This Ode was afterwards entirely altered, as may be ſeen p. 7.—The reader will not be diſpleaſed to ſee it as it was ori⯑ginally written.

See The Epiſtle to Curio in this volume.

Alcaeus.

Pindar.

Aquarius.

Verulam gave one of his titles to Francis Bacon author of the Novum Organum.

Stanza II. 2.] Lycurgus, the Lacedaemonian lawgiver, brought into Greece from Aſia Minor the firſt complete copy of Homer's Works.—At Plataea was fought the decifive battle between the Perſian army and the united militia of Greece un⯑der Pauſanias and Ariſtides.—Cimon the Athenian erected a trophy in Cyprus for two great victories gained on the ſame day over the Perſians by ſea and land. Diodorus Siculus has preſerved the inſcription which the Athenians affixed to the conſecrated ſpoils after this great ſucceſs, in which it is very remarkable that the greatneſs of the occaſion has raiſed the manner of expreſſion above the uſual ſimplicity and modeſty of all other ancient inſcriptions. It is this; The following tranſlation is almoſt literal;

Stanza II. 3.] Pindar was contemporary with Ariſtides and Cimon, in whom the glory of ancient Greece was at its height. When Xerxes invaded Greece Pindar was true to the com⯑mon intereſt of his country, though his fellow-citizens the Thebans had ſold themſelves to the Perſian king. In one of his odes he expreſſes the great diſtreſs and anxiety of his mind occaſioned by the vaſt preparations of Xerxes againſt Greece, (Iſthm. viii.) in another he celebrates the victories of Sala⯑mis, Plataea, and Himera, (Pyth. i.) It will be neceſſary to add two or three other particulars of his life, real or fabulous, in order to explain what follows in the text concerning him. Firſt, then, he was thought to be ſo great a favourite of Apollo that the prieſts of that deity allotted him a conſtant ſhare of their offerings. It was ſaid of him as of ſome other illuſtrious men, that at his birth a ſwarm of bees lighted on his lips and fed him with their honey: it was alſo a tradition concerning him that Pan was heard to recite his poetry, and ſeen dancing to one of his hymns on the mountains near Thebes. But a real hiſtorical fact in his life is, that the Thebans impoſed a large fine upon him on account of the veneration which he expreſſ⯑ed in his poems for that heroick ſpirit ſhewn by the people of Athens in defence of the common liberty which his own fel⯑low-citizens had ſhamefully betrayed; and as the argument of this ode implies that great poetical talents and high ſen⯑timents of liberty do reciprocaily produce and aſſiſt each other, ſo Pindar is perhaps the moſt exemplary proof of this connexion which occurs in hiſtory. The Thebans were re⯑markable in general for a ſlaviſh diſpoſition through all the for⯑tunes of their commonwealth at the time of its ruin by Philip, and even in its beſt ſtate under the adminiſtration of Pelo⯑pidas and Epaminondas; and every one knows they were no leſs remarkable for great dulneſs and want of all genius. That Pindar ſhould have equally diſtinguiſhed himſelf from the reſt of his fellow-citizens in both theſe reſpects ſeems ſomewhat ex⯑traordinary, and is ſcarce to be accounted for but by the pre⯑ceding obſervation.

Octavianus Caeſar.

Stanza III. 3.] Alluding to his Defence of the People of Eng⯑land againſt Salmaſius. See particularly the manner in which he himſelf ſpeaks of that undertaking in the Introduction to his Reply to [...]us.

Stanza. IV. 3.] Edward III. from whom deſcended Henry Haſtings, third Earl of Huntingdon, by the daughter of the Duke of Clarence, brother to Edward IV.

Stanza V. 3.] At Whittington, a village on the edge of Scarſdale in Derbyſhire, the Earls of Devonſhire and Danby, with the Lord Delamere, privately concerted the plan of the Revolution. The houſe in which they met is at preſent a farm⯑houſe, and the country people diſtinguiſh the room where they ſat by the name of The Plotting Parlour.

