Along the stated path of Jove
To Saturn's royal courts above
Have trod their heavenly way,
Where round the island of the bless'd
The ocean breezes play;125
There golden flow'rets ever blow,
Some springing from earth's verdant breast,
These on the lonely branches glow,
While those are nurtured by the waves below.
From them the inmates of these seats divine130
Around their hands and hair the woven garlands twine. 136
Such Rhadamanthus' just decree,
Who sits by Father Saturn's side,
Where with his all-possessing bride
Rhea, supreme he holds his court.135
In those high ranks Peleus and Cadmus shine,
And to the blissful seats above
The prayer of Thetis won the breast of Jove
To waft the scion of her line,
Achilles, whose resistless might140
The pride and hope of Troy o'erthrew,
Hector, till then unconquer'd, slew;
Till then th' unshaken pillar of the fight.[1]
Cycnus the hero gave to death,
Aurora's Æthiop son to him resign'd his breath.[2] 149
Full many a sharp and potent dart146
That shows unspent the poet's art,
And to the wise sounds clear and shrill,
Rests in my well-stored quiver still.
But minds untaught some guide will need150
Safe through the mystic paths to lead;
