And scarce survive the Muse; but William stands, AN EPIGRAM. OF MARTIAL TO CIRINUS. Sie, tua, Cirini, promas Epigrammata vulgo INSCRIBED TO MR. JOSIAH HORT, 1694. (Lord Bishop of Kilmore in Ireland, and afterwards Arch-Bishop of Tuam.) So smooth your numbers, friend, your verse so sweet, So sharp the jest, and yet the turn so neat, That, with her Martial Rome would place Cirine, Rome would prefer your sense and thought to mine. Yet modest you decline the public stage, To fix your friend alone amidst the' applauding age. In vast heroic notes of vast heroic things, [strings. A handsome treat, a piece of gold, or so, And compliments will every friend bestow; Rarely a Virgil, a Cirine we meet, Who lays his laurels at inferior feet, And yields the tenderest point of honour, wit. } EPISTOLA. FRATRI SUO DILECTO R. W. I. W. S. P. D. RURSUM tuas, amande frater, accepi literas, eodem fortasse momento, quo meæ ad te pervenerunt; idemque qui te scribentem vidit dies, meum ad epistolare munus excitavit calamuin; non inane est inter nos fraternum nomen, unicus enim spiritus nos intùs animat, agitque, et concordes in ambobus efficit motus; O utinam crescat indiès, et vigescat mutua charitas; faxit Deus, ut amor sui nostra incendat et defæcet pectora; tunc etenim et alternis puræ amicitiæ flammis erga nos invicem divinum in modum ardebimus; contemplemur Jesum nostrum, cœleste illud et adorandum exemplar charitatis. Ille est, Qui quondam æterno delapsus ab æthere vultus Amplexus solitosve; artus nudatus amictu Dixit, et horrendùm fremuêre tonitrua cœli 6 Sic fata, immiti contorquet vulnera dextrâ Dilaniatque sinus; sancti penetralia cordis Panduntur, sævis avidas dolor involat alis, Atque audax mentem scrutator, et ilia mordet; *Job iv. 6. + Luke xxii. 44. Zech. xiii. 7. Intereà servator* ovat, victorque doloris At subsidat phantasia, vanescant imagines; nescio quo me proripuit amens Musa: volui quatuor linias pedibus astringere, et ecce! numeri crescunt in immensum; dumque concitato genio laxavi fræna, vereor ne juvenilis impetus theologium læserit, et audax nimis imaginatio. Heri adlata est ad me epistola indicans matrem meliuscule se habere, licet ignis febrilis non prorsus deserint mortale ejus domicilium. Plura volui, sed turgidi et crescentes versus noluere plura, et coarctarunt scriptionis limites. Vale, amice frater, et in studio pietatis et artis medicæ strenuus decurre. Datum a Museo meo Londini xvto Kalend. Febr. TRANSLATION. BY DR GIBBONS. A LETTER FROM ISAAC WATTS, TO HIS BROTHER RICHARD WATTS, WISHING HIM PEACE AND SAFETY IN GOD. DEAR BROTHER, I HAD a second receipt of a letter from you perhaps in the very moment in which mine came to * Col. ii. 15. † Luke xxii. 24. hand; and the very day in which you was writing to me was the same which awakened my pen to the discharge of its epistolary duty to you. We bear not the fraternal name in vain, for the same spirit possesses, inspires, and produces the most harmonious movements in us. May our mutual esteem every day increase and flourish! God grant his love may purify and kindle our souls! thus shall we in a divine manner burn with reciprocal flames of friendship. Let us contemplate our Saviour, that celestial and adorable example of love. THE Son of God, descending from the skies, Of Deity in arms. 6 Here, here, (he cries) O Father, plant thy darts, here plunge thy sword Flaming and edg'd for slaughter: blood divine Has power to expiate the crimes of men.' He said: the' Omnipotent in terror rose, And launch'd the rattling thunders from his hand. |