Page:The Complete Poetical Works of John Milton.djvu/399

 POEMS IN VARIOUS METRES

��357

��Floridus aeternum Phoebus juvenile corus-

cat, 41

Nee f ovet effcetas loca per declivia terras Devexo temone Deus; sed semper, arnica Luce potens, eadem currit per signa rota- rum.

Surgit odoratis pariter formosus ab Indis zEthereum pecus albenti qui cogit Olympo, Mane vocans, et serus agens in pascua cseli; Temporis et gemino dispertit regna colore. Fulget, obitque vices alterno Delia cornu, Cruleumque iguem paribus complectitur

ulnis. 50

Nec variant elementa fidem, solitoque

fragore

Lurida perculsas jaculantur fulmina rupes. Nec per inane furit leviori murmure Cau-

rus;

Stringit et armif eros sequali horrore Gelonos Trux Aquilo, spiratque hiemem, nimbosque

volutat.

Utqtie solet, Siculi diverberat ima Pelori Rex maris, et rauca circumstrepit :oquora

concha

Oceani Tubicen, nee vasta mole minorem ^Egaeona ferunt dorso Balearica cete. Sed neque, Terra, tibi ssecli vigor ille

vetusti 60

Priscus abest; servatque suum Narcissus

odorem ; Et puer ille suum tenet, et puer ille, de-

corem, Phoebe, tuusque, et, Cypri, tuus; nee ditior

olim

Terra datum sceleri celavit montibus aurum Conscia, vel sub aquis gemmas. Sic deni-

que in sevum

Ibit cunctarum series justissima rerum; Donee flamma orbem populabitur ultima,

late

Circumplexa polos et vasti culmina caeli, Ingentique rogo flagrabit machina Mundi.

��shines ever young, nor does he deflect his team down declivities of sky to warm aban- doned places of the earth; but always through the same zodiacal signs he goes charioting, strong with friendly light. The morning and the evening star rise lovely as of yore from the odorous East, shepherd- ing their ethereal flocks on the blanching plains of heaven; in the morning they call home the stars, in the evening lead them out to pasture; disparting the realms of time with twin variety of light. As of old the moon shines through her changing phases, clasping with the same arms her cerulean fire. The elements, too, keep faith. With the same old crash the lurid lightning smites the cliffs. With undiminished roar the northwest wind rages through the void, and the northeast wind flings its same horror of snow and storm against the Scy- thian tribes. The Sea-king still shakes the bases of Sicilian Pelorus; the trumpeter of ocean still sounds his hoarse conch over the waters. With the same vast weight giant ./Egseon bestrides the back of the Balearic whale. Nor from thee, Earth, does thy ancient vigor fade. The narcissus keeps its odor; the flower of thy boy, O Apollo, is still beautiful, and of thine, Aphrodite. Rich as of old and conscious of her riches, Earth still hides the sinful gold in her moun- tains, and the gems beneath her waves.

So forever the just round of things shall go, until the last conflagration lays all waste, envelopes the poles, and wraps the summits of the mighty sky, and as on a huge pyre blazes the frame of the world.

��DE IDEA PLATONICA QUEMADMODUM ARISTOTELES INTELLEXIT

ON THE PLATONIC IDEA AS IT WAS UNDERSTOOD BY ARIS- TOTLE

��This is probably also an academic exercise, written on some occasion similar to the fore- going. It is an attempt to burlesque Aristo- tle's interpretation, too rigid and physical, of the Platonic doctrine of Ideas or Archetypes. Milton speaks not in his own person, but in the

��person of a literal -minded Aristotelian, who de- mands loudly to know where the Archetype of man can be found, in the heavens above or the earth beneath. The manner of refutation here adopted is unexpectedly genial and hu- morous.

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