FROM LUCRETIUS. sæpius olim Religio peperit scelerosa.-Lib. I. v. 83. YET Superstition has of old brought forth More impious wickedness; witness that time In Aulis, when at Dian's temple met Th' associate Princes, Chiefs, the prime of Greece, And stain'd her altar with the virgin blood Of Iphigenia: o'er her youthful locks They bound the fillets; on her cheeks she felt The dress of sacrifice: but when she saw Beside the altar her dear father stand In sorrow, and for his sake the ministers Hiding their knife, and all the assembly round Weeping at sight of her; when this she saw, Struck mute with terror, on her knees she sunk. Ah! then in vain she called upon her king, Her father, urged him by a parent's love To save his wretched child; while ruthless hands Bore her all trembling to the altar's base; Not for her nuptials, not for holy rites Of Hymen, tended on with dance and song; But for a foul and bloody sacrifice. So fell this chaste and tearful victim, slain Ev'n in her marriage hour; and all to free Their wind-bound Navy from the fancied let Of adverse Deities, to such a guilt Could Superstition prompt a father's heart. FROM LUCRETIUS. Suave, mari magno turbantibus.-Lib. II. v. 1. SWEET is it, when the stormy winds have roused The boisterous ocean, from on shore to view The toiling mariner; not that the pain Of others gives us pleasure, but for that To see what ills we 'scape ourselves is sweet : And it is sweet, when armies on the plain Array'd for battle join in mortal strife, To stand aloof from danger and look on: |