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Assumes the god,

Affects to nod,

And seems to shake the spheres.8

The praise of Bacchus," then, the sweet musician sung; Of Bacchus, ever fair and ever young!

The jolly god in triumph comes!

Sound the trumpets! beat the drums!

Flush'd with a purple grace,

He shows his honest face.

Now give the hautboys10 breath:-He comes! he comes!

Bacchus, ever fair and young,

Drinking joys did first ordain.

Bacchus' blessings are a treasure ;

Drinking is the soldier's pleasure."

Rich the treasure,

Sweet the pleasure;

Sweet is pleasure after pain!

Soothed with the sound, the king grew vain,

Fought all his battles o'er again:

And thrice he routed all his foes, and thrice he slew the

slain !

The master12 saw the madness rise;

His13 glowing cheeks, his13 ardent eyes:
And while he13 heaven and earth defied,
Changed his1 hand and check'd his13 pride.

8 The music made Alexander for the moment think himself what it had feigned him to be.

9 Bacchus, the God of wine.

10 hautboy, an instrument like a

flute.

11 Drinking was fatal to Alexander,

at the age of 32. It is the curse of anyone who gives way to it. 12 Timotheus.

13 Alexander.

He chose a mournful muse,
Soft pity to infuse:

He sung Darius14 great and good!
By too severe a fate,

Fallen fallen! fallen! fallen !—
Fallen from his high estate,
And weltering in his blood;

Deserted at his utmost need
By those his former bounty fed;
On the bare earth exposed he lies,
With not a friend to close his eyes!

With downcast look the joyless victor sate,
Revolving, in his alter'd soul,

The various turns of chance below;
And, now and then, a sigh he stole,
And tears began to flow!

The mighty master15 smiled, to see
That love was in the next degree :16
"Twas but a kindred sound to move;
For pity melts the mind to love.

Softly sweet, in Lydian measures,17
Soon he soothed his soul to pleasures.
"War," he sung, "is toil and trouble;
Honour, but an empty bubble;

Never ending, still beginning,

14 The king of Persia, whom Alexander had conquered. The following lines describe the end of the unfortunate king.

15 Timotheus.

16 That love was close akin to the
pity now felt by Alexander.
17 In soft strains.

Fighting still, and still destroying.
If the world be worth thy winning,
Think, oh think it worth enjoying!
Lovely Thais sits beside thee,

Take the good the gods provide thee.”
The many18 rend the skies with loud applause :
So Love was crown'd; but Music won the cause

The prince, unable to conceal his pain,'
Gazed on the fair

Who caused his care,

19

And sigh'd and look'd, sigh'd and look'd,
Sigh'd and look'd, and sigh'd again:

At length, with love and wine at once oppress'd,
The vanquish'd victor-sank upon her breast.

Now strike the golden lyre again!

A louder yet, and yet a louder strain!
Break his bands of sleep asunder,

And rouse him, like a rattling peal of thunder!
Hark! hark !-the horrid sound

Has raised up his head,

As awaked from the dead:

And, amazed, he stares around.
"Revenge! revenge!" Timotheus cries—
"See the Furies 20 arise!

18 The crowd.

See the snakes that they rear,

How they hiss in their hair,

And the sparkles that flash from their eyes!

19 Here, his excitement of love.

20 The Furies, three fabled beings,

who were armed with snakes and torches, to wreak vengeance when they chose.

Behold a ghastly band,

Each a torch in his hand:

These are Grecian ghosts, that in battle were slain,

And, unburied, remain
Inglorious on the plain.
Give the vengeance due

To the valiant crew !21

Behold! how they toss their torches on high,
How they point to the Persian abodes,
And glittering temples of their hostile gods." 22

The princes applaud, with a furious joy;
And the king seized a flambeau, with zeal to
destroy;

Thais led the way,

To light him to his prey!

And, like another Helen, fired another Troy.

Thus, long ago,

Ere heaving bellows learned to blow,
While organs yet were mute,
Timotheus, to his breathing flute

And sounding lyre,

Could swell the soul to rage, or kindle soft desire.
At last, divine Cecilia came,
Inventress of the vocal frame.24

21 Nothing was more dreaded by the Greeks than being left unburied. Here the ghosts of the soldiers killed in Alexander's battles, and left unburied by the Persians, call on the Furies to avenge them by burning the Persian temples.

22 The Persians had no gods; they were opposed to idolatry.

23 St. Cecilia, a Roman virgin martyr, who perished for the faith about A.D. 230.

24 The organ.-A legend of the 14th century makes her the patroness of church music.

The sweet enthusiast, from her sacred store,
Enlarged the former narrow bounds,

And added length to solemn sounds,

With nature's mother-wit, and arts unknown before.

Let old Timotheus yield the prize,

Or both divide the crown:

He raised a mortal to the skies;
She drew an angel down!

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Addison is chiefly known by his exquisite prose writings in the Tatler and Spectator. He was for some time Secretary of State, and was only 47 when he died.

CREATION.

THE spacious firmament on high,

With all the blue ethereal sky,

And spangled heavens, a shining frame,

Their great Original proclaim.

Th' unwearied sun, from day to day,
Does his Creator's power display,
And publishes to every land,
The work of an Almighty Hand.

Soon as the evening shades prevail,
The moon takes up the wondrous tale,
And, nightly, to the listening earth,
Repeats the story of her birth;

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