Fach art was nature. Spartan valour hence, Slept with the monsters of succeeding times. 249 At the fam'd pass, firm as an isthmus stood; 190 From priestly darkness sprung th' enlightening arts And the whole eastern ocean, waving far

Of fire, and sword, and rage, and horrid names. As eye could dart it's vision, nobly check'd,

“O, Greece! thou sapient nurse of finer arts ! While in extended battle, at the field

Which to bright science blooming faacy bore, Of Marathon, my keen Athenians drove

Be this thy praise, that thou, and thou alone, Before their ardent band, an host of slaves.

In these hast led the way, in these excell’d, Hence through the continent ten thousand Greeks Crown'd with the laurel of assenting time. l'rg'd a retreat, whose glory not the prime

“In thy full language, speaking mighty things; Of victories can reach. Deserts, in vain, 188 Like a clear torrent close, or else diffus'd Oppos'd their course; and hostile lands, unknown; A broad majestic stream, and rolling on And deep rapacious foods, dire-bank'd with death; Through all the winding harmony of sound: 260 And mountains, in whose jaws destruction grinn'd In it the power of eloquence, at large, Hunger, and toil; Armenian snows, and storms; Breath'd the persuasive or pathetic soul; And circling myriads still of barbarous foes. Stillid by degrees the democratic storin, Greece in their view, and glory yet untouch'd, Or bade it threatening rise, and tyrants shook, Their steady column pierc'd the scattering herds, Flush'd at the head of their victorious troops. Which a whole empire pour'd; and held its way In it the Muse, her fury never quench’d, Triumphant, by the sage-exalted chief

By mean unyielding phrase, or jarring sound, Fir'd and sustain'd. Oh, light and force of mind, Her unconfin'd divinity display'd; Almost almighty in severe extremes !

And, still harmonious, form'd it to her will: The sea at last from Colchian mountains seen, 200 Or soft depress'd it to the shepherd's moan, 270 Kind-hearted transport round their captains threw Or rais'd it swelling to the tongue of gods. The soldiers fond embrace, o'erflow'd their eyes “ Heroic song was thine ; the fountain-bard, With tender floods, and loos’d the general voice Whence each poetic stream derives its course. To cries resounding loud-The sec! the sea ! Thine the dread moral scene, thy chief delight !

“ In Attic bounds hence heroes, sages, wits, Where idle Fancy durst not mix her voice, Shore thick as stars, the milky way of Greece! When Reason spoke august ; the fervent heart And though gay wit, and pleasing grace was theirs, Or plain’d, or stormd ; and in th' impassion'd All the soft modes of elegance and ease;

Concealing art with art, the poet sunk. (man, Yet was not courage less, the patient touch This potent school of manners, but when left Of toiling art, and disquisition deep. 210 To loose neglect, a land-corrupting plague, 280

“ My spirit pours a viguur through the soul, Was not unworthy deem'd of public care, Th' unfetter'd thought with energy inspires,

And boundless cost, by thee; whose every sou, Invincible in arts, in the bright field

Ev'n last mechanic, the true taste possess'd Of nobler science, as in that of arnis.

Of what had Havour to the nourish'd soula Athenians thus not less intrepid burst

“ The sweet enforce of the poet's strain, The bonds of 1yrant darkness, than they spurn'd Thine was the meaning music of the heart. The Persian chains: while through the city, full Not the vain trill, that, void of passion, runs Of mirthful quarrel and of witty war,

In giddy mazes, tickling idle ears; Incessant struggled taste refining taste,

But that deep-searching voice, and artful hand, And friendly free discussion, calling forth 220 To which respondent shakes the varied soul. 290 From the fair jewel truth its latent ray.

“ Thy fair ideas, thy delightful forms, O'er all shone out the great Athepian sage, By Love imagin'd, by the Graces touch'd, And father of philosophy: the sun,

The boast of well-pleas'd Nature! Sculpture seiz'd,
From whose white blaze emerg'd each various sect And bade them ever smile in Parian stone.
Took various tints, but with diminish'd beam. Selecting beauty's choice, and that again
Tutour of Athens ! he, in every street,

Exalting, blending in a perfect whole,
Dealt priceless treasure! goodness his delight, Thy workmen left er'n Nature's self behind.
Wisdom his wealth, and glory his reward.

