t^gl- POETRY. 137 



TAe Effeds of Spring. 



[Competition Piece.] 



Tranjlated from Virgil's Gear. B. II. I. 315. 



NEC TIBI TAM PRUDENS, &C. 



JLet none prevail with thee, however fam'd 

 For wifdom, to diflurb th' obdurate earth 

 Wliile Boreas blows. For Winter then with ice 

 Fetters the glebe, nor fufters the chilPd root 

 To faften in the ground. But let your vines 

 Be planted during the foft-blufhing Spring, 

 When dorks abhorr'd by trailing fnakes return : 

 (Jr when the colds that march in Autumn's rear 

 Are felt, what time the raging heat retires, 

 And ere the fun has reached his wintry goal. — 



But Spring the ibrell:. Spring the wood arrays 

 With leafy verdure : and in Spring the foil. 

 Swelling with moilture, feeks prolitick fliowers. 

 .iEther, all-powerful fire, in genial dew 

 Defcends in'fb th' embraces of his fpoufe, . 

 Tile gladden'd earth, and propagates the race 

 Of fruits that nburiih, and of herbs that heal. 

 The pathlef^-unfrequented brakes refound 

 With tuneful birds ; while fportive herds indulge 

 In rites connubial : and to vagrant gales, 

 Favouian, now the cultur'd fields expofe, 

 Their furrow'd bofom. Djwy rains diftiU, 

 With intervals of fun-fliine. Herbage dares 

 Aril'e in prefence of the new-born day : 

 Nor fears the vine-branch the tempeftuous fouth, 

 Kor icy arrows of a northern blafl; ; 

 But, joyful, bids her buds unfold, and waves 

 Her wanton foliage to the -fportive breeze. 



Such were the Seafons, when the recent world 



Appeared in earlv prime : fuch, then, the courfe 



Vol. V. ' S + 



