These storms of baser fire are laid full low,
And higher love safe anchors in my heart:
So now a quiet calm does safely reign:

And if my friend think not my counsel vain,
Perhaps my art may cure, or much assuage thy pain.

So did I quickly heal this strong infection,
And to myself restor❜d myself apace :
Yet did I not my love extinguish quite;
1 love with sweeter love and more delight,

But most I love the love which to my love has right.

Thomalin.

Thrice happy thou that could'st! my weaker mind
Can never learn to climb so lofty flight.

Thirsil.

If from this love thy will thou can'st unbind,
To will is here to can; will gives thee might;
Tis done, if once thou wilt;-'tis done I find.;
Now let us home for see, the weeping night,
Steals from those farther waves upon the land.
To morrow shall we feast; then, hand in hand
Free will we sing and dance along the golden sand.

The "feast of the morrow" accordingly takes place, and has for its object, the awardment of "the prize," which gives name to the seventh and last Eclogue.

Aurora from old Tithon's frosty bed

(Cold wintry-wither'd Tithon) early creeps; Her cheek with grief was pale, with anger red; Out of her window close she blushing peeps;

Her weeping eyes in pearled dew she steeps;
Casting what sportless nights she ever led;
She dying lives, to think he's living dead."
Curst be, and cursed is, that wretched sire

That yokes green youth with age, want with desire;
Who ties the sun to snow, or marries frost to fire.

The morn saluting, up I quickly rise, And to the green 1 post; for, on this day, Shepherd and Fisher-boys had set a prize Upon the shore, to meet in gentle fray, Which of the two should sing the choisest lay. Daphnis the Shepherd lad, whom Mira's eyes Had kill'd; yet with such wound he gladly dies: Thomalin, the Fisher, in whose heart did reign Stella, whose love is life, and whose disdain Seems worse than angry skies, or never-quiet main.

There soon I view the merry shepherd swains March three by three, clad all in youthful green; And while the sad recorder sweetly plains,

Three lovely nymphs, each several row between, More lovely nymphs could nowhere else be seen, Whose faces' snow their snowy garments stains; With sweeter voices fit their pleasing strains. Their flocks flock round about; the horned rams And ewes go silent by, while wanton lambs, Dancing along the plains forget their milky dams.

Scarce were the shepherds set, but straight in sight The fisher-boys came driving up the stream;

Themselves in blue; and twenty sea-nymphs bright, In curious robes that well the waves might seem ;

All dark below, the top like frothy cream:

Their boats and masts with flow'rs and garlands

dight;

And round the swans guard them, with armies white : Their skiffs by couples dance to sweetest sounds,

Which running cornets breathe to full plain grounds, That strike the river's face, and thence more sweet rebounds.

And now the nymphs and swains had took their place; First those two boys; Thomalin the fishers' pride; Daphnis, the shepherds': nymphs their right hand

grace;

And choicest swains shut up the other side:
So sit they down in order fit apply'd :

Thirsil betwixt them both, in middle space
Thirsil, their judge, who now's a shepherd base,
But late a fisher-swain; 'till envious Chame

Had rent his nets, and sank his boat with shame;
So robb'd the boys of him, and him of all his game.

So as they sit, Thirsil begins the lay;You lovely boys the woods' and oceans' pride, Since I am judge of this sweet peaceful fray, First tell us, where and when your loves you spy'd: And when in long discourse you well are try'd, Then in short verse, by turns we'll gently play: In love begin, in love we'll end the day.Daphnis thou first :-to me you both are dear: Ah! if I might, I would not judge, but hear; Nought have I of a judge but an impartial ear.

-

Here again it would seem from the reference to the "envious Chame," and from the former employment of

Thirsil, as well as from the invocation to the "King of Seas," and other passages in the Eclogues, (especially the 4th), that some of the author's fellow collegians were intended to be pourtrayed in the more prominent characters, and that certain transactions connected with the Church, or University, at, or about that period, are designed to be alluded to. Whether we are losers or gainers by our ignorance on this point is of little moment; the conjecture is borne out by the text: our pleasanter concern is with the contending parties, whom we left preparing to chaunt their alternate strains in long discourse," or in "shorter verses :" and in the sequel we find each does justice to his "Love's perfections," with so much ingenuity and success, that in accordance with the established rules of bucolic disputation, their friendly umpire declines a decision; but reserving the prize for a future occasion,

praises their pastoral strains, And gives to each a present for his pains."

Daphnis.

Thou gentle boy, what prize may well reward thee?
So slender gift as this not half requites thee:
May prosp'rous stars, and quiet seas regard thee;
But most that pleasing star that most delights thee:
May Proteus still, and Glaucus dearest hold thee;
But most her influence all safe enfold thee:

May she with gentle beams from her fair sphere behold thee.

Thomalin.

As whistling winds 'gainst rocks their voices tearing; As rivers through the vallies softly gliding;

As haven after cruel tempests fearing;

Such, fairest boy, such is thy verse's sliding:

*"Arcades Ambo." "Not that they were Arcadians," says Servius, on this passage in Virgil's 7th Eclogue," but so skilful in singing, that they might be esteemed Arcadians.”

Thine be the prize; may Pan and Phoebus grace thee; Most, whom thou most admir'st, may she embrace thee; And flaming in thy love, with snowy arms enlace thee.

Thirsil.

You lovely boys, full well your art you guided;
That with your striving songs your strife is ended:
So you yourselves the cause have well decided;
And by no judge can your award be mended.
Then since the prize for only one intended,
You both refuse; we justly may reserve it,
And as your offering in love's temple serve it;
Since none of both desire when both so well deserve it.

Yet, for such songs should ever be rewarded,

Daphnis take thou this hook of ivory clearest, Given me by Pan, when Pan my verse regarded; This fears the wolf when most the wolf thou fearest. But thou, my Thomalin, my love, my dearest, Take thou this pipe which oft proud storms restrained; Which spite of Chamus' spite 1 still retained; Was never little pipe more soft, more sweetly plained.

And you fair troop, if Thirsil you disdain not, Vouchsafe with me to take some short refection; Excess, or daints, my lowly roof maintains not; Pears, apples, plumbs; no sugar'd-made confection. So up they rose, and by Love's sweet direction, Sea-nymphs with shepherds sort: sea-boys complain not That wood-nymphs with like love them entertain not, And all the day to songs and dances lending,

Too swift it runs, and spends too fast in spending: With day their sports began, with day they take their ending.