The Hymns of Orpheus · 29 of 91

To Proteus.

XXIV. TO PROTEUS *. The FUMIGATION from STORAX. PROTEUS I call, whom Fate decrees, to keep

The keys which lock the chambers of the deep;

First-born, by whose illustrious pow'r alone

All Nature's principles are clearly shewn:

Matter to change with various forms is thine, 5

Matter unform'd, capacious, and divine.

All-honor'd, prudent, whose sagacious mind

Knows all that was, and is, of ev'ry kind,

With all that shall be in succeeding time;

So vast thy wisdom, wond'rous, and sublime: 10

For all things Nature first to thee consign'd,

And in thy essence omniform confin'd.

Come, blessed father, to our rites attend,

And grant our happy lives a prosp'rous end.

Footnotes 149:* According to Proclus, in Plat. Repub. p. 97, Proteus, though inferior to the primary Gods, is immortal: and though not a deity, is a certain angelic mind of the order of Neptune, comprehending in himself all the forms of things generated in the universe.