bound, and swim the rapid streams. Thy glamour captures them, and yearningly They follow where Thou willest to lead on. Yea, over seas and hills and sweeping floods, And leafy homes of birds and grassy leas, Striking fond love into the heart of all, Thou mak'st each race desire to breed its kind. Since Thou dost rule alone o'er nature's realm, Since without Thee naught wins the hallowed shores Of light, and naught is glad, and naught is fair, Fain would I crave Thine aid for poesy Which seeks to grasp the essence of the world. On the high system of the heavens and gods I will essay to speak, and primal germs Reveal, whence nature giveth birth to all, And growth and nourishment, and unto which Nature resolves them back when quite outworn. These, when we treat their system, we are wont To view asm "matter," "bodies which produce," And name them "seeds of things," "first bodies" too, Since from them at the first all things do come. THE TYRANNY OF RELIGION AND THE REVOLT OF EPICURUS When human life lay foully on the earth Before all eyes, 'neath Superstition crushed, Who from the heavenly quarters showed her head And with appalling aspect lowered on men, Then did a Greek dare first lift eyes to hers-- First brave her face to face. Him neither myth Of gods, nor thunderbolt; nor sky with roar And threat could quell; nay, chafed with more resolve His valiant soul that he should yearn to be First man to burst the bars of nature's gates. So vivid verve of mind prevailed. He fared Far o'er the flaming ramparts of the world, And traversed the immeasurable All In mind and soul: and thence a conqueror Returns to tell what can, what cannot rise, And on what principle each thing, in brief, Hath powers defined and deep-set boundary. Religion, then, is cast to earth in turn And trampled. Triumph matches man with heaven.