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Thus having spoke, the illustrious chief of Troy
Stretch’d his fond arms to clasp the lovely boy.
The babe clung crying to his nurse’s breast,
Scar’d at the dazzling helm and nodding crest.
With secret[3] pleasure each fond parent smil’d,
And Hector hasted to relieve his child,
The glittering terrors from his brows unbound,
And placed the beaming helmet on the ground:
Then kiss’d the child, and lifting high in air,
Thus to the gods preferr’d a father’s prayer:

O thou, whose glory fills th’ ethereal throne,
And all ye deathless powers, protect my son!
Grant him like me to purchase just renown,
To guard the Trojans, to defend the crown;
Against his country’s foes the war to wage,
And rise the Hector of the future age!
So when, triumphant from successful toils,
Of heroes slain he bears the reeking spoils,
Whole hosts may hail him, with deserv’d acclaim,
And say, this chief transcends his father’s fame:
While pleas’d amidst the general shouts of Troy,
His mother’s conscious heart o’erflows with joy.

He spoke, and fondly gazing on her charms,
Restor’d the pleasing burden to her arms:
Soft on her fragrant breast the babe she laid,
Hush’d to repose, and with a smile survey’d.
The troubled pleasure soon chastis’d by fear,
She mingled with the smile a tender tear.

[Footnote 1:
This use of what most persons would consider waste paper, obtained for the poet the designation of “paper-sparing Pope.” ]

[Footnote 2:
Dr. Johnson, in noticing the MSS. of Milton, preserved at Cambridge, has made, with his usual force of language, the following observation: “Such reliques show how excellence is acquired: what we hope ever to do with ease, we may learn first to do with diligence.” ]

[Footnote 3:
Silent in the MS. (observes a critical friend) is greatly superior to secret, as it appears in the printed work. ]