ODE XXXIV.

TO HIMSELF.

UNFREQUENT was I, and remiss,
In worshipping the deities,
While in the sophists' erring way
I went professedly astray :
But now I am compell'd perforce
To set my sails aback once more,

And follow in the very course
I foolishly forsook before.

For late, the Father of the day,
Wont to dispart with forked

ray

The clouds, along the clear above

His thundering steeds and swift car drove ;
At which brute earth, the wandering streams,
At which dark Styx, the dread domain
Of hateful Tænarus, and th' extremes
Of Atlas' boundaries shake again.

Valet ima summis

Mutare, et insignem attenuat Deus, Obscura promens. Hìnc apicem rapax

Fortuna cum stridore acuto

Sustulit, hìc posuisse gaudet.

CARMEN XXXV.

AD FORTUNAM.

O DIVA, gratum quæ regis Antium,
Præsens vel imo tollere de gradu
Mortale corpus, vel superbos

Vertere funeribus triumphos.

Te pauper ambit sollicitâ prece
Ruris colonus te dominam æquoris,
Quicunque Bithynâ lacessit

Carpathium pelagus carinâ.

Te Dacus asper, te profugi Scythæ, Urbesque, gentesque, et Latium ferox,

The Deity can change the state

Of the lowly to the great;

Can the loftiest debase,

The meanest raising in his place.

While Fortune, with a whizzing noise,
Rapaciously from this one now

Snatches the diadem; and joys
To place it on another's brow.

ODE XXXV.

TO FORTUNE.

OH! Goddess, presiding o'er Antium fair,
Ever ready to raise from the depths of despair
Our mortal estate, or proud triumphs again
At will to convert to a funeral train.

The poor husbandman thee with solicitous vows For aid importunes; and each sailor that ploughs With Bithynian keel the Carpathian sea,

As

queen

of the ocean, calls ever on thee.

Thee the Scythians wild, thee the Dacian rude, Cities, nations, and Latium warlike in mood,

Regumque matres barbarorum, et
Purpurei metuunt tyranni.

Injurioso ne pede proruas

Stantem columnam; neu populus frequens

Ad arma cessantes, ad arma

Concitet, imperiumque frangat.

Te semper anteit sæva Necessitas,
Clavos trabales et cuneos manu
Gestans ahenâ: nec severus

Uncus abest, liquidumque plumbum.

Te Spes, et albo rara Fides colit
Velata panno, nec comitem abnegat,
Utcunque mutatâ potentes

Veste domos inimica linquis.

At vulgus infidum, et meretrix retrò
Perjura cedit; diffugiunt cadis

Cum fæce siccatis amici,

Ferre jugum paritèr dolosi.

Thee mothers of royal barbarians fear,
And purple-clad tyrants in terror revere.

Yon firm-standing column, Oh! spurn not I pray, With injurious foot. Let no popular fray

The peaceful arouse with "To arms!" now,

arms!"

And the empire dismember with civil alarms.

Stern Necessity ever before thee appears,

"To

And huge wedges and spikes in her brazen hand

bears;

Nor wanting is there, with its torments so dread,
The flesh-riving hook, and the liquified lead.

Thee reverence Hope, and Fidelity rare,
Rob'd in white, nor denies her companionship there,
Whene'er in hostility, changing thy vest,
From the domes of the mighty thou vanishest.

But the crowd of the faithless, the harlot forsworn, Fall away; and the friends, that a part should have borne

Of our sorrows, all treacherous slink from the task, As soon as they 've drain'd the last dregs from the

cask.