Though nor high domes through all their portals

wide

Each morn disgorge the flatterer's refluent tide;
Though nor thy gaze on tortoise columns rest,
The Ephyreïan brass, and gold-wrought vest:
Nor poisoning Tyre thy snowy fleeces soil,
Nor casia taint thy uncorrupted oil;

Yet
peace
is thine, and life that knows no change,
And various wealth in Nature's boundless range,
The grot, the living fount, the umbrageous glade,
And lowing herds that sleep in soothing shade;
Thine, all of tame and wild, in lawn and field,
That pastur'd plains or savage woodlands yield:
Content and patience youth's long toils assuage,
Repose and reverence tend declining age:
There hallow'd shrines, and, as she fled mankind,
There Justice left her last lone trace behind.

DESCRIPTION OF THE HORSE.

As yet a colt he stalks with lofty pace,
And balances his limbs with flexile grace:

First leads the way, the threat'ning torrent braves,
And dares the unknown arch that spans the waves.
Light on his airy crest his slender head,

His belly short, his loins luxuriant spread :
Muscle on muscle knots his brawny breast,
No fear alarms him, nor vain shouts molest.
But at the clash of arms, his ear afar
Drinks the deep sound, and vibrates to the war:
Flames from each nostril roll in gather'd stream,
His quiv'ring limbs with restless motion gleam;
O'er his right shoulder, floating full and fair,
Sweeps his thick mane, and spreads its pomp of
hair:

Swift works his double spine, and earth around
Rings to his solid hoof that wears the ground.

THE CHARIOT RACE.

See at the signal, when the chariots bound, And bursting through the barriers seize the ground, Now with high hope erect the drivers dart; Now fear exhausts their palpitating heart:

Prone o'er loose reins they lash th' extended steed, And the wing'd axle flames beneath their speed; Now, low they vanish from the aching eye, Now mount in air, and seem to gain the sky: No pause, no rest: where'er they sweep the ground Dust in thick whirlwinds darkens all around; Each presses each: in clouds from all behind, Horse, horsemen, chariots thund'ring in the wind, Breath, flakes of foam, and sweat from ev'ry pore Smoke in the gale, and stream the victor o'er. Thus glorious thirst of praise their spirit fires, And shouting vict'ry boundless strength inspires.

THE BATTLE OF THE BULLS.

Onward they rush, and from alternate blows,
Down their gor❜d sides the purple current flows;
Front clash'd on front their battering horns re-
bound:

Olympus bellows, and the woods resound.
The combat o'er, insatiate rage remains,
The vanquish'd exile roams o'er distant plains:

Mourns o'er his shame, and each ignoble scar,
That marks th' insulting victor's might in war;
Mourns in far lands unknown, that forc'd to rove,
In battle unaveng'd, and lost to love,

He leaves, oft turning ere he quits the plain,
The native honours of his proud domain.
Hence by long toils collecting all his might
He disciplines his strength to wage the fight;
Wears through each sleepless night his rocky bed,
And strays all day, on prickly rushes fed:
With practis'd rage against th' unyielding oak
Tries his fierce horns and batters stroke by stroke;
Butts at the wind, and with impatient hoof,
Prelude of battle, whirls the earth aloof;

Then gath'ring all his strength to urge the blow,
Speeds, and darts headlong on his careless foe.
Thus faintly seen along the distant deep,

Gleams the white wave, and heaves its surgy

sweep,

Swells as it rolls, 'mid bellowing caverns roars, And bursts a mountain on the delug'd shores : The whirling waters in their bed below

Boil, and aloft the sand's dark columns throw.

CARDINAL XIMENES.

Cardinal Ximenes, Archbishop of Toledo, appointed by Ferdinand to be sole regent of Castile until the arrival of his grandson Charles in Spain, was descended of an honourable, not of a wealthy family; and the circumstances of his parents, as well as his own inclinations, having determined him to enter into the Church, he early obtained benefices of great value, and which placed him in the way