Page:Virgil - The Georgics, Thomas Nevile, 1767.djvu/80

 

Instruct betime, and manage, while with ease
Youth's pliant temper takes what forms you please.
First on their necks loose osier-hoops suspend; 205
Next, taught by use to servitude to bend,
Bullocks well coupled, by the collars ty'd,
Join, and compel them to pace side by side.
With the void orb oft let them make essay,
And with light footsteps print the dusty way: 210
Last let the axle groan beneath the load,
And the pole drag the wheels along the road.
Meanwhile a stronger food your wild steers need
Than the green herbage, or the wat'ry weed,
Or willow browse: for them the bearded grain 215
Crop with your hand, and give the young to drain
Their dams' swoll'n teats, nor, as in days of yore,
In full pails empty all their milky store.

But if to martial troops your genius guide,
Or with swift wheels by Alpheus' stream to glide, 220
And in th' Olympic grove to whirl the car,
Inure your steed to arms, and din of war;
Teach him unmov'd the rustling reins to hear,
The trump, and wheel rough-rattling in his ear,
Touch'd with his master's blandishments to stand,
And court the plausive strokings of his hand. 226

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