From those far different, whose prolific hand
Deep through the human heart, with playful art, Peoples a nation; they, for years on years,
His simple question stole: as into truth, 230 By the cool touches of judicious toil,

300 And serious deeds, he smild the laughing race; Their rapid genius curbing, pour'd it all Taught moral happy life, whate'er can bless, Through the live features of one breathing stone. Or grace mankind, and what he taught he was. There, beaming full, it shone, expressing gods: Compounded high, though plain, his doctrine broke Jove's awful brow, Apollo's air divine, In different schools. The bold poetic phrase The fierce atrocious frown of sinewd Mars, Of figur'd Plato; Xenophon's pure strain,

Or the sly graces of the Cyprian queen. Like the clear brook that steals along the vale; Minutely perfect all! Each dimple sunk, Dissecting truth, the Stagyrite's keen eye;

And every muscle swell'd, as Nature taught. Th'exalted Stoic pride; the Cynic sneer; In tresses, braided gay, the marble wavd; The slow-consenting Academic doubt; 240 Flow'd in loose robes, or thin transparentveils ;310 And, joining bliss to virtue, the glad ease

Sprung into motion; soften'd into Mesh; Of Epicurus, seldom understood.

Was fir'd to passion, or refin'd to soul. They, ever-candid, reason still oppos'd

“ Nor less thy pencil, with creative touch, To reason ; and, since virtue was their aim, Shed mimic life, when all thy brightest dames, Each by sure practice try'd to prove his way Assembled, Zeuxis in his Helen mix'd. The best. Then stood untouch'd the solid base And when Apelles, who peculiar knew Of Liberty, the liberty of mind :

To give a grace that more than mortal smild, For systemis yet, and soul-enslaving creeds, The soul of beauty! call'ų the queen of Love,

.

Fresh from the billows, blushing orient charms. Of rolling ages, light as fabrics look'd
Ev'n such enchantment then thy pencil pour'd, That from the magic wand aërial rise. 390
That cruel-thoughted War th' impatient torch 321

“ These were the wonders that illumin'd Greece, Dash'd to the ground, and, rather than destroy

From end to end." Here interrupting warm, The patriot picture, let the city'scape.

" Where are they now?" (I cry'd) " say, goddess, “ First elder Sculpture taught her sister Art

where? Correct design; where great ideas shone,

And what the land thy darling thus of old ?" And in the secret trace expression spoke :

“ Sunk!" she resum'd: “ deep in the kindred Taught her the graceful attitude; the turn, Of superstition, and of slavery sunk! (gloom And beauteous airs of head; the native act, No glory now can touch their hearts, benumb'd Or bold, or easy; and, cast free behind,

By loose dejected sloth and servile fear; The swelling mantle's well-adjusted flow. 330 | No science pierce the darkness of their minds ; Then the bright Muse, their elder sister, came; No nobler art the quick ambitions soul 406 And bade her follow where she led the way:

Of imitation in their breast awake. Bade earth, and sea, and air, in colours rise ; Ev'n, to supply the needful arts of life, And copious action on the canvass glow:

Mechanic toil denies the hopeless hand. Gave her gay fable; spread invention's store ; Scarce any trace remaining, vestige grey, Enlarg‘d her view; taught composition high, Or nodding column on the desert shore, And just arrangement, circling round one point, To point where Corinth, or where Atheas stood: That starts to sight, binds and commands the whole. A faithless land of violence, and death! Caught from the heavenly Muse a nobler aim, Where Commerce parleys, dubious, on the shore; And, scorning the soft trade of mere delight, 340 And his wild impulse curious search restrains, O'er all thy temples, porticos, and schools, Afraid to trust th' inhospitable clime. 410 Heroic deeds she trac'd, and warm display'd Neglected Nature fails; in sordid want Each moral beauty to the ravish'd eye..

Sunk, and debas'd, their beauty beams no more. There, as th’imagin'd presence of the god,

The Sun himself seems angry, to regard, Arous'd the mind, or vacant hours induc'd

Of light unworthy, the degenerate race; Calm contemplation, or assembled youth

And fires them oft with pestilential rays : Burn'd in ambitious circle round the sage,

While Earth, blue poison steaming on the skies,
The living lesson stole into the heart,

Indignant, shakes them from her troubled sides.
With more prevailing force than dwells in words. But as from man to man, Fate's first decree,
These rouse to glory; while, to rural life, 350 Impartial Death the tide of riches rolls,
The softer canvass oft repos'd the soul.

