THE original (the peculiar beauties of which cannot easily be represented in a modern idiom) of the English version already given in this work, with the concluding verses omitted in that translation, is here subjoined:—
Primusque animalia mensis
Arcuit imponi: primus quoque talibus ora
Docta quidem solvit, sed non et credita, verbis:—
“Parcite, mortales, dapibus temerare nefandis
Corpora. Sunt Fruges; sunt deducentia ramos
Pondere Poma suo, tumidæque in vitibus Uvæ.
Sunt Herbæ Dulces; sunt, quæ mitescere flammâ,
Mollirique queant. Nec vobis lacteus Humor
Eripitur, nec Mella thymi redolentia florem.