 | Pythagoras |  |
5
PYTHAGORAS
AN ODE
TO His GRACE Thomas Duke of Newcastle.
I.
As to the West, in June the radiant SunHasten'd to close a bright and chearful Day,
When Philomel her plaintive Song begun,
As if lamenting the declining Ray,
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That cuts a Passage thro a spacious Wood,
Beneath a Beech's venerable Shade,
The Samian Sage rever'd for Wisdom stood:
Surrounded by the philosophic Youth,
Full of the God he read the Book of Time,
And thus prophetic with the Voice of Truth,
Foretold the transmigrated Sons of Rhyme.
II.
In fair Britannia's Sea-girt Isle,On which the fruitful Seasons smile,
Where Science shall her Temples raise,
And Phœbus plant his hallow'd Bays,
Where Liberty shall take her Stand,
The sure Palladium of the Land,
A Chiron shall in Newton rise,
To search with Aid divine the Skies,
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More largely than in Greece before,
While Shaftsb'ry's pure capacious Breast
Shall be by Plato's Soul possess'd:
His Precepts well shall form the Age,
His bright Example shall engage
The Mind of each aspiring Youth
In Virtue's Cause, the Cause of Truth.
In Xenophon the heav'nly Flame,
That glows, shall brighten Sidney's Name:
In Sidney's more extended Plan,
He shall assert the Rights of Man,
Shall shew whence Bliss, whence Glory, springs,
And fix the Claims and Pow'r of Kings.
In Tillotson th' Athenian Sage
Again shall warn an impious Age,
Shall shew to unmisguided Eyes
What Virtue is without Disguise.
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In Milton's bold and sacred Strain.
The daring Æschylus shall sing,
And soar aloft, on Shakespear's Wing;
Wild as the Lark, but sweet and strong,
The pleasing Notes shall float along.
Majestic Sophocles appears,
To bathe the Charmer's Cheeks with Tears,
When Gwendolen for Succour calls,
When Yvor weeps, or Pyrrhus falls.
The Mantuan Swain, in Manhood ripe,
Once more shall wake the rural Pipe,
When Philips with his Oaten Reed
Makes glad the Grove and flow'ry Mead.
Plautus and Terence, Sons of Mirth,
Shall give to Steele and Congreve Birth:
And Roscius Laughter shall excite,
Their Beauties when he calls to Light:
Roscius in Johnson shall revive,
To keep the comic Force alive,
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Booth shall the noble Passions move;
In him Æsopus shall be seen,
The Voice the same, the same the Mien.
III.
Here paus'd the Sage, while his admiring ThrongIn aweful Silence stood, prepar'd to hear
The sacred Numbers of their Prophet's Song,
No doubtful Sounds, but as the Day-light clear:
He into Kingdoms far remote, and States
Whose Liberties were gain'd by noble Blood,
Cast his discerning Eye, and read their Fates,
Empires which meanly fell, or bravely stood:
He view'd the checquer'd Roll of British Kings,
Infernal Monsters some, some Half Divine;
Of these, their Statesmen, and their Chiefs, he sings,
From Saxon Alfred to the Brunswick Line.
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IV.
They come, they come! Each aweful ShadeNow walks majestic cross the Glade:
I see each venerable Name
Led by th' eternal Herald Fame!
Kings who the Tyrant's Rod disdain,
For public Good who wish to reign,
Heroes with mural Honours crown'd,
And Statesmen for their Truth renown'd,
Men fam'd for private Deeds of Worth,
Call'd by th' immortal Herald forth!
I see the great, the God-like, Soul,
Of Numa from Lycurgus roll:
In England it revives again
In Alfred's wise and pious Reign:
Time, like old Ocean's Current, flows,
And Cent'ry after Cent'ry goes;
Yet the same Soul her Race shall run,
Pure, and as lasting, as the Sun:
The same heroic Mind, the same
Bright Spirit, the celestial Flame,
The Prop of Liberty and Law,
Invigorates the great Nassau:
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The Sword of Datames shall wield,
While the fam'd Greek, sirnam'd The Just,
Rises to fill Godolphin's Trust.
Cato shall Pelham's Breast inspire
With Roman Worth and Roman Fire,
Fair Freedom's Banner shall display,
And shun no more the hateful Day.
Pollio polite, of Courts the Pride,
And near to ev'ry Muse ally'd,
Thro a long Length of Days shall go,
In Dorset's Form, without a Foe.