So states must die, and Liberty go round. 420 There gayly broke the sun-illumin'd cloud;

“ Fierce was the stand, ere virtue, valour, arts,
The lessening prospect, and the mountain blue, And the soul fir'd by me (that often, stung
Vanish'd in air; the precipice frown'd, dire, With thoughts of better times and old renown,
White, down the rock the rushing torrent dash'd ; From hydra-tyrants try'd to clear the land)
The Sun shone, trembling, o'er the distant main ; Lay quite extinct in Greece, their works effac'd

The tempest foam'd, iminense; the driving storm And gross o'er all unfeeling bondage spread.
Sadden'd the skies, and, from the doubling gloom, Sooner I mov'd my much reluctant flight,
On the scath'd oak the ragged lightning fell; 359 Poisid on the doubtful wing: when Greece with
In closing shades, and where the current strays,

Greece
With peace, and love, and innocence around, Embroil'd in foul contention fought no more
Pip'd the lone shepherd to his feeding flock: For common glory, and for common weal: 430
Round bappy parents smild their younger selves; But, false to freedom, sought to quell the free;
And friends convers'd, by death divided long. Bruke the firm band of peace, and sacred love,
“ To public Virtue thus the smiling Arts,

That lent the whole irrefragable force;
Unblemish'd handmaids, serv'd! the Graces they And, as around the partial trophy blush'd,
To dress this fairest Venus. Thus rever'd, Prepard the way for total overthrow.
Aud plac'd beyond the reach of sordid care, Then to the Persian power, whose pride they scom'd,
The high awarders of immortal fame,

When Xerxes pour'd his millions o'er the land,
Alone for glory thy great masters strove; 370 Sparta, by turns, and Athens, vilely sued;
Courted by kings, and by contending states Sued to be venal parricides, to spill

439 Assum'd the boasted honour of their birth.

Their country's bravest blood, and on themselves “ In Architecture too thy rank supreme! To turn their matchless mercenary arms., That art where most magnificent appears

Peaceful in Susa, then, sate the great king;
The little builder man; by thee refin'd,

And by the trick of treaties, the still waste
And, smiling high, to full perfection brought. Of sly corruption, and barbaric gold,
Such thy sure rules, that Goths of every age,

Effected what his steel could ne'er perform.
Who scorn'd their aid, have oaly loaded Earth Profuse he gave them the luxurious draught,
With labour'd heavy monuments of shame. 379 Inflaming all the land: unbalanc'd wide
Not those gay domes that o'er thy splendid shore Their tottering states; their wild assemblies rul'd,
Shot, all proportion, up. First unadorn'd, As the winds turn at every blast the seas:
And nobly plain, the manly Doric rose;

And by their listed orators, whose breath 450
Th’lonic then, with decent matron grace,

Still with a factious storm infested Greece,
Her airy pillar heav'd ; luxuriant last,

Rous'd them to civil war, or dash'd them down
The rich Corinthian spread her wanton wreath. To sordid peace.-- Peace! that, when Sparta sbook
The whole so ineasurd true, so lessen'd off Astonishid Artaxerxes on his throne,
By fine proportion, that the marble pile,

Gave up, fair-spread o'er Asia's sunoy shore,
Fonu'd to repel the still or stormy waste

Their kindred cities, to perpetual chains.

.

A POEM.

What could so base, so infamous a thought, celebrated Protogenes; he chose rather to raise In Spartan hearts inspire ? Jealous, they saw the siege than hazard the burning of a famous Respiring Athens rear again her walls;

picture called Jalysus, the master-piece of that And the pale fury fir'd them, once again 460 painter. To crush this rival city to the dust.

