"The gods (if gods to goodness are inclined— If acts of mercy touch their heavenly mind), And, more than all the gods, your generous heart, Conscious of worth, requite its own desert!"

"Affecting studies of less noisy praise."

"We must beat the iron while it is hot, but we may polish it at leisure."

"Arms, and the man I sing, who, forced by fate, And haughty Juno's unrelenting hate, Expelled and exiled, left the Trojan shore. Long labours both by sea and land he bore, And in the doubtful war, before he won The Latian realm, and built the destined town; His banished gods restored to rites divine, And settled sure succession in his line, From whence the race of Alban fathers come, And the long glories of majestic Rome."

"Then thus the bride: "What fury seized on thee, Unhappy man! to lose thyself and me? Dragged back again by cruel destinies, An iron slumber shuts my swimming eyes. And now farewell! Involved in shades of night, For ever I am ravished from thy sight. In vain I reach my feeble hands to join In sweet embraces—ah! no longer thine!""

"The immortal line in sure succession reigns; The fortune of the family remains; And grandsires' grandsires the long list contains."

"For God the whole created mass inspires: Through heaven and earth and ocean's depth he throws His influence round, and kindles as he goes."

"O muse! the causes and the crimes relate, What goddess was provoked, and whence her hate: For what offense the queen of heaven began To persecute so brave, so just a man! Involved his anxious life in endless cares, Exposed to wants, and hurried into wars! Can heavenly minds such high resentment show, Or exercise their spite in human woe?"

"Thus surely bound, yet be not over bold, The slippery god will try to loose his hold: And various forms assume to cheat thy sight; And with vain images of beasts affright; With foamy tusks, he seems a bristly boar, Or imitates the lion's angry roar; Breaks out in crackling flames to shun thy snares, Hisses a dragon, or a tiger stares; Or with a wile thy caution to betray, In fleeting streams attempts to slide away. But thou, the more he varies forms, beware To strain his fetters with a stricter care. Till, tiring all his arts, he turns again To his true shape, in which he first was seen."

"With mighty souls in narrow bodies prest."

"Yet all these dreadful deeds, this deadly fray, A cast of scattered dust will soon allay."

"If little things with great we may compare."

"With secret joy, Their young succession all their cares employ."

"If then some grave and pious man appear, They hush their noise, and lend a listening ear."

"A mighty pomp, though made of little things."

"Slight is the subject, but the praise not small."

"Such rage of honey in their bosom beats, And such a zeal they have for flowery sweets."

"In youth alone, unhappy mortals live; But, ah! the mighty bliss is fugitive: Discoloured sickness, anxious labour, come, And age, and death's inexorable doom."

"Starting with a bound, He turns the turf, and shakes the solid ground: Fire from his eyes, clouds from his nostrils flow."

"In vain he burns, like hasty stubble fires."

"Without thee, nothing lofty can I sing."

"Some to the seas, and some to camps, resort, And some with impudence invade the court."

"His cares are eased with intervals of bliss; His little children, climbing for a kiss, Welcome their father's late return at night; His faithful bed is crowned with chaste delight."

"Thus every creature, and of every kind, The secret joys of sweet coition find. Not only man's imperial race, but they That wing the liquid air, or swim the sea, Or haunt the desert, rush into the flame: For love is lord of all, and is in all the same."

"New ways I must attempt, my groveling name To raise aloft, and wing my flight to fame."

"[Here] easy quiet, a secure retreat, A harmless life that knows not how to cheat, With home-bred plenty the owner bless, And rural pleasures crown his happiness; Unvexed with quarrels, undisturbed with noise, The country king his peaceful realm enjoys: Cool grots, and living lakes, the flowery pride Of meads and streams that through the valley glide; And shady groves that easy sleep invite, And after toilsome days a soft repose at night."

