Note 39 — INTRODUCTION.

Thus rendered, in English verse, by Mr. Dryden:—

“Ye sacred Muses, with whose beauty fir’d,

My soul is ravish’d, and my brain inspir’d;

Whose priest I am, whose holy fillets wear,

Would you your poet’s first petition hear;

Give me the way of wand’ring stars to know:

The depths of heav’n above, and earth below.

Teach me the various labours of the moon,

And whence proceed th’ eclipses of the sun.

Why flowing tides prevail upon the main,

And in what dark recess they sink again.

What shakes the solid earth, what cause delays

The summer nights, and shortens winter days—

Happy the man, who, studying nature’s laws,

Through known effects can trace the secret cause.”