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To no one colour various beauty's bound;

What different charms in different hues are found!

Fire to the eye let ruddy cheeks impart ;

But pale mild languor melts into the heart.

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Enough to charm, the modest ear may choose, In the chaste labours of gay Ovid's muse. When themes sublime more lofty strains demand, The swelling chords confess a statelier hand: 2625 In floods of day, see Sol's bright palace rise; See his rash son hurl'd flaming down the skies: How Pindus, Athos, hot Olympus glow! How hisses Rhodope through piles of snow!* See, the great sire of gods and men alarm'd, 2630 And 'gainst combustion, with combustion arm'd.3— His sounding pinion holds a temperate flight, Skims not the ground, nor soars beyond the sight; More skill'd to paint the passions, than to move, Youth will admire him, wiser age approve. 2635

* Et tandem Rhodope nivibus caritura,-.METAMORPH. 1. ii.

3- et sævis compescuit ignibus ignes. Ibid.

THE

THE AUGUSTAN AG E.

Rivals to these, in more instructive prose, Historians, orators, and criticks rose; With fancy's rays the power of truth combin'd, Pour'd rich effulgence on the enlighten’d mind. Why teem'd the Augustan age beyond the rest, With prodigality of genius bless'd? Was man a different compound from before? No;-war, and civil discord, were no more; The iron gates of double Janus clos'd,' The mind grew active, and the arm repos'd; 2645 Long

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• Immane bellicæ civitatis argumentum, quod semel sub regibus, iterum Tito Manlio consule, tertio, Augusto Principe, certæ pacis argumentum Janus Geminus clausus dedit. VEL. PAT. 1. ii. c. 38.

That the Roman legions should have been the best disciplined and the most irresistible troops in the world, will not seem extraordinary, when we consider that from the building of the city to the reign of Augustus, a period of above seven hundred years, the gates of the temple of Janus were but three times closed: once by Numa, the second king; again, after the first Punick war, A. U. C. 529; and lastly by Augustus, A. U. C. 725. One would imagine that the Romans in time of

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Fragmentum picturæ veteris in pariete facto, Romæ anno MDCCXXXVII inter palatii Cæsaris Augusti rudera, ubi nunc sunt horti Farnesiani, in monte Palatino repertum, in quo sex figura arte exquisita et nitidis coloribus sunt exprefsæ:quarum una exhibetur Augustus ipse sedens, et coronam alicui, cujus imago est abrupta, protendens Phraati, ut quidam non vane augurant, flexis genibus, de quo Horatius:

lus imperiumque Phraates

Cæsaris accepit genibus minor.)

cæteris aulici adstantes, inter quos Mæcenas toga carulea indulus; et pone cum M.Agrippa humero cjus dextram imponens, prout harum imaginum cum nummis errum gemmisque similitudo ostendit. Quo quidem argumento,et sua ipsius descriptione ducti, nonnulli Horatium inter sui patronos et amicos clarifsimos exhiberi volunt, extrema nempe illa, corporis exigui, figura, Macenatis latus claudente.

Ex museo viri illustris K.Mead, MD.

Long-banish'd peace, and all her gentle train,

Return'd to tranquil Italy again:

Then, all was verse, felicity, and love,
Sportive each vale, and vocal every grove.
The useless veteran, sour, and unemploy'd, 2650
Curs'd the fair paradise he ne'er enjoy'd;

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Or told in accents hoarse to suburb swains,
Of martial Julius, and the Gaul campaigns;
And lost the memory of his scars and crimes,
In stern revision of more warlike times.
The Nile, Euphrates, Rhene, and Danaw, own
On Tyber's banks the world's great master's throne;
There the rich produce of their regions meet,
To pour their tribute at the Roman's feet;

Choice stuffs, strange beasts, rare gems, barbarick

gold,

Their wonders to admiring eyes unfold:

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peace must have felt like foxhunters in frost, listless and uncomfortable for want of their usual exercise.-Aususque tandem Cæsar Augustus septingentesimo [vicesimo quinto] ab urbe condita anno, Janum Geminum cludere, bis ante se clusum, sub Numa rege, et victâ primum Carthagine. FLOR. 1. iv. c. 12.

But

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