P. OVIDI NASONIS METAMORPHOSEN LIBER QVINTVS DECIMVS
Vir fuit hic ortu Samius, sed fugerat una 60
et Samon et dominos odioque tyrannidis exul
sponte erat isque licet caeli regione remotos
mente deos adiit et, quae natura negabat
visibus humanis, oculis ea pectoris hausit,
cumque animo et vigili perspexerat omnia cura, 65
in medium discenda dabat coetusque silentum
dictaque mirantum magni primordia mundi
et rerum causas et, quid natura, docebat,
quid deus, unde nives, quae fulminis esset origo,
Iuppiter an venti discussa nube tonarent, 70
quid quateret terras, qua sidera lege mearent,
et quodcumque latet, primusque animalia mensis
arguit inponi, primus quoque talibus ora
docta quidem solvit, sed non et credita, verbis:
JOHN DRYDEN translation:
Here dwelt the man divine, whom Samos bore,
But now self-banish'd from his native shore,
Because he hated tyrants, nore cou'd bear
The chains, which none but servile souls will wear.
He, tho' from Heav'n remote, to Heav'n cou'd move,
With strength of mind, and tread th' abyss above;
And penetrate, with his interior light,
Those upper depths, which Nature hid from sight:
And what he had observ'd, and learnt from thence,
Lov'd in familiar language to dispence.
The crowd with silent admiration stand,
And heard him, as they heard their God's command;
While he discours'd of Heav'n's mysterious laws,
The world's orginal, and Nature's cause;
And what was God; and why the fleecy snows
In silence fell, and rattling winds arose;
What shook the stdfast Earth, and whence begun
The dance of planets round the radiant sun;
If thunder was the voice of angry Jove,
Or clouds, with nitre pregnant, burst above:
Of these, and things beyond the common reach,
He spoke, and charm'd his audience with his speech.
