Medulla Poetarum Romanorum Or, the Most Beautiful and Instructive Passages of the Roman Poets. Being a Collection, (Disposed under proper Heads,) Of such Descriptions, Allusions, Comparisons, Characters, and Sentiments, as may best serve to shew the Religion, Learning, Politicks, Arts, Customs, Opinions, Manners, and Circumstances of the Antients. With Translations of the same in English Verse. By Mr. Henry Baker |
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Stars.
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 | Medulla Poetarum Romanorum |  |
Stars.
See Chance. Orion. Pilot.
The glittering Stars at equal Distance lie,
Make various Shapes, and chequer all the Sky.
Above them Nought: to the World's Top they rose,
Painting the Roof of Nature's common House:
Which in a wide Embrace does all contain,
The spacious Air, the Earth, and raging Main.
They set in order, and in order rise,
As West drives down, or East brings up the Skies.—
Make various Shapes, and chequer all the Sky.
Above them Nought: to the World's Top they rose,
Painting the Roof of Nature's common House:
Which in a wide Embrace does all contain,
The spacious Air, the Earth, and raging Main.
They set in order, and in order rise,
As West drives down, or East brings up the Skies.—
393
So thick with Stars the Skies are spangled o'er,
That not the Sands upon the winding Shore,
That not the Billows in tempestuous Floods,
That not the Leaves when Autumn shakes the Woods,
Can shew their Number.—Numbers they surmount;
Arithmetick is lost in the Account.—
And as in Cities, where, in Ranks decreed,
First Nobles go, and then the Knights succeed;
A Right to come the next the People claim;
The Rabble last, a Croud without a Name.
So are the Heav'ns by different Stars possest:
Some, like the Nobles, with more Rays are drest,
Some shine with less, the num'rous Croud with least.
Were these endow'd with a proportion'd Heat,
Were they in Pow'r, as they're in Number great,
They, long agoe, must have dissolv'd the Frame,
Nor could the World have born so fierce a Flame.—
That not the Sands upon the winding Shore,
That not the Billows in tempestuous Floods,
That not the Leaves when Autumn shakes the Woods,
Can shew their Number.—Numbers they surmount;
Arithmetick is lost in the Account.—
And as in Cities, where, in Ranks decreed,
First Nobles go, and then the Knights succeed;
A Right to come the next the People claim;
The Rabble last, a Croud without a Name.
So are the Heav'ns by different Stars possest:
Some, like the Nobles, with more Rays are drest,
Some shine with less, the num'rous Croud with least.
Were these endow'd with a proportion'd Heat,
Were they in Pow'r, as they're in Number great,
They, long agoe, must have dissolv'd the Frame,
Nor could the World have born so fierce a Flame.—
| Medulla Poetarum Romanorum | |