Page:The Complete Poetical Works of John Milton.djvu/56

 POEMS WRITTEN AT SCHOOL AND AT COLLEGE

��Aristotelian philosophy ; his sons, ten in num- ber, represented Substance and its nine condi- tions or accidents, Quantity, Quality, Time, Place, etc. These ten, taken together, make up the Aristotelian categories, or, as they are here called, Predicaments, of being. The sec- ond part of the verse-fragments consists of a figurative account of Substance, both in him- self and as he is affected by the nine accidents. Although thus elaborately introduced, Sub- stance does not speak, perhaps because it is only when affected by the accidents that substance becomes perceptible. The prose speeches of Quantity, Quality, and the other accidents, have not been preserved. It only remains to be noted that the part of Relation was taken by one of the two sons, George and Nizell, of Sir John Rivers, then freshmen at Christ's. The last ten lines of the fragment constitutes a punning allusion to the name.

The Latin speeches ended, the English thus be- gan :

HAIL, Native Language, that by sinews

weak, Didst move my first-endeavouring tongue

to speak, And madest imperfect words, with childish

trips,

Half nnpronounced, slide through my in- fant lips,

Driving dumb Silence from the portal door, Where he had mutely sat two years before : Here I salute thee. and thy pardon ask, That now I use thee in my latter task: Small loss it is that thence can come unto

thee,

I know my tongue but little grace can do thee. 10

Thou need'st not be ambitious to be first, Believe me, I have thither packed the

worst:

And, if it happen as I did forecast, The daintiest dishes shall be served up last. I pray thee then deny me not thy aid, For this same small neglect that I have

made; But haste thee straight to do me once a

pleasure, And from thy wardrobe bring thy chiefest

treasure; Not those new-fangled toys, and trimming

slight

Which takes our late fantastics with de- light; 20 But cull those richest robes and gayest at- tire,

��Which deepest spirits aud choicest wits desire.

I have some naked thoughts that rove about,

And loudly knock to have their passage out,

And, weary of their place, do only stay

Till thou hast decked them in thy best ar- ray;

That so they may, without suspect or fears,

Fly swiftly to this fair Assembly's ears.

Yet I had rather, if I were to choose,

Thy service in some graver subject use, 30

Such as may make thee search thy coffers round,

Before thou clothe my fancy iu fit sound:

Such where the deep transported mind may soar

Above the wheeling poles, and at Heaven's door

Look in, and see each blissful Deity

How he before the thunderous throne doth lie,

Listening to what unshorn Apollo sings

To the touch of golden wires, while Hebe brings

Immortal nectar to her kingly Sire;

Then, passing through the spheres of watchful fire, 4 o

And misty regions of wide air next under,

And hills of snow and lofts of piled thun- der,

May tell at length how green-eyed Nep- tune raves,

In heaven's defiance mustering all his waves;

Then sing of secret things that came to pass

When beldam Nature in her cradle was ;

And last of Kings and Queens and Heroes old,

Such as the wise Demodocus once told

In solemn songs at king Alcinoiis' feast,

While sad Ulysses' soul and all the rest 50

Are held, with his melodious harmony,

In willing chains and sweet captivity.

But fie, my wandering Muse, how thou dost stray !

Expectance calls thee now another way.

Thou know'st it must be now thy only bent

To keep in compass of thy Predicament.

Then quick about thy purposed business come,

That to the next I may resign my room.

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