Ver. 442. So the kings of Persia were called by For now no more the noble social soul

the Greeks. Of Liberty my families combin'd;

Ver. 453. The peace made by Antalcidas, the But by short views, and selfish passions, broke, Lacedemonian admiral, with the Persians; by Dire as when friends are rankled into foes, wbich the Lacedemonians abandoned all the They mix'd scvere, and wag'd eternal war; Gieeks established in the lesser Asia to the doNor felt they, furious, their exhausted force; minion of the king of Persia. Nor, with false glory, discord, madness blind, Ver. 459. Athens had been dismantled by the Saw how the blackening storm from Thracia came. Lacedemonians, at the end of the first PeloponLong years rollid on, by many a battle stain'd, 470 nesian war, and was at this time restored by The blush and boast of Fame! where courage, art, Conon to its former splendour. And military glory, shonc supreine:

Ver. 470. The Peloponnesian war. But let detesting ages, from the scene

Ver. 478. Pelopidas and Epaminondas. Of Greece self-manglcd, turu the sickening eye. Ver. 490. The battle of Chæronea, in which At last, when bleeding from a thousand wounds, Philip of Macedon utterly defeated the Greeks. She felt her spirits fail; and in the dust Her latest heroes, Nicias, Conon, lay, Agesilaus, and the Theban Friends : The Macedonian vulture mark' his time, By the dire scent of Cheronea lur'd,

480

ROME: And, fierce-descending, seiz'd his hapless prey.

BEING THE THIRD PART OS
* Thus tame sebmitted to the victor's yoke
Greece, once the gay, the turbulent, the bold;

LIBERTY,
For every Grace, and Muse, and Science born;
With arts of war, of government, clate ;
To tyrants dreadful, dreadful to the best ;
Whom I myself could scarcely rule: and thus
The Persian fetters, that intbrall'd the mind,

Tue COXTEXTS OF PART III.
Were turu'd to formal and apparent chains.
“ Unless Corruption first deject the pride, 490

As this part contains a description of the establishAnd guardian vigour of the free-born soul,

ment of Liberty in Rome, it legins with a view

of the Grecian colonies settled in the southern All crude attempts of violence are rain; For, firm within, and while at heart untouch'd,

parts of Italy, which with Sicily constituted the Ne'er yet by force was Freedom overcome.

Great Greece of the ancients. With these coloBut soon as Independence stoops the head,

nics the spirit of Liberty, and of republics, To vice enslar'd, and vice-created wants;

spreads over Italy; to ver. 32. Transition to Then to some foul corrupting hand, whose waste

Pythaguras and his philosophy, which he taught These heighten'd wants with fatal bounty feeds:

through those free states and cities; to ver. 71. From man to inan the slackening ruin runs,

Amidst the many small republics in Italy, Rome Till the whole state unnerv'd in slavery sinks.” 500

the destined seat of Liberty. Her establishment there dated from the expulsion of the Tarquins. How differing from that in Greece; to ver. 88. Reference to a view of the Roman republic given in the first part of this poem: to mark its rise

and fall, the peculiar purport of this. During Ver. 57. Civil tyranny.

its first ages, the greatest force of Liberty and Ver. 63. The pyramids.

virtue exerted; 10 ver. 103. The source Ver. 65. The tyrants of Egypt.

whence derived the heroic virtues of the RoVer. 198. A mountain near Athens.

mans. Enumeration of these virtues. Thence Ver. 142. Two rivers, betwixt which Athens was their security at home; their glory, success, situated.

and empire, abroad; to rer. 226. Bounds of Ver. 157. The Areopagus, or supreme court of the Roman empire, geographically described ; judicature, which Solon reformed, and improved : to ver. 257. The states of Greece restored to and the council of four hundred, by him instituted. Liberty by Titus Quintus Flarninius, the highest In this council all affairs of state were deliberated, instance of public generosity and beneficence; before they came to be voted in the assembly of to ver. 328. The loss of Liberty in Rome. Its the people.

causes, progress, and completion in the death of Ver. 174. Or Olympia, the city where the Brutus; io ver. 485. Rome under the enti. Olympic games were cclebrated.

perors ; to rer. 513.

Proin Rome the goddess Ver. 180. The straits of Thermopylar.

of Liberty goes among the Northern Nations ; Ver. 197. Xenophon.

where, by infusing into them her spirit and Ver. 222. Socrates.

general principles, she lays the ground-work of Ver. 272. Homer.

her future establishments; sends thein in venVer. 323. When Demetrius besieged Rhodes, geance on the Roman empire, now totally enand could hare reduced the city, by setting fire to slaved ; and then, with arts and sciences in her that quarter of it tvbere stood the house of the train, quits Earth during the dark ages ; 20 ver.

NOTES ON PART 13.

550. The celestial regions, to which J.iberty | He ev'n, into his tender system, took
retired, not proper to be opened to the view of Whatever shares the brotherhood of life :
mortals.

