Page:The Complete Poetical Works of John Milton.djvu/57

 Then ENS is represented as Father of the Predicaments, his ten Sons; whereof the eldest stood for SUBSTANCE with his Canons; which ENS, thus speaking, explains:

Good luck befriend thee, son; for at thy birth

The faery Ladies danced upon the hearth.

The drowsy Nurse hath sworn she did them spy  61

Come tripping to the room where thou didst lie,

And, sweetly singing round about thy bed,

Strew all their blessings on thy sleeping head.

She heard them give thee this, that thou shouldst still

From eyes of mortals walk invisible.

Yet there is something that doth force my fear;

For once it was my dismal hap to hear

A Sibyl old, bow-bent with crooked age, 69

That far events full wisely could presage,

And, in Time's long and dark prospectiveglass,

Foresaw what future days should bring to pass.

"Your Son," said she, "(nor can you it prevent,)

Shall subject be to many an Accident.

O'er all his Brethren he shall reign as King;

Yet every one shall make him underling,

And those that cannot live from him asunder

Ungratefully shall strive to keep him under.

In worth and excellence he shall outgo them;

Yet, being above them, he shall be below them. S0

From others he shall stand in need of nothing,

Yet on his Brothers shall depend for clothing.

To find a foe it shall not be his hap,

And peace shall lull him in her flowery lap;

Yet shall he live in strife, and at his door

Devouring war shall never cease to roar;

Yea, it shall be his natural property

To harbour those that are at enmity."

What power, what force, what mighty spell, if not

Your learned hands, can loose this Gordian knot? 90

��The next, QUANTITY and QUALITY, spake in prose: then RELATION was called by his name.

Rivers, arise: whether thou be the son Of utmost Tweed, or Ouse, or gulfy Dun, Or Trent, who, like some earth-born Giant, spreads

His thirty arms along the indented meads, Or sullen Mole, that runneth underneath, Or Sevren swift, guilty of maiden's death, Or rocky Avon, or of sedgy Lea, Or coaly Tyne, or ancient hallowed Dee, Or Humber loud, that keeps the Scythian's name, Or Medway smooth, or royal-towered

Thame. 100

The rest was prose.