Cleomedis Meteora Graece et Latine (Balfour 1605)

The divine powers govern the eternal dances with a voice.
Therefore come, take up the defense from here, and pitying the grave
Writer, assert him by dispelling the darkness, and rescue
Yourself from the people, and forge a perennial fame.
With such exhortations the author filled the hesitating
Best of men. Who, being wise, would doubt to follow any
Initiative under such auspices? Behold, the curtain of the world unfolds for you,
Balfour, and from your breast overflows a huge river of things,
And the combined opulence of a cultivated language.
Well done in spirit, interpreter of the sky: the stars applaud you,
And the celestial choirs. The Earth pours forth for you the flowers of Daedalus,
And the Graces have woven a distinguished crown for you.
And the Parrhasian Bear the constellation Ursa Major, which looks down from heaven upon the Caledonian coast,
Contributes your cradle to the falling seeds,
And boasts of no other fosterling so much.
Even she, to whom your eloquence has often offered sacrifice,
The Goddess Mind rejoices, who, having slipped from the boundary of the hot
Cancer, recently shone in a foreign world.

A guest of the Flussatis an area near the river Flus in France, associated with the noble de Foix-Candale family, but having afterwards returned through the South,
Where you may recount the doors of Capricorn, now again she inhabits
Olympus, mixed with the outstanding heroes of a praised age,
Where the milky way shines with conspicuous drops,
And the snowy Circle rolls together the dense fires.
The glory of the Candallaean race lifts itself by this
Prince, who is a mystic of wisdom, who is a prelate at the altars,
And of royal blood, just like the most holy Herman,
Has shone, and now to you, who are going along his footsteps,
And having been graced by him from the higher shores through his arts,
He pledges a name perpetual into the coming centuries,
Which neither devouring Envy may obscure with black rust,
Nor may the long series of immense time obliterate it,
As long as sweet Honor will nourish the Achaean arts
With Latin studies, and Euclaea Glory/Good Repute, often personified with snowy breasts,
And some dignity of genius will stand; nor will golden Virtue,
Averted from crimes, leave the lands yet.

The coils of the heavenly arch, and the magnitudes of the planets,
And the thick paths in the star-bearing cosmos
Cleomedes prayed to measure, showing to mortals with his eye
The hidden footprints of the Gods.
As Adrasteia goddess of divine retribution heard, she threw Prometheus
Bound anew beneath into a dark prison.
And pay the penalty of pride, for Zeus moves all spirits
To prayers on high. O Hermes BALFOUR, you loosen the bonds.
You drew the thief of the fire of life toward the Light,
From the bosoms of the murky gloom, by the will of Zeus.
For by your knowledge, and by your prophetic voice, you charm
The stars, and the god is full of your ambrosia.