Page:The Complete Poetical Works of John Milton.djvu/398

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��LATIN POEMS

��CEdipodioniam volvit sub pectore noctem ! Quae vesana suis metiri facta deorum Audet, et incisas leges adamante perenni Assimilare suis, nulloque solubile sseclo Consiliuiu Fati perituris alligat horis. Ergone marcescet sulcantibus obsita

rugis

Naturse facies, et rerum publica Mater, Omniparum contracta uterum, sterilescet

ab aevo ? J0

Et, se fassa senem, male certis passibus

ibit Sidereum tremebunda caput ? Num tetra

vetustas Annorumque seterna fames, squalorque

situsque, Sid era vexabunt? An et insatiabile Tem-

pus Esuriet Cffilum, rapietque in viscera pa-

trem? Heu ! potuitne suas imprudeus Jupiter

arces

Hoc contra munisse nefas, et Temporis isto Exemisse malo, gyrosque dedisse perennes? Ergo erit ut quandoque, sono dilapsa tre-

mendo,

Convexi tabulata ruant, atque obvius ictu Stridat uterque polus, superaque ut Olym-

pius an la 21

Decidat, horribilisque retecta Gorgone

Pallas;

Qualis in ^Egaeam proles Junonia Lemnon Deturbata sacro cecidit de limine cseli. Tu quoque, Phoebe, tui casus imitabere nati Prsecipiti curru, subitaque ferere ruina Pronus, et extincta fumabit lampade Ne-

reus,

Et dabit attonito feralia sibila ponto. Tune etiam aerei divulsis sedibus Hsemi Dissultabit apex, imoque allisa barathro 30 Terrebunt Stygium dejecta CerauniaDitem, In superos quibus usus erat, fraternaque

bella. At Pater Omnipotens, fundatis fortius

astris,

Consuluit rerum summse, certoque peregit Pondere Fatorum lances, atque ordine

ammo

Singula perpetuum jussit servare tenorem. Volvitur hinc lapsu Mundi rota prim a

diurno,

Raptat et ambitos socifi vertigine cselos. Tardior baud solito Saturnus, et acer ut

olim Fulmineum rutilat cristala casside Mavors.

��(Edipus knew ! Foolishly he measures the lives of the gods by his own, to his own laws he likens those laws graven on eternal adamant ; and the will of Fate, never to be changed or undone, he links with his own perishable days. Shall the face of Nature wither, and be furrowed with wrinkles ? Shall the universal Mother grow sterile with age, and shall her womb cease to bring forth ? Shall she go stricken with eld, her steps uncertain, her starry head palsied ? Shall the darkness of age, and stiffness, and wasting, and the eternal fam- ine of the years, vex the stars ? Shall insatiable Time eat up the sky and devour his own father ? Alas, could not improvi- dent Jove have warded off this evil from the orbs of Heaven, made them exempt from this sickness of Time, and given them perpetual revolutions ? 'T is true, then, that a day will come when with fearful sound the floor of Heaven shall be broken up, when either pole shall shriek against the stroke, as Olympian Jove falls from his supernal dwelling, and Pallas, with the Gorgon uncovered on her shield; even as Vulcan, thrown from Heaven's brink, fell in JEgean Lemnos. Thou too, O Sun-god, shalt fall headlong from thy chariot, as thy Phaeton fell, borne down in sudden ruin, and with thy quenched lamp the astonished ocean shall smoke and hiss fiercely. Then, torn from its foundation, the summit of Mt. Hsemus shall topple down ; the Ceraunian mountains once used as missiles in the fratricidal wars of the gods shall crash into the lowest gulf, and terrify Stygian Dis.

Nay, not so. The omnipotent Father, consulting on the sum of things, has more strongly established the stars. The scales of Fate He has balanced with surer weights. He has commanded all things in the great order to preserve unendingly their even way. Wherefore, the first wheel of the Universe, [the Primum Mobile,] rolls diur- nal, and communicates its dizzy motion to the spheres within. Saturn goes no slower than his wont, and eager as of old ful- minates red-crested Mars. Florid Phoebus

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