After Timoleon had delivered Syracuſe from the tyranny of Dionyſius the people on every important deliberation ſent for him into the publick aſſembly, aſked his advice, and voted according to it. P [...].

Stanza V.] During Mr. Pope's war with Theobald, Conca⯑nen, and the reſt of their tribe, Mr. Warburton, the preſent Lord Biſhop of Glouceſter, did with great zeal cultivate their friendſhip, having been introduced forſooth at the meetings of that reſpectable confederacy, a favour which he afterwards ſpoke of in very high terms of complacency and thankfulneſs: at the ſame time in his intercourſe with them he treated Mr. Pope in a moſt contemptuous manner, and as a writer without genius. Of the truth of theſe aſſertions his Lordſhip can have no doubt if he recollects his own correſpondence with Con⯑canen, a part of which is ſtill in being, and will probably be remembered as long as any of this prelate's writings.

Stanza II. 1.] Mr. Locke died in 1704, when Mr. Hoadley was beginning to diſtinguiſh himſelf in the cauſe of civil and religious liberty, Lord Godolphin in 1712, when the doc⯑trines of the Jacobite faction were chiefly favoured by thoſe in power, Lord Somers in 1716, amid the practices of the Non⯑juring clergy againſt the Proteſtant eſtabliſhment, and Lord Stanhope in 1721, during the controverſy with the lower [...]ouſe of Convocation.

Curio was a young Roman Senator of diſtinguiſhed rank and parts. Being profuſely extravagant he ſoon diſſipated a ſplendid fortune, to ſupply the want of which he entered into the deſigns of Caeſar againſt the liberties of his country, altho' he had formerly been a profeſſed enemy to him. Cicero, to whoſe care he had been committed upon his firſt entrance in⯑to the Forum, exerted himſelf to prevent his ruin, but without effect, and he became one of the firſt victims in the Civil war. This Epiſtle was firſt publiſhed in the 1744, when a celebra⯑ted patriot was ſuppoſed to have deſerted the cauſe of his coun⯑try. The Author afterwards transformed it into the Ode to Curio, ‘"a performance diſgraceful only to its Author,"’ ſays a celebrated writer. The Epiſtle, which is too curious to be omitted, we here give in its original form. The Ode is printed p. 31. of this volume.

The two brothers, Tiberius and Caius Gracchus, loſt their lives in attempting to introduce the only regulation that could give ſtability and good order to the Roman republick. [...] Junius Brutus founded the commonwealth, and died in its defence.

Titles which have been generally aſcribed to the moſt pernicious of men.

Appius Claudius the Decemvir, and L. Cornelius Cinna, both attempted toeſtabliſh a tyrannical dominion in Rome, and both periſhed by the treaſon.

℣. 25. —Love—Elder than Chaos.] Heſiod in his Theo⯑gony gives a different account, and makes Chaos the eldeſt of beings, though he aſſigns to Love neither father nor ſuperiour, which circumſtance is particularly mentioned by Phaedrus in Plato's Banquet as being obſervable not only in Heſiod but in all other writers both of verſe and proſe, and on the ſame occaſion he cites a line from Parmenides, in which Love is ex⯑preſsly ſtyled the eldeſt of all the gods. Yet Ariſtophanes, in The Birds, affirms that ‘"Chaos and Night, and Erebus and Tartarus, were firſt, and that Love was produced from an egg which the ſable-winged Night depoſited in the immenſe boſom of Erebus."’ But it muſt be obſerved that the Love deſigned by this comick poet was always diſtinguiſhed from the other, from that original and ſelfexiſtent being the ΤΟ ΟΝ or ΑΓΑΘΟΝ of Plato, and meant only the ΔΗΜΙΟΥΡΓΟΣ or ſecond perſon of the old Grecian trinity, to whom is in⯑ſcribed an hymn among thoſe which paſs under the name of Orpheus, where he is called Protogonos, or the Firſt-begotten, is ſaid to have been born of an egg, and is repreſented as the principal or origin of all theſe external appearances of Nature. In the Fragments of Orpheus collected by Henry Stephens he is named Phanes, the Diſcoverer or Diſcloſer, who unfolded the ideas of the Supreme Intelligence, and expoſed them to the perception of inferiour beings in this viſible frame of the world, as Mocrobius, and Proclus, and Athenagoras, all agree to interpret the ſeveral paſſages of Orpheus which they have preſerved.

