Love possessing all her mind

Love with every thought entwined

Round the elm trees wandering

As the clasping ivies cling.

Ye too—spotless virgins—-ye

Fair, and lovely who shall all

Your own bridal day ere long

Join with us the measured song

Hymen—hasten, Hymen thou

Guardian of the nuptial vow.

Pleased your summons to attend

Hither he his course shall bend

He who heart to heart unites

Source of purest love’s delights

He whose smiles alone can shed

Blessings on the Nuptial bed.

Mighty God of wedded love!

To what other power above

Should so apt the lover raise

Votive Prayer, and song of praise

Half so frequent at whose shrine

Bends the votary as at thine."

These are but two specimens out of many others taken from this little volume, but they are sufficient to convey to the cultured taste and refined scholarship of the authority is often difficult, as any classical scholar knows, to rend into good English prose some of the most touching and beautiful odes of the Roman poets, but to turn them into good English verse requires the imagination of a poet and a though mastery of the language of the original.