y!
All our cares behind us lay,
That these pleasures we may know, 15
Ere we come to those below.

E. CATALECTIS VET[ERUM] POET[ARUM].

A small well-gotten stock, and country seat
I have, yet my content makes both seem great.
My quiet soul to fears is not inur'd,
And from the sins of idleness secur'd.
Others may seek the camp, others the town, 5
And fool themselves with pleasure or renown;
Let me, unminded in the common crowd,
Live, master of the time that I'm allow'd!

SEVEN EPIGRAMS.[67:1]

[Plato.]

I. _Upon One named Aster._

The stars, my Star! thou view'st: heaven I would be,
That I with thousand eyes might gaze on thee.

II. _Upon Aster's Death._

A Phosphor 'mongst the living late wert thou,
But shin'st, among the dead, a Hesper now.

III. _On Dion, engraved on his Tomb at Syracuse._

Old Hecuba, the Trojan matron's, years
Were interwoven by the Fates with tears,
But thee, with blooming hopes, my Dion! deck'd,
Gods did a trophy of their power erect.
Thy honour'd relics in thy country rest, 5
Ah, Dion! whose love rages in my breast.

IV. _On Alexis._

'Fair is Alexis,' I no sooner said,
When every one his eyes that way convey'd.
My soul, as when some dog a bone we show
Who snatcheth it,--lost we not Phaedrus so?

V. _On Archaeanassa._

To Archaeanassa, on whose furrow'd brow
Love sits in triumph, I my service vow.
If her declining graces shine so bright,
What flames felt you who saw her noon of light?

VI. _Love Sleeping._

Within the covert of a shady grove
We saw the little red-cheek'd god of Love:
He had nor bow nor quiver: these among
The neighbouring trees upon a bow were hung.
Upon a bank of tender rosebuds laid, 5
He smiling slept; bees with their noise invade
His rest, and on his lips their honey made.

VII. _On a Seal._

Five oxen, grazing in a flowery mead,
A jasper seal, (done to the life,) doth hold;
The little herd away long since had fled,
Were't not enclos'd within a pale of gold.

TEXTUAL NOTES

1:1. _To the Countess of S. with 'The Holy Court'_ (p. 6).

This is most probably D