And daily prayers atone for daily sins.
Prayers are Jove's daughters, of celestial race,
Lame are their feet, and wrinkled is their face;
With humble mien, and with dejected eyes,
Constant they follow where Injustice flies:
Injustice, swift, erect, and unconfined,
Sweeps the wide earth, and tramples o'er mankind,
While Prayers, to heal her wrongs, move slow behind.
Who hears these daughters of almighty Jove,
For him they mediate to the throne above:
When man rejects the humble suit they make,
The sire revenges for the daughters' sake;
From Jove commissioned, fierce Injustice then
Descends, to punish unrelenting men.
Oh let not headlong passion bear the sway;
These reconciling goddesses obey:
Due honours to the seed of Jove belong;
Due honours calm the fiercé and bend the strong.
Were these not paid thee by the terms we bring,
Were rage still harboured in the haughty king,
Nor Greece, nor all her fortunes, should engage
Thy friend to plead against so just a rage.
But since what honour asks, the general sends,
And sends by those whom most thy heart commends,
The best and noblest of the Grecian train;
Permit not these to sue, and sue in vain!
Let me, my son, an ancient fact unfold,
A great example drawn from times of old;
Hear what our fathers were, and what their praise,
Who conquered their revenge in former days.
"Where Calydon on rocky mountains stands,
Once fought the Ætolian and Curetian bands;
To guard it those, to conquer these, advance;
And mutual deaths were dealt with mutual chance.
The silver Cynthia bade Contention rise,
In vengeance of neglected sacrifice;
On Œneus' fields she sent a monstrous boar,[1]
That levelled harvests, and whole forests tore:
This beast, when many a chief his tusks had slain,
Great Meleager stretched along the plain.
Then, for his spoils, a new debate arose,
The neighbour nations thence commencing foes.
Strong as they were, the bold Curetes failed,
- ↑ The hunting of the great Calydonian boar is one of the most famous of the pre-Trojan legends. Œneus the King of Caledon, and Meleager was his son. Atalanta, the virgin huntress, took part in it, and received the spoils from Meleager, to the indignation of his mother Althæa, and her brothers.
