Now Pallas sooths the happy fair
With everlasting love,45
The ivy-circled stripling's care,
And fond delight of Jove. 50
Bless'd too, as ancient tales agree,
Is Ino's alter'd destiny.
Their forms where sister Nereids lave50
With them at large to stray,
And sport amid the ocean wave
Her happy hours away. 55
Then let not vain presumptuous man
Seek with unhallow'd eye to scan55
Th' irrevocable doom;
If clouds invest his final day,
Or Heaven shall gild with cheerful ray
The darkness of the tomb.
For bliss and sorrow with alternate flow,60
Sway the uncertain tide of life below. 64
'Twas thus the fates' supreme command
Which bless'd old Laius' regal line
With power and happiness divine,
In after times decreed the blow65
That plunged their hapless race in wo.
Impell'd the parricidal hand
Which struck the Theban monarch's breast,
Perfecting the decree in Pythian gloom express'd. 72
With sharpen'd eye's avenging speed70
Erinnys view'd the murderous deed,
And soon by mutual slaughter gave
The warlike brothers to the grave.
Surviving Polynices' doom,
Thersander bade in times to come75
Adrastus' house revive again,
First in each youthful sport, and in the strife of men.
