judgment, with regard give ear, To see no wholesome motion be withstood, And ratify the best for public good. Nor, though a meaner give advice, repine, But follow it, and make the wisdom thine. Hear then a thought, not now conceived in haste, At once my present judgment and my past. When from Pelides' tent you forced the maid, I first opposed, and faithful, durst dissuade; But bold of soul, when headlong fury fired, You wronged the man, by men and gods admired: Now seek some means his fatal wrath to end, With prayers to move him, or with gifts to bend." To whom the king. "With justice hast thou shown A prince's faults, and I with reason own. That happy man, whom Jove still honours most, Is more than armies, and himself a host. Bless'd in his love, this wondrous hero stands; Heaven fights his war, and humbles all our bands. Fain would my heart, which err'd through frantic rage, The wrathful chief and angry gods assuage. If gifts immense his mighty soul can bow,(201) Hear, all ye Greeks, and witness what I vow. Ten weighty talents of the purest gold, And twice ten vases of refulgent mould: Seven sacred tripods, whose unsullied frame Yet knows no office, nor has felt the flame; Twelve steeds unmatch'd in fleetness and in force, And still victorious in the dusty course; (Rich were the man whose ample stores exceed The prizes purchased by their winged speed;) Seven lovely captives of the Lesbian line, Skill'd in each art, unmatch'd in form divine, The same I chose for more than vulgar charms, When Lesbos sank beneath the hero's arms: All these, to buy his friendship, shall be paid, And join'd with these the long-contested maid; With all her charms, Briseis I resign, And solemn swear those charms were never mine; Untouch'd she stay'd, uninjured she removes, Pure from my arms, and guiltless of my loves,(202) These instant shall be his; and if the powers Give to our arms proud Ilion's host