Littell's Living Age/Volume 138/Issue 1785/To Phidyle

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TO PHIDYLE.

(Hor. iii. 23.)

Incense, and flesh of swine, and this year's grain,
At the full mo6n, with suppliant hands bestow,
O rustic Phidyle! So naught shall know
Thy crops of blight, thy vine of Afric bane,
And hale the nurselings of thy flock remain
Through the sick apple-tide. Fit victims grow
’Twixt holm and oak upon the Algid snow,
Or Alban grass, that with their necks must stain
The pontiff's axe: to thee can ill avail
Thy little gods wfith much slain to assail, —
And rosemary, and myrtle chapletries.
Lay on the altar a hand pure of fault;
More than rich gifts the powers it shall appease,
Though pious but with meal and sparkling salt.

Spectator.Austin Dobson.