But the Love deſigned in our text is the one ſelfexiſtent and Infinite Mind, whom if the generality of ancient mythologiſts have not introduced or truly deſcribed in accounting for the production of the world and its appearances, yet to a modern poet it can be no objection that he hath ventured to differ from them in this particular, though in other reſpects he pro⯑feſſeth to imitate their manner and conform to their opinions; for in theſe great points of natural theology they differ no leſs remarkably among themſelves, and are perpetually confound⯑ing the philoſophical relations of things with the traditionary circumſtances of mythick hiſtory; upon which very account Callimachus in his Hymn to Jupiter declareth his diſſent from them concerning even an article of the national creed, adding that the ancient bards were by no means to be de⯑pended on. And yet in the exordium of the old Argonautick poem aſcribed to Orpheus it is ſaid that ‘"Love, whom mor⯑tals in later times call Phanes, was the father of the eter⯑nally begotten Night,"’ who is generally repreſented by theſe mytholOgical poets as being herſelf the parent of all things and who in The Indigitamenta, or Orphick Hymns, is ſaid to be the ſame with Cypris, or Love itſelf. Moreover, in the body of this Argonautick poem, where the perſonated Or⯑pheus introduceth himſelf ſinging to his lyre in reply to Chi⯑ron, he celebrateth ‘"the obſcure memory of Chaos, and the natures which it contained within itſelf in a ſtate of perpetual viciſſitude; how the heaven had its boundary determined, the generation of the earth, the depth of the ocean, and alſo the ſapient Love, the moſt ancient, the ſelf-ſufficient, with all the beings which he produced when he ſeparated one thing from another:"’ which noble paſſage is more directly to Ari⯑ſtotle's purpoſe in the firſt book of his Metaphyſicks than any of thoſe which he has there quoted to ſhew that the ancient poets and mythologiſts agreed with Empedocles, Anaxagoras, and the other more ſober philoſophers, in that natural antici⯑pation and common notion of mankind concerning the neceſ⯑ſity of mind and reaſon to account for the connexion, motion, and good order of the world. For though neither this poem nor the hymns which paſs under the ſame name are, it ſhould ſeem, the work of the real Orpheus, yet beyond all queſtion they are very ancient. The hymns more particularly are allowed to be older than the invaſion of Greece by Xerxes, and were pro⯑bably a ſet of publick and ſolemn forms of devotion, as appears by a paſſage in one of them, which Demoſthenes hath almoſt li⯑terally cited in his firſt oration againſt Ariſtogiton, as the ſaying of Orpheus, the founder of their moſt holy myſteries. On this account they are of higher authority than any other mytholo⯑gical work now extant, the Theogony of Heſiod himſelf not excepted. The poetry of them is often extremely noble, and the myſterious air which prevails in them, together with its delightful impreſſion upon the mind, cannot be better expreſſ⯑ed than in that remarkable deſcription with which they inſpi⯑red the German editor Eſchenbach when he accidentally met with them at Leipſick: ‘"Theſaurum me reperiſſe credidi,"’ ſays he, ‘"et proſecto theſaurum reperi. Incredibile dictu quo me ſacro horrore afflaverint indigitamenta iſta deorum: nam et tempus ad illorum lectionem eligere cogebar, quod vel ſo⯑lum horrorem incutere animo poteſt, nocturnum; cum enim totam diem conſumſerim in contemplando urbis ſplendore, et in adeundis, quibus ſcatet urbs illa, viris doctis; ſola nox reſtabat, quam Orpheo conſecrare potui. In abyſſum quen⯑dam myſteriorum venerandae antiquitatis deſcendere vide⯑bar, quotieſcunque ſilente mundo, ſolis vigilantibus aſtris et luna, [...] iſtos hymnos ad manus ſumſi."’

