The Third Volume of the Works of Mr. William Congreve ::

And ANNA's Cause and Europe's Fate
Thy serious Thoughts demand;
Whether, thy Days and Nights are spent
In Cares, on Publick Good intent;
Or, whether, leisure Hours invite
To manly Sports, or to refin'd Delight;
In Courts residing, or to Plains retir'd,
Where gen'rous Steeds contest, with Emulation fir'd;

II.

Thee still she seeks, and tuneful sings thy Name,
As once she

Theron, a Prince of Agrigentum, to whom Pindar addresses his second and third Olympick.

Theron sung,
While with the deathless Worthy's Fame
Olympian

Pisa, a Town in Peloponnesus, near to which the Olympick Games were celebrated.

Pisa rung:
Nor less Sublime, is now, her Choice,
Nor less inspir'd by thee, her Voice.
And now, she loves aloft to sound
The Man for more than Mortal Deeds renown'd;
Vary'ing anon her Theme, she takes Delight
The swift-heel'd

So Horace, L. 4. Ode 2. speaks of Pindar— as singing sometimes the Hero, sometimes the Horse —Pugilemve Equumve dicit, &c.

Horse to praise, and sing his rapid Flight.

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III.

And see! the

Alluding to the Notion that Mares have conceiv'd by the Western Wind, without the Assistance of a Horse: See Virg. Geor. 3. ver. 273. from whence Tasso has borrow'd the Birth of Raymond's Horse Gierusalem, Canto 7.

Volta l'aperta bocca incontro l'ora
Raccoglie i semi del fecondo vento,
E de tepidi fiati (ô meraviglia!) &c.

Virg:

------ illæ
Ore omnes versæ in Zephyrum, stant rupibus altis,
Exceptantque Leves auras: & sæpe sine ullis
Conjugiis, vento gravidæ (mirabile dictu!)

&c.

Air-born Racers start,
Impatient of the Rein;
Faster they run, than flies the Scythian Dart,
Nor passing, print the Plain!
The Winds themselves who with their Swiftness vye,
In vain their airy Pinions ply;
So far in matchless Speed, thy Coursers pass
Th'Ætherial Authors of their Race.

University of Virginia Library

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