Nor in the games when he disputes the prize
Shall e'er opponents dare 'gainst him to rise ;
Though limbs of brass, though souls of iron they bring,
All burning for the crown, into the ring ;
By mountain herds as the dread lion feared,
30
And by his fellows as a god revered ; In regal courts he honour shall
command, And 'mid the people of each foreign land. Him lovely youths
with all their tender charms Shall seek to clasp within their longing
arms ; And the soft maid, by love's strong impulse led, Shall gently
draw towards the golden bed ; His prayers shall ever reach the
Immortals' ear, Is or angry seas nor tempests shall he fear ; But tread
with feet unwetted o'er the sea :
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Him, though alone, shall savage robbers flee. In him his servants shall
a father view, And love their master's house with reverence due ; He
shall at will the hidden thoughts perceive, Which others in their
inmost hearts conceive ; And what the birds, the inmates of the sky,
Amongst themselves, unknown to mortals cry ; Those winged interpreters
of heaven's decrees, Aye chanting forth their mystic melodies. He
learns the dragon's rushing force to break, And quench the venom of the
crawling snake ;
50
The man dashed to the ground in that dire hour When reels his brain
'neath Luna's baleful power, I'll teach his cure, and how the pest to
tame, That from the elephant derives its name ; And how to ban by
spells the dead man's ghost, Sent back to day from Pluto's gloomy
coast. A thousand other blessings heaped on high, Stored in the cave of
skilful Hermes lie ; Immortal, true, of wondrous potency, Who so
attains a happy man is he ! The guardian god who Argus slew of yore,
Hath me ordained to teach this mystic lore, And from my breast, which
he himself constrains,
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Pour forth his precepts in multifluous strains.— But small their number
they who seek to learn ; Presumptuous mortals ancient wisdom spurn,