He taught that life's indissoluble flame,
From brute to man, and man to brute again,
For ever shifting, runs th' eternal round;

Thence try'd against the blood-polluted meal,
LIBERTY.

And limbs yet quivering with some kindred soul,
PART III.

To turn the human heart. Delightful truth!
Had he beheld the living chain ascend,

70
Here melting mix'd with air th' ideal forms, And not a circling form, but rising whole.
That painted still whate'er the goddess sung. “ Amid these small republics one arose,
Then I, impatient: “ From extinguish'd Greece, On yellow Tyber's bank, almighty Ronne,
To what new region stream'd the human day?"

Fated for me. A nobler spirit warın'd
She softly sighing, as when Zephyr leaves, Her sons; and, rous'd by tyrants, nubler still
Resign'd to Boreas, the declining year,

It barn'd in Brutus; the proud Tarquins chas'd,
Resum'd: “ Indignant, these last scenes I fled; With all their crimes ; bade radiant eras rise,
And long ere then, Leucadia's cloudy cliff, And the long honours of the consul-line.
And the Ceraunian hills bebind me thrown,

“ Here, from the fairer, not the greater, plan All Latium stood arous'd. Ages before, 10 Of Greece I vary'd; whose unmixing states, SO Great mother of republics ! Greece had pour'd, By the keen soul of emulation pierc'd, Swarm after swarm, her ardent youth around, Long wag'd alone the bloodless war of arts, On Asia, Afric, Sicily, they stoop'd,

And their best empire gain'd. But to diffuse But chief on fair Hesperia's winding shore ; O'er men an empire was my purpose now: Where, from Lacinium to Etrurian vales,

To let my martial majesty abroad; They roll'd increasing colonies along,

Into the vortex of one state to draw And lent materials for my Roman reign.

The whole mix'd force, and liberty, on Earth; With them my spirit spread; and numerous states To conquer tyrants, and set nations free. And cities rose, on Grecian models form’d;

Already have I given, with flying touch, As its parental policy, and arts,

20 | A broken view of this my amplest reign. 90 Each had imbib'd. Besides, to each assign'd Now, while its first, last, periods you survey, A guardian genius, o'er the public weal,

Mark how it labouring rose, and rapid fell. Kept an unclosing eye ; try'd to sustain,

“ When Rome in noon-tide empire grasp'd the Or more sublime, the soul infus'd by me:

world, And strong the battle rose, with various wave, And, soon as her resistless legions shone, Against the tyrant demons of the land.

The nations stoop'd around ; though theu appear'd
Thus they their little wars and triumphs knew ; Her grandeur most, yet in her dawn of power,
Their Bows of fortune, and receding times, By many a jealous equal people press'd,
But alınost all below the proud regard

Then was the toil, the mighty struggle then ;
Of story vow'd to Rome, on deeds intent 30 Then for each Roman I an hero told;
That truth beyond the flight of fable bore.

And every passing sun, and Latian scene, 100 “ Not so the Samian sage; to him belongs Saw patriot virtues then, and awful deeds, The brightest witness of recording fame.

That or surpass the faith of modern times, For these free states bis native isle forsook, Or, if believ'd, with sacred horrour strike. And a vain tyrant's transitory smile,

“ For then, to prove iny most exalted power, He sought Crotona's pure salubrious air, I to the point of full perfection push'd, And through Great Greece his geutle wisdom To fondness or enthusiastic zeal, taught;

The great, the reigning passion of the free. Wisdom that calm'd for listening years the mind, That godlike passion ! which, the bounds of self Nor ever heard amid the storm of zeal,

Divinely bursting, the whole public takes His mental eye first lanch'd into the deeps 40 Into the heart, enlarg'd, and burning high 110 Of boundless ether; where unnumber'd orbs, With the mix'd ardour of unnumber'd selves ; Myriads on myriads, through the pathless sky Of all who safe beneath the voted laws Unerring roll, and wind their steady way. Of the same parent state, fraterval, live. There he the full consenting choir beheld;

From this kind sun of moral nature fow'd There first discern'd the secret band of love, Virtues, that shine the light of human kind, The kind attraction, that to central suns

And, ray'd through story, warm remotest time. Binds circling earths, and world wish world unites. These virtues too, reflected to their source, Instructed thence, he great ideas form'd