"Ye sacred muses, with whose beauty fired, My soul is ravished, and my brain inspired: Whose priest I am, whose holy fillets wear; Would you your poet's first petition hear; Give me the ways of wandering stars to know, The depths of heaven above, and earth below. Teach me the various labours of the moon, And whence proceed the eclipses of the sun; Why flowing tides prevail upon the main, And in what dark recess they shrink again; What shakes the solid earth; what cause delays The summer nights, and shortens winter days."

"My next desire is, void of care and strife, To lead a soft, secure, inglorious life: A country cottage near a crystal flood, A winding valley, and a lofty wood."

"Oh happy, if he knew his happy state! The swain, who, free from business and debate, Receives his easy food from nature's hand, And just returns of cultivated land!"

"But the commanding muse my chariot guides, Which o'er the dubious cliff securely rides; And pleased I am, no beaten road to take, But first the way to new discoveries make."

"So strong is custom, such effects can use In tender souls of pliant plants produce."

"Happy the man, who, studying nature's laws, Through known effects can trace the secret cause. His mind possessing, in a quiet state, Fearless of fortune, and resigned to fate."

"Endure, and conquer! Jove will soon dispose To future good our past and present woes."

"Whence men, a hard laborious kind, were born."

"Thus all below, whether by nature's curse, Or fate's decree, degenerate still to worse: So the boat's brawny crew the current stem, And, slow advancing, struggle with the stream: But if they slack their hands, or cease to strive, Then down the flood with headlong haste they drive."

"[They] change their savage mind, Their wildness lose, and, quitting nature's part, Obey the rules and discipline of art."

"Ye deities! who fields and plains protect, Who rule the seasons, and the year direct; Bacchus, and fostering Ceres, powers divine, Who gave us corn for mast, for water wine; Ye fauns, propitious to the rural swains, Ye nymphs, that haunt the mountains and the plains, Join in my work, and to my numbers bring Your needful succour; for your gifts I sing. And thou, whose trident struck the teeming earth, And made a passage for the courser's birth; And thou, for whom the Cean shore sustains The milky herds that graze the flowery plains; And thou, the shepherd's tutelary god, Leave for a while, O Pan! thy loved abode: And, if Arcadian fleeces be thy care, From fields and mountains to my song repair. Inventor, Pallas, of the fattening oil, Thou founder of the plough, and ploughman's toil; And thou, whose hands the shroud-like cypress rear, Come, all ye gods and goddesses, that wear The rural honours, and increase the year; You who supply the ground with seeds of grain; And you, who swell those seeds with kindly rain!"

"But I discern their flattery from their praise."

"Come, see what pleasures in our plains abound: The woods, the fountains, and the flowery ground: As you are beauteous, were you half so true, Here could I live, and love, and die with only you."

"And in short space the laden boughs arise, With happy fruit advancing to the skies. The mother plant admires the leaves unknown Of alien trees, and apples not her own."

"In hell, and earth, and seas, and heaven above, Love conquers all, and we must yield to love."

"He sung the secret seeds of nature's frame; How seas, and earth, and air, and active flame, Fell through the mighty void, and, in their fall, Were blindly gathered in this goodly ball. The tender soil then, stiffening by degrees, Shut from the bounded earth the bounding seas. Then earth and ocean various forms disclose, And a new sun to the new world arose."

"Both young Arcadians, both alike inspired To sing, and answer as the song required."

"And I preferred my pleasure to my gains."

"Loose me," he cried, "'twas impudence to find A sleeping god, 'tis sacrilege to bind."

"No room is left for death."

"Daphnis, the guest of heaven, with wondering eyes, Views in the milky way the starry skies, And far beneath him, from the shining sphere, Beholds the moving clouds, and rolling year."

"The mountain-tops unshorn, the rocks rejoice; The lowly shrubs partake of human voice."

"I know thee, love! in deserts thou wert bred, And at the dugs of savage tigers fed; Alien of birth, usurper of the plains."

"From the great father of the gods above My muse begins: for all is full of Jove."