Verses to the Grace of the Lord (a Virgilian cento) (complete)

[Meliboeus] Tityrus, you who lie beneath the cover of the spreading beech, glad with some sweetness beyond your wont, fortunate old man! here among the familiar streams and sacred springs you make ready to recite your verses and to sing in divine song, shepherd, keeper of a lovely flock, yourself more lovely. [Tityrus] No uncertain things I sing, the predictions of the prophets of old. Could anything be greater for us than such a gift? O Meliboeus, it is God who has made this rest for us. For he will always be God to me and King of men, the almighty Father, who holds supreme power over all things, whom whoever wishes to know, let him breathe after divine love. I speak of things not unknown, things spread through the whole world. The unshorn mountains themselves fling their voices in joy to the stars, the very rocks now sing songs, the very groves resound; for that God goes through all lands and tracts of sea and the depths of heaven, do not doubt (for what you see is true), who by a fixed covenant rules with everlasting commands and tempers his wrath. Did he not do so, black night would brood over seas and lands. [Meliboeus] Happy the man who has been able to know the causes of things! For, I will confess it, from what founder our race is sprung Stimichon had heard: he praised your songs to us. Good fortune to you! for that you go over the deep under greater auspices, plain faith gives proof, in return for these praises. [Tityrus] Receive faith and give it: nor is the song ignoble. A greater God is at work and sends us back to greater works. He alone, who by delaying restored our state, that guardian of works, discoverer of men and things, without whom the mind begins nothing lofty, himself turns over in his mind

what things are, what have been, what are soon to be drawn on. For by these signs and following these examples they have said that souls are a part of the divine mind and draughts of the ether, because they have their nature from God. Although the limit of a narrow lifetime and earthly limbs and dying members dull them, yet the race remains immortal: seek no further teaching. Fiery is their vigour and heavenly their origin; and when cold death has drawn the limbs away from the soul, all these, when they have rolled the wheel through a thousand years, God, counting out the times, calls forth in a great throng. As many faces return, and the earth gapes open. But to retrace one's step and escape to the upper air, this is the work of virtue: to make for the lands far removed, to the starry seat, and to mount up into high heaven. [Meliboeus] Tityrus, must we then think that some souls go hence to heaven on high, and return again to sluggish bodies? Are we called from one fate into another? Am I immortal? Joys thrill my breast, if only what you tell of could come to pass. [Tityrus] Do not doubt: he is bound by no law of fate. Believe God (for what you see is true); allow the Father his power. Providence is greater than fate, as you least suppose. [Meliboeus] I believe indeed, nor is my faith vain; who is so mad as to deny such things? I yield myself, conquered and willing: foolish, I used to compare great things with small; and my judgment, now changed, does not give ground. One thing I beg: teach me the way, and open the sacred doors, or what I should follow to overcome such great labours. [Tityrus] I will tell you indeed, and not keep you in suspense, my son,

and in what way you may flee or bear each labour. Dare, guest, to despise wealth: this is the first way of salvation. Undefiled faith and a mind conscious of right bring worthy rewards. Trusting in piety, through fire they found the way: that is sure rest from labours. Gardens fragrant with saffron flowers invite them, and the seats of the fortunate groves and the blessed abodes will always belong to those whose mind holds the better judgment: theirs will be the place of the city, the glory of the divine countryside. But those who have brooded alone over the wealth they found, who have put off atonement for their sins till death came late, all who dared monstrous wrong and gained what they dared, are pressed by punishments. How they would wish, all of them, to have come into the high ether and beneath the upper airs of heaven! [Meliboeus] What gifts, what gifts can I give you for such a song? It is beyond our power: we shall raise your name to the stars, Tityrus. The shadows are scattered and light is restored to the mind. [Tityrus] Not by human means, not with art as teacher, do these things come: you will be able to learn what power it is. Unless you shrink back, I will go on, tracing it from its first origin. [Meliboeus] Come then, guest, and tell it to us from its first origin; I receive the words and gladly recognize them as a father's. [Tityrus] Hear: belief in the deed is ancient, but its fame unending. Now I will begin to sing, since we two have met here in our mountains: the valleys echo it to the stars. The great order of the ages is born anew; a greater work I set in motion: the praises and deeds of the Father. For there were neither the fires of the stars nor a sky bright with starry ether, and dark night held all. Then the almighty Father, uncovering things now with light,

moved apart the dark air and drove away the shadows. In the beginning he made heaven and earth and the setting sun, and the shining globe of the moon and the liquid plains, the path of night; for the stars he made numbers and names: whence the race of men and cattle and the life of flying things, and the monsters the sea bears beneath its marble surface. And now he divides the world in the middle between light and darkness, and the year, equal, into four differing seasons. Nor did he suffer his realms to grow torpid in heavy sloth; he stirred the fields with cares, sharpening mortal hearts, that practice by thought might hammer out the various arts. Here he gathered a race unteachable, scattered on the high mountains, and gave them a law, and held them under his sway. Thence he taught that a people, ruling far and wide and proud in its age, would come to destruction; afterwards a great going-out, victorious from the peoples of the Dawn and the Red shore. Then they renew their strength with food, heaven's gifts, until little by little a worse and discoloured age and the madness of war and the love of having came in its place, unmindful of kingdoms and seized by base desire. Then various plagues mock them. Evil error carried off Egypt and the strength of the East: there are seen as marvels monster gods of every kind and barking Anubis. What help are shrines and the images of those who lack light? Not for such aid nor for such defenders does the time call; when the day, as the years roll on, refutes your words, you will pay the penalty for what you have done. Why do we not rather all beseech eternal peace and the altar of the divine power? This altar will protect all. These things done, the Father turns over in his mind another plan,

by which he gave eternal life, by which the condition of death was taken away, and at last he took pity from high heaven. The ancient mercy looks upon human labours, to set a limit to destruction; responses were given, trustworthy enough: the Father's secret became plain faith. He himself bears these commands from heaven through the swift airs; the messenger goes ... and that he who breathes would be present in the words; and late the awe-inspiring prophets sang their omens; for they sang that he would be renowned in words and deeds. O how shall I name you, maiden? to whom mind and spirit from heavenly seed, from the realms above, were granted by the Almighty.