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Secure their occupations: Nilus' banks

No hoftile footsteps tread; nor warlike din

Disturbs the peaceful village: on the shore

Ne'er from their veffels leap invading foes

The flocks to plunder, and lay waste the plains.

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Such is the influence of a prince like thee,

Such is the terror of thy warlike name,
Oh PTOLEMY! Thou all thy father's rights
Art ftrenuous to affert : (as well befeems

Good kings :) and not less zealous to acquire
New glories of thy own. Not unemploy'd
Lies in his fplendid dome the glitt'ring ore,
Like that on India's plain by lab'ring ants
Fruitless amafs'd: full royally he gives

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To the bright temples of the Gods, first fruits,

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And noblest presents numberless: to kings

Lefs pow'rful and lefs opulent than he

Much he bestows, and much to friendly ftates;

And much, much more to his illuftrious friends.

Is there a bard, well skill'd in facred fong, Who unrewarded from our prince descends, Cc 2

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And

And meets not favours equal to his worth?
Munificence like this, great PrOLEMY,
Hath charm'd the Mufes prophets to refound
Thy fame in fong immortal: what reward
Than this more excellent, for pow'r and wealth

To gain the ftamp of worth, and honeft fame.
Midst all mankind? This, this th' Atridæ have :
When all the plunder of old Priam's house
And all their mighty wealth is loft in night,
And buried in oblivion's greedy grave!

OF PTOLEMY'S fam'd ancestors, like him
None in their father's footsteps trod fo close,
And o'er them rofe fo nobly: high he rear'd
The fragrant temples to his parents honour :

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Ver. 142. Of Ptolemy's, &c.] I have given what appears to me the true fenfe of this paffage, agreeable to the interpretation of Heinfius, who feems to explain it very rightly; the cuítom to which the poet alludes must be referred to, com. pleatly to understand his meaning; It was an ufual conteft; wherein the antagonist used to place his right foot in the left footstep of the perfon with whom he contended, and fo with his left foot touch the right footstep, which if he could exceed, the ufual expreffion was, Emßißnna co, 3

145 Where

Year eyes, I have stepped over you, I am beyond you; to this Theocritus alludes when he fays, that Ptolemy trod clofe in his father's footsteps, and rofe over them. ETABOμeros KaduTeple what I render clofe, is T bepua xong, yet warm in the duft, or yet new and just made, like the footfteps of the contending parties, as obferved before. For further information herein, if the reader defires it, he is referred to the notes of Cafaubon and Heinfius.

Where form'd of gold and ivory he plac'd

The new divinities: henceforth invok'd

The guardians and protectors of mankind.
There on the hallow'd altars, red with blood

Of victims, as the mighty months roll round,

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For Jove, and Jove's lov'd fifter and his wife!

HAIL royal PTOLEMY! equal to the race

Of

Ver. 146. Of gold and ivory, &c.] See that fine account of the vanity of idols, and idol

makers, related in the 44th chapter of jaiah from ver. 9 to ver, 20.

Of god-born heroes, thee the Muse extols :

shall prove

And what she fings, if prefcient ought, shall
Not unacceptable to future times.
HAIL, and increase of virtue ask of Jove!

Ver. 163. Thee the Mufe, &c.] Thefe old poets feldoin entertained any flender opinions of themselves; they were not wanting in pronouncing their own merits, and prophefying their own fame. Our poet gave us a fpecimen at the beginning, which I have put into as modeft terms as was allowable; but this laft is a bolder strain, and you fee the poet was no falfe prophet: Ovid's boaft at the end of his Metamorphofes is well known, as is that of his bro

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ther Horace, both of which defied their God and all his malice, to deftroy their works, and the monuments more durable than brass, which they erected to their own honour and immortality. Though this may give us no unfavourable idea of the excellence of those works which have indeed fo defied the anger and power of their Jupiter; nay, and even outlived him; yet I am afraid it will never afford us any very favourable one of the humility of the authors.

Six

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HAT these hymns were written by the antient poet and lawgiver Orpheus, is believed, I fuppofe, by no man of any reading: but, that they are extremely antient (if not the most antient remains of Greece) is on the other hand doubted, I imagine, by no man of learning. They fhew us moft clearly, what the idolatry of the heathens was, and in the most fatisfactory manner, demonftrate that the Deities they worshipped, were no other than the powers and parts of nature: I have fubjoined these fix, as corroborating evidences of the general remarks made in the foregoing notes: and these notes, together with a general key given, will be a fufficient explanation of them. I had prepared large remarks upon them for the prefs, but upon obfervation that my work was already fwelled beyond the determined number of sheets, I found myself obliged to withdraw them: It would give me no fmall fatisfaction to see any man of learning and genius attempt a full explanation of thefe moft curious pieces, a work which must reflect honour upon the performer, though it would require no small abilities to accomplish. I can recommend to the reader no better method of acquiring a complete understanding of these hymns, which I have given, than to compare them with fome others of the fame author, particularly those to Protogonus, or the firft-born, the Sun, Nature, Pan, Hercules, Proferpine, Bacchus, and Vulcan: which are each of them extremely curious: there are very large affistances to be had from Macrobius, Voffius, Bochart, &c. but from none more than from Turner and Phurnutus, the latter of which deferves every scholar's attention, as he seems to have understood and explained the heathen creed in the cleareft manner. If the reader should refer to his 3d chapter concerning Juno, I cannot help remarking in juftice to the author, that Us (1. 7. Gale's edit.) fhould undoubtedly be read vols. "And they are both, fays he, namely, Jupiter and Juno, produced from the fame fubftance. For the fubftance lowing into thinnefs, εύασα γας εις λεπτότητα ή Ουσία.. produces both the fire (the pure plaftic fire, Jupiter) and the air, Juno." Many excellent and ufeful hints will alfo be found in the Letters on Mythology, the author of which, p. 409. speaks thus, "You have in the general plan of mythology, firft the grand key, that the powers producing, and parts compofing the universe, were the greatest Gods." Nor muft I omit to advertife the reader, that as many hints towards a compleat understanding of Orpheus are to be found in Holloway's Originals, as in any of the before-mentioned writers. Concerning Orpheus himself and the editions of his works a full account will be found in the Bibliotheca Græca of Fabritius, vol. 1. p. 117. The edition I have used is that of Eschenbach; in which the hymns are tranflated into Latin verfe by Scaliger, the work only of five days, as he tells us at the end; a mark of prodigious and uncommon learning. As this is a work not for the many, where the graces and beauties of diction and poetry are not to be fought, I would hope the lovers of truth will ufe it. with candor, and if pleasure or profit arife to any one from it in the leaft degree, let him be af fured, that it hath anfwered the tranflator's defign.

The

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