Page:Virgil - The Georgics, Thomas Nevile, 1767.djvu/112

 100 Thus, to compare small things with great, of gain

A love instinctive prompts the buzzing train,

Each in his function: those of riper age

To guard the towns, secure the combs engage,

And plan the Dedal cells: fatigu'd with toil,

At late eve laden with the fragrant spoil,

The youth return: for food they range the field;

Try, what fat teils, what arbutes, Casia, yield;

To ruddy saffron, hoary willows, fly;

And suck the hyacinth of purple die.

At the same instant all obey the hour

Of rest and labour: from the gates they pour

At morn; no pause: and to their homes again,

When Vesper warns them from the foodful plain,

Haste, and reflection take; an humming sound

The throng'd hive's door and margin runs around:

Crept to their cells silence all night they keep,

And, their tir'd limbs reposing, sink to sleep.

Nor will they far, a show'r impending, stray,

Or, Eurus threat'ning, tempt th' ethereal way:

Beneath their walls for water they repair,

Short rambles try, and pebbles lift in air;

As tottering boats take sand to stem the tide:

Thus poiz'd, thro' the void clouds their course they guide.

But