Heav'n's gates spontaneous open to the pow'rs,
Heav'n's golden gates, kept by the winged hours.
Now Ajax brac'd his dazzling armor on;
Sheath'd in bright steel the giant warrior shone:
He moves to combat with majestic pace;
So stalks in arms the grizly god of Thrace,
When Jove to punish faithless men prepares,
And gives whole nations to the waste of wars.
Thus march'd the chief, tremendous as a god;
Grimly he smil'd; earth trembled as he strode;
His massy jav'lin quiv'ring in his hand,
He stood, the bulwark of the Grecian band.
Through ev'ry Argive heart true transport ran;
All Troy stood trembling at the mighty man.
Ev'n Hector paus'd; and with new doubt oppress'd
Felt his great heart suspended in his breast.
Now rushing in, the furious chief appears,
Gloomy as night! and shakes two shining spears;
A dreadful gleam from his bright armor came,
And from his eye-balls flash'd the living flame.
He moves a god, resistless in his course,
And seems a match for more than mortal force.
POPE'S HOMER.
Full in the midst, high tow'ring o'er the rest,
His limbs in arms divine Achilles drest;
Arms which the father of the fire bestow'd,
Forg'd on th' eternal anvils of the god.
Grief and revenge his furious breast inspire,
His glowing eye-balls roll with living fire;
He grinds his teeth, and furious with delay
O'erlooks th' embattled host, and hopes the bloody
day.
The silver cuishes first his thigh infold;
Then o'er his breast was brac'd the hollow gold;
The brazen sword a various baldrick ty'd,
That, starr'd with gems, hung glitt'ring at his
And like the moon, the broad refulgent shield Blaz'd with long rays, and gleam'd athwart the field,
Next, his high head the helmet grac'd: behind The sweepy crest hung floating in the wind, Like the red star, that from his flaming hair Shakes down diseases, pestilence, and war;
So stream'd the golden honours from his head, Trembled the sparkling plumes, and the loose
The Girdle of Venus.
With awe divine the queen of love Obey'd the sister and the wife of Jove:
And from her fragrant breast the zone unbrac'd, ཁཔ་
With various skill, and high embroid❜ry grac'd.
In this was ev'ry art, and ev'ry charm,
To win the wisest, and the coldest warm;
Fond love, the gentle vow, the gay desire,
The kind deceit, the still reviving fire,
Persuasive speech, and more persuasive sighs,
Silence that spoke, and eloquence of eyes.
Take this, and with it all thy wish, she said. With smiles she took the charm, and smiling, prest The pow'rful cestus to her snowy breast.
Fix'd to no spot is happiness sincere,
"Tis no where to be found, or ev'ry where: 'Tis never to be bought, but always free,
And fled from monarchs, St. John! dwells with
Ask of the learn'd the way? the learn'd are blind;
This bids to serve, and that to shun mankind;
Some place the bliss in action, some in ease,
Those call it pleasure, and contentment these.
Some sunk to beasts, find pleasure end in pain,
Some swell'd to gods confess e'en virtue vain;
Or indolent, to each extreme they fall,
To trust in ev'ry thing, or doubt of all.
Who thus define it, say they more or lesa
Than this, that happiness is happiness
Order is heav'n's first law; and this confest,
Some are and must be, greater than the rest,
More rich, more wise; but who infers from hence
That such are happier, shocks all common sense. Heav'n to mankind impartial we confess,
If all are equal in their happiness:
But mutual wants this happiness increase:
All nature's diff'rence keeps all nature's peace.
Condition, circumstance is not the thing;
Bliss is the same in subject or in king,
In who obtain defence, or who defend,
In him who is, or him who finds' a friend:
Heav'n breathes through ev'ry member of the
One common blessing, as one common soul.
But fortune's gifts if each alike possess'd,
And each were equal; must not all contest?
If then to all men happiness was meant,
God in externals could not place content.
Fortune her gifts may variously dispose,
And these be happy call'd, unhappy those;
But heav'n's just balance equal will appear,
While those are plac'd in hope, and these in fear:
Not present good or ill, the joy or curse,
But future views of better, or of worse."
Know all the good that individuals find,
Or God and nature meant to mere mankind,
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