Scipio once more shall deck the Plain,
And grace a second George's Reign;
In Ligonier the Roman Soul
Shall ev'ry mean Desire controul.
Cadmus , whose letter'd Fame shall spread
Where-ever Learning rears her Head,
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In Halifax, nor sow in vain,
While Shaftsb'ry, Atticus confess'd,
With ev'ry private Virtue bless'd,
Enjoys the learned Calm of Life,
Palmyra's Queen his envy'd Wife.
See, see, the wond'rous Mirror see!
The pious Berkley lives in me,
Extracting from the Hearts of Pine
Ambrosial Health, and Bloom divine.
V.
As lab'ring with the God the Prophet gaz'd,He saw an Eaglet with a milk-white Dove:
The gentle Bird, nor frighted nor amaz'd,
Skim'd by his Side, and look'd with Eyes of Love:
Beneath the beauteous Auspice cross the Lawn
Britain's belov'd Marcellus, Fred'ric's Son,
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And seem'd prepar'd a glorious Race to run:
From the white Dove and royal Bird the Sage
Foretold an endless regal Race to spring;
Whose public Virtues shall adorn each Age,
And ev'ry Prince deserve to be a King.
VI.
The sacred Music of the SpheresNow vibrates on the Prophet's Ears:
The Theban Harp and Teian Lyre
To animate the Grove conspire;
And now the Notes begin to swell
More artful on the Roman Shell:
A Bard, to rise in later Days,
Governs these Instruments of Praise,
One, says the Sage, who shall disdain
The vile, tho much applauded, Strain,
Whose polish'd Verse will never find
A Passage to the vulgar Mind,
Whose slow, tho sure, Approach to Fame
Awhile shall circumscribe his Name,
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Shall give the judging few Delight;
She, warbling on the dewy Thorn,
Wakes with her tuneful Woe the Morn;
He, heedless of the tasteless Throng,
Commands Attention to his Song:
And now he plucks the choicest Flow'rs
Of Poesy for Esher's Bow'rs;
Where all that Fancy can create
Of what is graceful, what is great,
Of what is lovely, fair, and sweet,
To captivate each Sense shall meet:
There from the weighty Toils of State,
And Councils held on Europe's Fate,
Mecænas shall retire awhile,
To bid the Loves and Graces smile,
Awhile shall leave the Cares of Pow'r,
To pass with Friends an Attic Hour:
Mecænas of distinguish'd Birth,
And Judge of ev'ry human Worth,
His Country's Guardian, and her Pride,
To Kings and to the Muse ally'd,
Shall act, in mighty George's Reign,
The same illustrious Parts again.
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Here closes with the closing Day.
O! thou predicted by the Sage
Mecænas of this later Age,
Newcastle, take the Song divine,
The Poet and his Muse are thine:
Flaccus and Virgil sung thy Praise
In haughty Rome's Augustan Days;
I, now the Herald of thy Fame,
Shall often chant thy fav'rite Name,
Make it familiar to the Lyre
As Light to the celestial Fire.
THE END.
The Word Rhyme is not here used in the modern and wrong Acceptation, but in the true and original Meaning.
Chiron, who flourished before the Trojan War, “delineated,” says Sir Isaac Newton, “Σχηματα ολυμπου, the Asterisms; for Chiron was a practical Astronomer.” Chron of antient Kingdoms amended, Chap. 1. In the same Work, Sir Isaac fixes the Time of the Argonautic Expedition partly by Chiron's Doctrine of the Colures; of which only Fragments are remaining.
Algernon Sidney, whose Discourses on Government are superior to most Books on that Subject, and inferior to none.
An Actor, who has done no great Honour to his Country by his Writings, in his Account of the distinguished Actors of his own time, is silent to the Merits of two of the greatest which ever appeared, Johnson and Booth: an Enquiry into the Motives of so shameful a Neglect is beneath the Dignity of my present Pursuit.
The Tragedian Æsopus was Cotemporary with Roscius, and lived in a familiar Friendship with Cicero: and Johnson and Booth were as much esteemed for their good Sense and social Virtues as for their Excellence as Actors.
This great Planter of Colonies is recorded by Herodotus as the first Promoter of Letters in Greece; where he settled a Colony of Phœnicians; among which were the Curetes, the first Workers in Brass. The great and laudable Share which the Earl of Halifax has had in settling and raising an useful People in Nova-Scotia is well known, and will, I doubt not, be long remembered with the Regard due to so public a Spirit, and so great a Good.
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