III

RIVULUS

Qua latet domus ardeae natus en ego rivulus prodeo, et petulans nova luce per filices feror fonte praecipitanti.

pronus, impatiens viae, perque concava collium et praeter oppidulum vehor, ponte nec sine plurimo aut plurimo sine vico.

Tityri modo praefluo culta, nec mora flumini pergo iungier aestuans: hinc et hinc homines eant, usque deferor idem.

nunc fragosus acutulis garriens ego cautibus salto, seu modo vortices bulliens retraho breves increpoque lapillos.

subter ecce novalibus lapsus est ubi margines excavem sinuosior, lingulasque trementibus consitas malachetis.

garrula tamen explicor voce, nec mora flumini pergo iungier aestuans: sit dies hominum fugax, usque deferor idem.

flosculus gremio est viam duplicantis identidem captus unus et alter, aut improbus fario hic natans, umber hic fugitivus.

And here and there a foamy flake,
Upon me, as I travel

With many a silvery waterbreak
Above the golden gravel,

And draw them all along, and flow
To join the brimming river,

For men may come and men may go,
But I go on for ever.

I steal by lawns and grassy plots,
I slide by hazel covers;
I move the sweet forget-me-nots
That grow for happy lovers.

I slip, I slide, I gloom, I glance,
Among my skimming swallows;
I make the netted sunbeam dance
Against my sandy shallows.

I murmur under moon and stars
In brambly wildernesses;
I linger by my shingly bars;
I loiter round my cresses;

And out again I curve and flow
To join the brimming river,

For men may come and men may go,
But I go on for ever.

Tennyson.

IV

PRESENCE OF MIND

There was once a maiden of Smyrna
Whose grandmother threaten'd to burn her :
But she snatch'd up the cat,

And said "Granny, burn that,"

This ingenious young person of Smyrna.

E. Lear.

spuma seu mihi bracteam
sparserit modo, cursibus
dum ruens trepidantibus
glaream super auream
fila candida duco.

ipse cuncta traho secundo
amne, nec mora flumini
pergo iungier aestuans:
hora sit sua saeculis,
usque deferor idem.

tecta per coryleta aquis
repo sive per hortulos
devehor placidis, movens,
gemmulae bene caerulae
quot dicantur Amori.

labor, et vice langueo
dum vagas vagus immoror
laetus inter hirundines,
solis aut iubar implicans
iactito super alveum.

mox inhospita murmuro
per rubeta; sed almior
luna sideribus comes
plena despicit; herbulas
osculansque sisymbri,

deinde per silices meos
flexus en ego flumini

pergo iungier aestuans:

hinc et hinc homines eant,

usque deferor idem.

7. R.

IV

FORTES CREANTUR FORTIBUS ET BONIS

Smyrnaeo coluit Smyrnam virgo aemula vati : quae, minitante avia saevis comburere flammis, arrepta fele, "Hanc" ait "hanc, avia alma, cremato." prudentes adeo neptes tu, Smyrna, creasti!

V

And thou wert once a maiden fair,
A blushing virgin, warm and young,
With myrtles wreathed in golden hair,
And glossy brow that knew no care—
Upon a bridegroom's arm you hung.
The golden locks are silvered now,

The blushing cheek is pale and wan;
The spring may bloom, the autumn glow,
All's one-in chimney corner thou
Sitt'st shivering on.—

A moment-and thou sink'st to rest!
To wake, perhaps an angel blest,

In the bright presence of thy Lord.
Oh, weary is life's path to all!
Hard is the strife, and light the fall,

But wondrous the reward!

W. M. Thackeray.

(From the German of La Motte Fouqué.)

VI

VIRGINIA

Then, for a little moment, all people held their breath; And through the crowded Forum was stillness as of

death;

And in another moment brake forth from one and all
A cry as if the Volscians were coming o'er the wall.
Some with averted faces shrieking fled home amain;
Some ran to call a leech; and some ran to lift the
slain;

Some felt her lips and little wrist, if life might there be found;

And some tore up their garments fast, and strove to stanch the wound.

In vain they ran, and felt, and stanched; for never truer blow

That good right arm had dealt in fight against a

Volscian foe.

Macaulay.

V

O QUID HABES ILLIUS ILLIUS?

Ergo tu roseis tincta ruboribus
olim virginei flos fueras chori ;
te, myrto implicita crinibus aureis,
dum frons candet eburnea
expers tristitiae, sustinuit comes
haerentem lateri sponsus :—anilitas
mutat vae nitidis canitiem comis,
pallet quae rubuit gena.

nil autumnus agros torreat, an rosis
hortos ver rediens vestiat, interest:
tu deserta foco, tu laris angulo
torpens frigidula assides.

momento cita mors venerit, altaque

componet requies, unde resurgere

cinctam luce Pater fors sinet, additam

sancto caelicolum choro.

si calcanda via est heu! gravis omnibus,
luctandumque malis non sine pulvere,
functos excipiet mille laboribus

non narrabile praemium.

F. St. 7. T.

VI

VIRGINIA

Inde animam paulum nulli non surripit horror; obstupuere, forumque frequens ceu morte silescit : post paulum exoritur nullo non gutture clamor tanquam si Volscos videant conscendere murum. averso pars ore ululantque domumque recurrunt, pars medicumve cient cursu tolluntve necatam; bracchiolumve alii attingunt et labra puellae si vitam reperire queant; raptimve cruoris scissa veste sua conantur sistere rivum. frustra, sedula gens, cursu tactuque laboras, frustra sistendo; neque enim vis certior unquam illa gravi dextra Volscum conciderat hostem.