Page:Vida's Art of Poetry.djvu/109

Till use in time had rifled Argos' stores,
And brought all Athens to th' Hesperian shores.
How many words from rich Mycenæ come?
Of Greek extraction in the dress of Rome?
That live with ours, our rights and freedom claim,
Their nature diff'rent, but their looks the same;
Thro' Latium's realms, in Latium's garb they go,
At once her strangers, and her natives too.
Long has her poverty been fled, and long
With native riches has she grac'd her tongue.
Nor search the poets only, but explore
Immortal Tully's unexhausted store;
And other authors, born in happier days
Shall answer all your wants, and beautify your lays.

Oft, in old bards, a verse above the rest
Shines, in Barbarick spoils and trophies drest;
Thus Gaul, her victor's triumph to compleat,
Supplies those words that paint her own defeat,
And vanquish'd Macedon, to tell her doom,
Gives up her language with her arms to Rome.

Then