Those who live fingle take it for a curfe,

Or do things worse.

Some would have children, thofe that have them,none,
Or wish them gone.

What is it then to have, or have no wife,
But fingle thraldom, or a double ftrife?

Our own affections still at home to please
Is a difeafe;

To cross the fea to any foreign foil,

Perils and toil;

Wars with their noife affright us: when they ceafe, We're worfe in peace.

What then remains, but that we still should cry,

Not to be born, or being born, to die?

A PASSAGE FROM PETRONIUS,

TRANSLATED.

F

Allen are thy locks! for woeful winter hoar Has ftolen thy bloom, and beauty is no more! Thy temples mourn their fhady honours fhorn, Parch'd like the fallow deftitute of corn. Fallacious gods! whofe bleffings thus betray; What first ye give us, firft ye take away. Thou, late exulting in thy golden hair, As bright as Phoebus, or as Cynthia fair, Now view'ft, alas! thy forehead smooth and plain As the round fungus, daughter of the rain; Smooth as the furface of well-polish'd brass, And fly'ft with fear each laughter-loving lafs : Death haftes amain-thy wretched fate deploreFallen are thy locks, and beauty is no more.

F. F.

ANTI

ANTIPATER'S GREEK EPIGRAM,

ON THE INVENTION OF WATER-MILLS,

TRANSLATED.

E female artizans, who grind the corn,

YE

Indulge your flumbers all the live-long morn; And let the cock, with impotent essay, Recite his ufual prologue to the day; For Ceres now herself affistance lends, And to the mills the green-hair'd naiads fends. See! on the fummit buxomly they bound, And, with their gambols, work the axle round.. True to th' impulfive waters winds the wheel, While four huge mill-ftones crush the mouldering All-bounteous Ceres, as in* days of yore, [meal. Your toil remits, yet ftill affords her store.

C. S.

*Alluding to the golden age, when the earth was fuppofed to yield corn fpontaneously. In this epigram the naiads, or water-nymphs, are beautifully said to be substituted by Ceres in the room of the women, who formerly worked their mills with their hands and feet.

LUCIAN'S GREEK EPIGRAM,

INSCRIBED ON A COLUMN ERECTED IN A PIECE

I

OF LAND, THAT HAD BEEN OFTEN BOUGHT AND SOLD; IMITATED.

Whom thou fee'ft begirt with towering oaks, Was once the property of John o' Nokes; On him profperity no longer fmiles,

And now I feed the flocks of John o' Stiles.
My former master call'd me by his name;
My prefent owner fondly does the fame:
While I, alike unworthy of their cares,
Quick pass to captors, purchasers, or heirs.
Let no one henceforth take me for his own,
For, Fortune! Fortune! I am thine alone.

C. S.

ANACREON,

ANACREON, ODE XXVIII. IMITATED.

Eft of painters, fhow thy art,

B Draw the charmer my

Draw the charmer of my heart;

Draw her as she shines away,

At the rout, or at the play:
Carefully eech mode express,
Woman's better part is dress.
Let her cap be mighty small,
Bigger juft than none at all,
Pretty, like her fenfe, and little,
Like her beauty, frail and brittle.
Be her fhining locks confin'd
In a threefold braid behind;

Let an artificial flower

Set the fiffure off before;

Here and there weave ribbon pat in,
Ribbon of the finest fattin.

Circling round her ivory neck
Frizzle out the smart Vandyke;
Like the ruff that heretofore
Good queen Befs's maidens wore;
Happy maidens, as we read,
Maids of honour, maids indeed.
Let her breast look rich and bold

With a ftomacher of gold;

Let it keep her bofom warm,

Amply stretch'd from arm to arm;