hem.--Nigh by chance an oak there stood,
"Thick-set with spreading boughs, Jove's sacred tree,
"Sprung from Dodona's stock: here I beheld
"Grain-gathering ants, each burthen'd with his load,
"In his small mouth, as o'er the rugged bark
"In lengthen'd file they march'd. The numerous crowds
"Admiring;--Best of fathers, I exclaim'd,
"So many subjects grant me, to refill
"My desert walls.--Trembled the lofty oak,
"Of wind no breath, yet mov'd the sounding boughs;
"With terror shook my limbs, and upright rear'd
"My hair; then kisses to the ground I gave,
"And kiss'd the oak; scarce hope I dar'd to feel:
"Yet still I nourish'd hope within my soul.
"Night comes; my body worn with cares, to sleep
"Obedience yielded. Still before mine eyes
"The oak appear'd; branches the same it bore,
"And on its branches seem'd the swarms the same;
"So mov'd the boughs, and on the grass below,
"Shook the corn-carrying crowd. Sudden they grew;
"Large, and more large they seem'd, as from the ground
"Themselves they rais'd, and stood in form erect.
"Their slender make, their numerous feet, their hue
"Of sable, disappear'd, and all their limbs
"An human shape confess'd. Sleep fled mine eyes;
"And fled my vision:--As by heaven not mark'd,
"Complaining;--far without the hall I heard
"A murmuring loud, and human seem'd the sounds,--
"Though stranger to mine ears: musing if still
"I slept not,--Lo! quick, Telamon approach'd,
"Wide threw the doors; and cry'd,--O, sire! behold;
"What hope, what faith surpasses!--Forth I come;
"Such men as in my dream my fancy saw,
"I see;--I know them, man by man, again:
"They come, and king salute me: unto Jove
"My votive thanks I pay; my city share
"Amongst my subjects new; and all my lands,
"(Of those who till'd them, empty.) Myrmidons,
"From whence they sprung, I call them. You have seen
"Their bodies,--still their habits are the same:
"A frugal race as wont, patient of toil;
"On gain still bent; tenacious of that gain.
"These equal all, in courage and in years,
"Shall follow you to battle; when the east
"Which blew you here so prosperous, (for the east
"Had brought him) to the southern gales shall yield."
With these and such like speeches, all the day
They sit conversing; evening they devote
To banquets; and the night to soft repose.
Sol rais'd his golden head, but Eurus still
Prevail'd, and bound their s