AMYNTAS.
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No rude extremes the world primæval knew; Nor Sirius scorched, nor wintry Boreas blew. Contending nations had not learned to jar, No fleet from shoar to shoar transported war; Nor yet had commerce wafted o'er the seas As certain death, imbittered by disease. These blessings only to that age belong;Yet not for them we raise our simple song: For other bliss that age we chiefly prize; Mistaken mortals, hear it, and be wise. As yet audacious Honour had not birth; The tyrant-phantom was not known on earth; Honour, a pompous, unsubstantial name, That fills with lies the sounding trump of Fame; That bids an honest poor man be a slave, And to a deity erects a knave; Confounds the characters by Jove assigned, And contradicts the great, eternal Mind. In early times, we modestly desired Just what the genuine frame of man required;
How
