Page:The Complete Poetical Works of John Milton.djvu/400

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��LATIN POEMS

��DICITE, sacrorum presides nemorum dese, Tuque O noveni perbeata numiuis Memoria mater, quseque in immense procul Autro recumbis otiosa .ZEternitas, Monumenta servans, et ratas leges Jovis, Cselique fastos atque ephemeridas Deum, Quis ille primus cujus ex imagine Natura solers flnxit humanum genus, yEternus, incorruptus, qusevus polo, Unusque et universus, exemplar Dei ? 10 Haud ille, Palladis gemellus innubse, Interim proles insidet menti Jovis; Sed, quamlibet natura sit communior, Tameu seorsus extat ad morem unius, Et, mira ! certo stringitur spatio loci: Seu sempiternus ille sideruin comes Cseli pererrat ordines decemplicis, Citimumve terris incolit Lunse globum; Sive, inter animas corpus adituras sedens, Obliviosas torpet ad Lethes aquas; 20

Sive in remota forte terrarum plaga Incedit ingens hominis archetypus gigas, Et diis tremendus erigit celsum caput, Atlante major portitore siderum. Non, cui profundum csecitas lumen dedit, Dircseus augur vidit hunc alto sinu; Non hunc silenti nocte Pleiones nepos Vatum sagaci praepes ostendit chore; Non hunc sacerdos novit Assyrius, licet Longos vetusti commemoret atavos Nini, 30 Priscumque Belon, inclytumque Osiridem; Non ille trino gloriosus nomine Ter magnus Hermes (ut sit arcani sciens) Talem reliquit Isidis cultoribus. At tu, perenne ruris Academi decus, (Hsec monstra si tu primus induxti scholis) Jam jam poetas, urbis exules tuse, Revocabis, ipse fabulator maximus; Aut institutor ipse migrabis foras.

��YE goddesses who guard the sacred grove; and thou, O Memory, happy mother of the nine-fold deity; and Eternity, lazily recumbent far - off in thy great cavern, guarding the laws and ordinances of Jove and keeping the chronicles and feast-calen- dars of Heaven, tell me, where is that first Being, eternal, incorruptible, coeval with the sky, that one and universal Being, exemplar of God, after whose image cun- ning nature patterned human kind ? It surely does not lurk unborn in the brain of Jove, a twin to Pallas. Though its na- ture is common to many, yet, wonderful to tell, it exists apart after the manner of an individual, and has a local habitation. Perchance as comrade to the sempiternal stars it wanders through the ten spheres of heaven, and inhabits the globe of the Moon, nearest to earth. Perchance it sits drows- ing by the waters of Lethe, among the spirits that wait to enter some living body and be born. Or in some remote region of the world does this Archetype of man walk about as a huge giant, lifting its high head to frighten the gods, taller than Atlas the star-bearer ? No, the bard Tiresias, to whom blindness gave but added depth of vision, never saw it in his dreams. Winged Mercury never showed it to the wise band of seers, as he taught them in the silent night. The Assyrian priest, though he knew the lore of those who begat ancient Ninus, knew old Belus and renowned Osi- ris, never heard of such a creature. Not even Hermes Trismegistus, trine and glori- ous name, though he knew many secret things, told aught of this thing to the wor- shipers of Isis.

Ah, Plato, unfading glory of the Aca- deme, if you were the first to bring such monsters as this into the schools, you really ought to call back the poets whom you exiled from your republic, for you are the greatest fabler of them all. Bring them in, or else you, the founder, must go out !

��AD PATREM TO MY FATHER

��This poem was written, as appears from in- ternal evidence, at Horton, probably soon after Milton went there from Cambridge, at the close of his seven years of academic life. His

��position at that time was peculiar. His father had given him every advantage of education procurable, not oiily in the way of regular schooling, but also in the way of elegant ac-

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