℣. 25. Chaos.] The unformed undigeſted maſs of Moſes and Plato, which Milton calls

Ibid. Love the ſire of Fate.] Fate is the univerſal ſyſtem of na⯑tural cauſes, the work of the Omnipotent Mind or of Love; ſo Minucius Felix: ‘"Quid enim aliud eft fatum, quam quod de unoquoque noſtrum deus fatus eſt."’ So alſo Cicero, in the firſt Book on Divination; ‘"Fatum autem id appello, quod Graeci ΕΙΡΜΑΡΜΕΝΗΝ; id eſt, ordinem ſeriemque cauſarum, cum cauſa cauſae nexa rem ex ſe gignat—ex quo intelligitur, ut fatum ſit non id quod ſuperſtitioſe, ſed id quod phyſice dici⯑tur cauſa aeterna rerum."’ To the ſame purpoſe is the doc⯑trine of Hierocles in that excellent fragment concerning Pro⯑vidence and Deſtiny. As to the three Fates or Deſtinies of the poets, they repreſented that part of the general ſyſtem of natu⯑ral cauſes which relate to man and to other mortal beings, for ſo we are told in the hymn addreſſed to them among the Orphick Indigitamenta, where they are called the daughters of Night (or Love) and contrary to the vulgar notion are diſtin⯑guiſhed by the epithets of Gentle and Tenderhearted. Accord⯑ing to Heſiod, Theog. ver. 904, they were the daughters of Ju⯑piter and Themis, but in the Orphick Hymn to Venus or Love that goddeſs is directly ſtyled the mother of Neceſſity, and is repreſented immediately after as governing the three Deſtinies, and conducting the whole ſyſtem of Natural cauſes.

℣. 26. Born of Fate was Time.] Cronos, Saturn, or Time, was, according to Apollodorus, the ſon of Coelum and Tellus; but the author of the Hymns gives it quite undiſguiſed by my⯑thological language, and calls him plainly the offspring of the Earth and the ſtarry Heaven, that is of Fate, as explained in the preceding note.

℣. 28. Who many ſons devour'd.] The known fable of Saturn devouring his children was certainly meant to imply the diſſo⯑lution of natural bodies, which are produced and deſtroyed by Time.

℣. 28. The child—Of Rhea.] Jupiter ſo called by Pindar.

℣. 29. Drove him from the upper ſky.] That Jupiter dethroned his father Saturn is recorded by all the mythologiſts. Phurnu⯑tus or Cornutus, the author of a little Greek treatiſe on the na⯑ture of the gods, informs us that by Jupiter was meant the ve⯑getable ſoul of the world, which reſtrained and prevented thoſe uncertain alterations which Saturn or Time uſed formerly to cauſe in the mundane ſyſtem.

℣. 30. Then ſocial reign'd, &c.] Our mythology here ſuppo⯑ſeth that before the eſtabliſhment of the vital, vegetative, pla⯑ſtick nature, (repreſented by Jupiter) the four elements were in a variable and unſettled condition, but afterwards welldiſpo⯑ſed, and at peace among themſelves. Tethys was the wife of the Ocean, Ops or Rhea the earth, Veſta the eldeſt daughter of Saturn fire, and the Cloudcompeller, or [...], the air, though he alſo repreſented the plaſtick principle of na⯑ture, as may be ſeen in the Orphick hymn inſcribed to him.

℣. 34. The ſedgy-crowned race.] The river-gods, who ac⯑cording to Heſiod's Theogony were the ſons of Oceanus and Tethys.

