they have been strongly bound in half or quarter-volumes.*

The total expense of the selection, I believe, has very little exceeded five pounds; and half that sum annually expended henceforward will, I am confident, not only fully meet the necessary ' wear and tear' of the Institution, but also contribute occasionally to it's enlargement. Can such a sum be employed, in any other mode of charity, with an equal chance of doing equal good?

This, it should be added, by no means precludes the occasional distribution of small tracts on religious and moral duties; which may justly be regarded as at once a promising, easy, cheap, extensive, and effectual way of doing good. Each tract should contain, at least, 'nothing but the truth,' and (affirmatively) some account of the way of a sinner's salvation by Jesus Christ.

* The British Critic of October 1809, recommends the addition of the very valuable sets of Bampton, Boyle, Moyer, and Warburton Lectures. But these would, generally, surpass the comprehension of Village-readers.

VIRGIL'S

BUCOLICS.

-Neque ego Paraphrasim esse interpretationem tantùm volo; sed circa eosdem sensus certamen atque æmulationem. (QUINT. x. 5.)

B

[Only fifty Copies printed separately.]

I. TITYRUS.

Mel. TITYRE, tu patulæ recubans sub tegmine fagi Sylvestrem tenui Musam meditaris avenâ:

Nos patriæ fines, et dulcia linquimus arva;

Nos patriam fugimus: tu, Tityre, lentus in umbrâ
Formosam resonare doces Amaryllida sylvas.

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Tit. O Melibœe, deus nobis hæc otia fecit: Namque erit ille mihi semper deus; illius aram Sæpè tener nostris ab ovilibus imbuet agnus. Ille meas errare boves, ut cernis, et ipsum Ludere, quæ vellem, calamo permisit agresti.

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Mel. Non equidem invideo; miror magis: undique totis Usque adeò turbatur agris. En, ipse capellas Protenus æger ago; hanc etiam vix, Tityre, duco. Hic inter densas corulos modò namque gemellos, Spem gregis, ah! silice in nudâ connixa reliquit. Sæpè malum hoc nobis, si mens non læva fuisset, De cœlo tactas memini prædicere quercus : Sæpe sinistra cavâ prædixit ab ilice cornix. -Sed tamen, iste deus qui sit, da, Tityre, nobis.

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Tit. Urbem, quam dicunt Romam, Melibœe, putavi 20 Stultus ego huic nostræ similem, quò sæpè solemus Pastores ovium teneros depellere fœtus.

Sic canibus catulos similes, sic matribus hædos

I. TITYRUS.

Melibus. BENEATH this beech you, Tityrus, thrown

at ease

Pour through the reed your sylvan melodies:
We quit our homes, our pleasant native plains;
We our dear country fly! You trill your strains,
As love inspires, stretch'd careless in the shade,
And Amaryllis echoes through the glade.

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Tityrus. O Meliboeus, to a God I owe This blest repose: to him, as God, I bow;

And oft a youngling of my fleecy brood

Shall stain his hallow'd shrine with offer'd blood.
He gave my herds, as here you see, to stray;

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And me to breathe at will my woodland lay.

Mel. Your lot I envy not, but more admire

When all the region shakes with storms so dire!
Lo! I my goats urge fainting o'er the mead :
This, feebler than the rest, with pains I lead.
Yean'd 'mid yon hazels on the flinty plain,
Her dying twins, my flock's late hope, remain.
Oft (had I mark'd it) to myself, and fold,
This whelming ruin the scath'd tree foretold;
[The left-hand raven oft, with prescient croak,
Distinctly boded from the hollow oak !]
-But who this God of your idolatry?

Tit. The city they call Rome, ah silly me!
I fondly thought might like our Mantua be;
Where oft we, shepherds, drive our tender lambs-
Their sires so whelps resemble, kids their dams.

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Nôram; sic parvis componere magna solebam.
Verum hæc tantùm alias inter caput extulit urbes,
Quantùm lenta solent inter viburna cupressi.
Mel. Et quæ tanta fuit Romam tibi causa videndi?
Tit. Libertas, quæ sera tamen respexit inertem;
Candidior postquam tondenti barba cadebat:
Respexit tamen, et longo post tempore venit,
Postquam nos Amaryllis habet, Galatea reliquit.
Namque, fatebor enim, dum me Galatea tenebat,
Nec spes libertatis erat, nec cura peculi.
Quamvis multa meis exiret victima septis,
Pinguis et ingratæ premeretur caseus urbi;

Non umquam gravis ære domum mihi dextra redibat.

Mel. Mirabar, quid mæsta deos, Amarylli, vocares; Cui pendere suâ patereris in arbore poma.

Tityrus hinc aberat. Ipsæ te, Tityre, pinus,
Ipsi te fontes, ipsa hæc arbusta vocabant.

Tit. Quid facerem? Neque servitio me exire licebat,

Nec tam præsentes alibi cognoscere divos.

Hic illum vidi juvenem, Melibœe, quotannis

Bis senos cui nostra dies altaria fumant.

Hic mihi responsum primus dedit ille petenti :
"Pascite, ut ante, boves, pueri; submittite tauros."
Mel. Fortunate senex, ergo tua rura manebunt!
Et tibi magna satis; quamvis lapis omnia nudus,
Limosoque palus obducat pascua junco.
Non insueta graves tentabunt pabula fœtas;
Nec mala vicini pecoris contagia lædent.
Fortunate senex, hic inter flumina nota
Et fontes sacros, frigus captabis opacum!
Hinc tibi, quæ semper vicino ab limite sæpes
Hyblæis apibus fiorem depasta salicti,
Sæpè levi somnum suadebit inire susurro.

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