Trees shelter man, by whom they often die,
And never seek revenge; no villany
Lies in the prospect of a humble cave.

Pen. Talk you of villany, of foes, and fraud?
Thy. I talk of Atreus.

Pen. What are these to him?

Thy. Nearer than I am, for they are himself.

Pen. Gods drive these impious thoughts out of your

mind.

Thy. The gods for all our safety put them there. Return, return with me.

Pen. Against our oaths?

I cannot stem the vengeance of the gods.

Thy. Here are no gods; they've left this dire abode. Pen. True race of Tantalus! who parent like

Are doom'd in midst of plenty to be starved.

Crowne's "Thyestes."

MONDAY, March 29.

Into Latin Prose.

Lastly, leaving the vulgar arguments, that by learning man excelleth man in that wherein man excelleth beasts; that by learning man ascendeth to the heavens and their motions, where in body he cannot come, and the like; let us conclude with the dignity and excellency of knowledge and learning in that whereunto man's nature doth most aspire, which is, immortality or continuance: for to this tendeth generation, and raising of houses and families; to this buildings, foundations, and monuments; to this tendeth the desire of memory, fame, and celebration, and in effect the strength of all other human desires. We see then how far the monuments of wit and learning are more durable than the monuments of power or of the hands. For have not the verses of Homer continued twenty-five hundred years, or more, without the loss of a syllable or letter; during which time, infinite palaces, temples, castles, cities have been decayed and demolished? It is not possible to have the true pictures or statues of Cyrus, Alexander, Cæsar; no, nor of the kings or great personages of much later years; for the originals cannot

last, and the copies cannot but lose of the life and truth. But the images of men's wits and knowledges remain in books, exempted from the wrong of time, and capable of perpetual renovation. Neither are they fitly to be called images, because they generate still, and cast their seeds in the minds of others, provoking and causing infinite actions and opinions in succeeding ages: so that, if the invention of the ship was thought so noble, which carrieth riches and commodities from place to place, and consociateth the most remote regions in participation of their fruits, how much more are letters to be magnified, which, as ships, pass through the vast seas of time, and make ages so distant to participate of the wisdom, illuminations, and inventions, the one of the other? "Advancement of

Learning."

-

Bacon,

WEDNESDAY, April 7.

Into Latin Hexameters.

Spirit. To the ocean now I fly,
And those happy climes that lie
Where day never shuts his eye,
Up in the broad fields of the sky;
There I suck the liquid air
All amidst the gardens fair

Of Hesperus, and his daughters three
That sing about the golden tree:
Along the crisped shades and bowers
Revels the spruce and jocund Spring;
The Graces, and the rosy-bosom'd Hours,
Thither all their bounties bring;
There eternal Summer dwells,

And west-winds, with musky wing,

About the cedar'd alleys fling

Nard and cassia's balmy smells.
Iris there with humid bow

Waters the odorous banks, that blow
Flowers of more mingled hue
Than her purfled scarf can shew
And drenches with Elysian dew
(List, mortals, if your ears be true),

Beds of hyacinth and roses,
Where young Adonis oft reposes,
Waxing well of his deep wound
In slumber soft, and on the ground
Sadly sits the Assyrian queen.

Milton.

FRIDAY, April 9.

Into English Prose.

"Comus."

Μοῦνος δὲ πληγῇσιν ἑκούσια γυῖα χαραχθεὶς
Αἰσιμίδης ἐλέλειπτο Σίνων, ἀπατήλιος ήρως,
Κρυπτὸν ἐπὶ Τρώεσσι δόλον καὶ πήματα κεύθων.
Ως δ' ὁπότε σταλίκεσσι λίνον περικυκλώσαντες
Θηρσὶν ὀρειπλανέεσσι λόχον πολυωπὸν ἔπηξαν
̓Ανέρες ἀγρευτῆρες· ὁ δ ̓ ἐκκριδὸν οἶος ἀπ ̓ ἄλλων
Λαθρίδιος πυκινοῖσιν ὑπὸ πτόρθοισι δεδυκώς,
Δίκτυα παπταίνων ἔλαθεν θηροσκόπος ἀνήρ·
Ως τότε, λωβητοῖσι περίστικτος μελέεσσι,
Τροίῃ λυγρὸν ὄλεθρον ἐμήδετο κὰδ δέ οἱ ὤμους
Ελκεσι ποιητοῖσιν ἐπέῤῥεε νήχυτον αἷμα.
Ἡ δὲ περὶ κλισίῃσιν ἐμαίνετο παννυχίη φλόξ,
Καπνὸν ἐρευγομένη ἐριδινέα φοιτάδι ῥιπῇ·
Ηφαιστος δ ̓ ἐκέλευεν ἐρίβρομος· ἐκ δὲ θυέλλας
Παντοίας ἐτίνασσεν ἐπιπνείουσα καὶ αὐτὴ
Μήτηρ ἀθανάτοιο πυρὸς φαεσίμβροτος "Ηρη.
Ἤδη δὲ Τρώεσσι καὶ ̓Ιλιάδεσσι γυναιξὶν
Ὄρθρον ὑπὸ σκιόεντα πολύθροος ήλυθε φήμη,
Δήϊον ἀγγέλλουσα φόβον σημάντορι καπνῷ.
Αὐτίκα δ ̓ ἐξέθορον πυλέων πετάσαντες ὀχῆας
Πεζοί θ ̓ ἱππῆές τε καὶ ἐς πεδίον προχέοντο,
Διζόμενοι μή πού τις ἔην δόλος ἄλλος Αχαιών.
Οἱ δὲ θοῇς οὐρῆας ὑποζεύξαντες ἀπήναις
Εκ πόλιος κατέβαινον ἅμα Πριάμῳ βασιλῆϊ
Αλλοι δημογέροντες· ἐλαφρότατοι δ ̓ ἐγένοντο,
Θαλπόμενοι περὶ παισὶν ὅσους λίπε φοίνιος "Αρης,
Ὀσσόμενοι καὶ γῆρας ἐλεύθερον. Οὐ μὲν ἔμελλον
Γηθήσειν ἐπὶ δηρόν· ἐπεὶ Διὸς ἤθελε βουλή.
Οἱ δ ̓, ὅτε τεχνήεντος ἴδον δέμας αἰόλον ἵππου,
Θαύμασαν ἀμφιχυθέντες, ἅτ ̓ ἠχήεντες ἰδόντες
Αἰετὸν ἀλκήεντα περικλάζουσι κολοιοί.
Τοῖσιν δὲ τρηχεῖα καὶ ἄκριτος ἔμπεσε βουλή