℣. 36. From them—Are ye O Naiads!] The deſcent of the Naiads is leſs certain than moſt points of the Greek mytholo⯑gy, Homer, Odyſſ. xiii. [...]. Virgil in the eighth book of the Aeneid ſpeaks as if the Nymphs or Naiads were the pa⯑rents of the rivers, but in this he contradicts the teſtimony of Heſiod, and evidently departs from the orthodox ſyſtem which repreſenteth ſeveral nymphs as retaining to every ſingle river. On the other hand Callimachus, who was very learned in all the ſchool-divinity of thoſe times, in his Hymn to Delos maketh Peneus the great Theſſalian river-godthe father of his nymphs; and Ovid, in the fourteenth book of his Metamorphoſes, men⯑tions the Naiads of Latium as the immediate daughters of the neighbouring river-gods. Accordingly the Naiads of particular rivers are occaſionally both by Ovid and Statius called by a pa⯑tronymick, from the name of the river to which they belong.

℣. 40. Syrian Daphne.] The grove of Daphne in Syria, near Antioch, was famous for its delightful fountains.

Ibid. The tribes—Belov'd of Paeon.] Mineral and medicinal ſprings. Paeon was the phyſician of the gods.

℣. 43. The winged offspring.] The Winds, who according to Heſiod and Apollodorus were the ſons of Aſtraeus and Aurora.

℣. 46. Hyperion.] A ſon of Coelum and Tellus, and father of the Sun, who is thence called by Pindar Hyperionides. But Hy⯑perion is put by Homer in the ſame manner as here, for the Sun himſelf.

℣. 49. Your ſallying ſtreams.] The ſtate of the atmoſphere with reſpect to reſt and motion is in ſeveral ways affected by rivers and running ſtreams, and that more eſpecially in hot ſeaſons; firſt, they deſtroy its equilibrium, by cooling thoſe parts of it with which they are in contact; and, ſecondly, they communicate their own motion; and the air which is thus moved by them being left heated is of conſequence more elaſtick than other parts of the atmoſphere, and therefore fitter to preſerve and to propagate that motion.

℣. 70. Delian king.] One of the epithets of Apollo or the Sun, in the Orphick hymn inſcribed to him.

℣. 79. Chloris.] The ancient Greek name for Flora.

℣. 83. Amalthea.] The mother of the firſt Bacchus, whoſe birth and education was written, as Diodorus Siculus informs us, in the old Pelaſgick character by Thymoetes, grandſon to Laomedon and contemporary with Orpheus. Thymoetes had travelled over Libya to the country which borders on the weſtern ocean, there he ſaw the iſland of Nyſa, and learned from the inhabitants that ‘"Ammon king of Libya was mar⯑ried in former ages to Rhea ſiſter of Saturn and the Titans; that he afterwards fell in love with a beautiful virgin whoſe name was Amalthea, had by her a ſon, and gave her poſ⯑ſeſſion of a neighbouring track of land wonderfully fertile, which in ſhape nearly reſembling the horn of an ox was thence called the Heſperian horn, and afterwards the horn of Amalthea; that fearing the jealouſy of Rhea he conceal⯑ed the young Bacchus with his mother in the iſland of Ny⯑ſa;"’ the beauty of which Diodorus deſcribes with great dig⯑nity and pomp of ſtyle. This fable is one of the nobleſt in all the ancient mythology, and ſeems to have made a particular impreſſion on the imagination of Milton, the only modern poet (unleſs perhaps it be neceſſary to except Spenſer) who in theſe myſterious traditions of the poetick ſtory had a heart to feel and words to expreſs the ſimple and ſolitary genius of An⯑tiquity. To raiſe the idea of his Paradiſe he prefers it even to

℣. 94. Edonian band.] The prieſteſſes and other miniſters of Bacchus, ſo called from Edonus a mountain of Thrace, where his rites were celebrated.

℣. 105. When Hermes.] Hermes or Mercury was the patrron of commerce, in which benevolent character he is addreſſed by the author of The Indigitamenta in theſe beautiful lines;

℣. 121. Diſpenſe the min'ral treaſure.] The merchants of Si⯑don and Tyre made frequent voyages to the coaſt of Cornwall, from whence they carried home great quantities of tin.

