Page:The Works of Virgil - Davidson - Buckley.djvu/48



makes the harvests joyous; under what sign, Mæcenas, it is proper to turn the earth and join the vines to elms; what is the care for kine, the nurture for breeding sheep; and how much experience for managing the frugal bees; hence will I begin to sing. Ye brightest lights of the world, that lead the year gliding along the sky; Bacchus and fostering Ceres, if by your gift mortals exchanged the Chaonian acorn for fattening ears of corn, and mingled draughts of Achelous with the invented juice of the grape; and ye Fauns propitious to swains, ye Fauns and Virgin Dryads, advance your foot in tune: your bounteous gifts I sing. And thou, O Neptune, to whom the earth, struck with thy mighty trident, first poured forth the neighing steed; and thou, tenant of the groves, for whom three hundred snow-white bullocks crop Cæa's fertile