Οἱ μὲν γὰρ πολέμῳ βαρυπενθέϊ κεκμηώτες,
Ιππον ἀπεχθήραντες, ἐπεὶ πέλεν ἔργον ̓Αχαιῶν,
Ἤθελον ἢ δολιχοῖσιν ἐπὶ κρημνοῖσιν ἀράξαι,
Ηὲ καὶ ἀμφιτόμοισι διαῤῥῆξαι πελέκεσσιν
Οἱ δὲ, νεοξέστοιο πεποιθότες ἔργμασι τέχνης,
̓Αθανάτοις ἐκέλευον ἀρήϊον ἵππον ἀνάψαι,
Ύστερον ̓Αργείοιο μόθου σημήϊον εἶναι.

Tryphiodorus. Excidium Ilii.

MONDAY, April 12.

Into Latin Elegiacs.

Born in yon blaze of orient sky,
Sweet May! thy radiant form unfold;
Unclose thy blue voluptuous eye,
And wave thy shadowy locks of gold.

For thee the fragrant zephyrs blow,
For thee descends the sunny shower;
The rills in softer murmurs flow,

And brighter blossoms gem the bower.

Light graces decked in flowery wreaths
And tiptoe joys their hands combine;
And Love his sweet contagion breathes,
And, laughing, dances round thy shrine.

Warm with new life, the glittering throng
On quivering fin and rustling wing,
Delighted join their votive song,
And hail thee Goddess of the Spring!

WEDNESDAY, April 14.

Into Greek Prose.

Darwin.

Euph. But to return to man: it seems you allow those things alone to be natural to him, which shew themselves upon his first entrance into the world; to wit, the senses and such passions and appetites as are discovered upon the first application of their respective objects.

Alc. That is my opinion.

Euph. Tell me, Alciphron, if from a young appletree after a certain period of time there should shoot forth leaves, blossoms, and apples; would you deny these things to be natural, because they did not discover and display themselves in the tender bud?

Alc. I would not.

Euph. And suppose that in a man after a certain season, the appetite of lust or the faculty of reason shall shoot forth, open and display themselves as leaves and blossoms do in a tree: would you, therefore, deny them to be natural to him, because they did not appear in his original infancy?

Alc. I acknowledge I would not.

Euph. It seems, therefore, that the first mark of a thing's being natural to the mind was not warily laid down by you; to wit, that it should appear originally in it.

Alc. It seems so.

Berkeley's "Minute Philosopher."

FRIDAY, April 16.

Into English Prose.

At tuba luctificis pulsat clangoribus urbem, Obseptasque fores sonitu perfringit amaro. Divisere aditus, omnique in limine sævus Signifer ante omnes sua damna et gaudia portat. Dira intus facies: vix Mavors ipse videndo Gaudeat incertis lymphatam horroribus urbem Scindunt dissensu vario luctusque, furorque,

Et

pavor, et cæcis fuga circumfusa tenebris.
Bellum intrasse putes: fervent discursibus arces,
Miscentur clamore viæ: ferrum undique et ignes
Mente vident; sævas mente accepere catenas.
Consumsit ventura timor: jam tecta replerant,
Templaque, et ingratæ vallantur planctibus aræ
Una omnes eademque subit formido per annos.
Poscunt fata senes: ardet, palletque juventus:
Atria fœmineis trepidant ululata querelis.
Flent pueri, et flendi nequeunt cognoscere causas
Attoniti, et tantum matrum lamenta timentes.