℣. 136. Hath he not won.] Mercury, the patron of commerce, being ſo greatly dependent on the good offices of the Naiads, in return obtains for them the friendſhip of Minerva, the goddeſs of War; for military power, at leaſt the naval part of it, hath conſtantly followed the eſtabliſhment of trade; which exem⯑plifies the preceding obſervation, that ‘"from bounty iſſueth power."’

℣. 143. Calpe—Cantabrian ſurge.] Gibraltar and the bay of Biſcay.

℣. 150. Aegina's gloomy ſurge Near this iſland the Athenia [...] obtained the victory of Salamis ever the Perſian navy.

℣. 160. Xerxes ſaw.] This circumſtance is recorded in that paſſage perhaps the moſt ſplendid among all the remains [...] ancient hiſtory, where Plutarch in his Life of Themiſtocles de⯑ſcribe [...] the ſeafights of Artemiſium and Salamis.

℣. 204. Thyrſus.] A ſtaff or ſpear wreathed round with ivy, of conſtant uſe in the Bacchanalian myſteries.

℣. 227. Io Paean.] An exclamation of victory and triumph derived from Apollo's encounter with Python.

℣. 252. Cirrha.] One of the ſummits of Parnaſſus, and ſa⯑cred to Apollo. Near it were ſeveral fountains ſaid to be fre⯑quented by the Muſes. Nyſa, the other eminence of the ſame mountain, was dedicated to Bacchus.

℣. 263. —charm the mind of gods.] This whole paſſage con⯑cerning the effects of ſacred muſick among the gods is taken from Pindar's firſt Pythian ode.

℣. 297. Phrygian pipe's.] The Phrygian muſick was fanta⯑ſtick and turbulent, and fit to excite diſorderly paſſions.

℣. 302. The gates, where Pallas holds—The guardian key.] It was the office of Minerva to be the guardian of walled cities, whence ſhe was named ΠΟΑΙΑΣ and ΠΟΔΙΟΥΧΟΣ, and had her ſtatues placed in their gates, being ſuppoſed to keep the keys, and on that account ſtyled ΚΑΗΔΟΥΧΟΣ.

℣. 310. Fate—Of ſober Pentheus.] Pentheus was torn in pieces by the Bacchanalian prieſts and women for deſpiſing their myſteries.

℣. 318. The cave—Corycian.] Of this cave Pauſanias in his tenth book gives the following deſcription: ‘"Between Delphi and the eminences of Parnaſſus is a road to the grotto of Co⯑rycium, which has its name from the nymph Corycia, and is by far the moſt remarkable which I have ſeen. One may walk a great way into it without a torch. It is of a conſiderable height, and hath ſeveral ſprings within it; and yet a much greater quantity of water diſtils from the ſhell and roof ſo as to be continually dropping on the ground. The people round Parnaſſus hold it ſacred to the Corycian nymphs and to Pan."’

℣. 319. Delphick mount.] Delphi, the ſeat and oracle of Apollo, had a mountainous and rocky ſituation on the ſkirts of Parnaſſus.

℣. 327. Cyrenaick.] Cyrene was the native country of Cal⯑limachus, whoſe Hymns are the moſt remarkable example of that mythological paſſion which is aſſumed in the preceding poem, and have always afforded particular pleaſure to the au⯑thor of it by reaſon of the myſterious ſolemnity with which they affect the mind. On this account he was induced to at⯑tempt ſomewhat in the ſame manner, ſolely by way of exer⯑ciſe, the manner itſelf being now almoſt entirely abandoned in poetry: and as the mere genealogy or the perſonal adven⯑tures of Heathen gods could have been but little intereſting to a modern reader, it was therefore thought proper to ſelect ſome convenient part of the hiſtory of Nature, and to employ theſe ancient divinities as it is probable they were firſt employ⯑ed, to wit, in perſonifying natural cauſes, and in repreſenting the mutual agreement or oppoſition of the corporeal and mo⯑ral powers of the world, which hath been accounted the very higheſt office of poetry.