Increas'd its fame. The social charm went round, Of the whole-moving, all-informing God, 50 | The fair idea, more attractive still, The Sun of beings! beaming unconfiu'd

As more by virtue mark'd: till Romans, all 120 Light, life, and love, and ever-active power : One band of friends, unconquerable grew. (voice, Whom nought can image, and who best approves “ Hence, when their country rais'd her plaintive The silent worship of the moral heart,

The voice of pleading Nature was not heard ; That joys in bounteous Heaven, and spreads the joy. And in their bearts the fathers throbb’d no more: Nor scorn'd the soaring sage to stoop to life, Stern to themselves, but gentle to the whole And bound his reason to the sphere of man. Hence sweeten'd pain, the luxury of toil; He gave the four yet reigning virtues name, Patience, that baffled Portune's utmost rage ; Inspir'd the study of the finer arts,

High-minded Hope, which at the lowest ebb, That civilize mankind, and laws devis'd 60 When Brennus conquer'd, and when Cannæ bled, Where with enlighten'd justice mercy mix'd. The bravest impulse felt, and scorn'd despair. 130

a

Hence Moderation a new conquest gain'd; Was thence kept firm, and with triumphant prow
As on the vanquish'd, like descending Heaven, Rode out the storins. Oft though the native feuds,
Their dewy mercy dropp'd, their bounty beain'd, That from the first their constitution shook,
And by the labouring hand were crowns bestow'd. (A latent ruin, growing as it grew)
Fruitful of men, hence hard laborious life,

Stood on the threatening point of civil war
Which no fatigue can qucll. no season pierce. Ready to rush : yet could the lenient voice
Hence, Independence, with his little pleas'd, Of wisdom, soothing the tumultuous soul,
Serene, and self-sufficient, like a god;

Those sons of virtuc calın. Their generous hearts, In whom Corruption could not lodge one charm, Unpetrify'd by self, so naked lay, While he bis honest roots to gold preferr'd; 140 | And sensible to truth, that o'er the rage 210 While truly rich, and by bis Sabine field,

Of giddy faction, by oppression swellid, The inan maintain'd, the Roman's splendour all Prevaild a simple fable, and at once Was in the public wealth and glory plac'd : To peace recover'd the divided state. Or ready, a rough swain, to guide the plough; But if their often-cheated hopes refus'd Or else, the purple o'er his shoulder thrown, The soothing touch ; still, in the love of Rome, In long majestic How, to rule the state,

The dread dictator found a sure resource. With Wisdom's purest eye; or, clad in steel, Was she assaulted ? was her glory stain’d? To drive the steady battle on the foe.

One common quarrel wide-infam'd the whole. Hence every passion, ev'n the proudest, stoop'd, Foes in the forum in the field were friends, To cominon good : Camillus, thy revenge ; 150 By social danger bound ; each fond for each, 220 Thy glory, Fabius. All submissive hence, And for their dearest country all, to die, Consuls, dictators, still resign'd their rule,

“ Thus up the hill of empire slow they toild: The very moment that the laws ordain'd.

Till, the bold summit gain'd, the thousand states Though Conquest o'er them clapp'd her eagle-wings, of proud Italia blended into one ; Her laurels wreath'd, and yok'd her snowy steeds Then o'er the nations they resistiess rush'd, To the triumphal car; soon as expir'd

And touch'd the limits of the failing world. The latest hour of sway, taught to submit

“Let Fancy's eye the distant lines unite. (A harder lesson that than to command)

See that which borders wild the western main, Into the private Roman sunk the chief. 159 | Where storms at large resound, and tides immense : If Rome was serv'd, and glorious, careless they From Caledonia's dim cerulean coast,

230 By whom. Their country's fame they dcem'd their | And moist Hibernia, to where Atlas, lodg'd And, above envy, in a rival's train, (own ; | Amid the restless clouds, and leaning heaven, Sung the loud lös by themselves deserv'd.

Hangs o'er the deep that borrows thence its name. Hence matchless courage. On Cremera's bank, Mark that oppos'd, where first the springing Morn Hence fell the Fabii ; hence the Decii dy'd; Her roses sheds, and shakes around her dews : And Curtius plung'd into the flaming gulf. From the dire deserts by the Caspian lav'd, Hence Regulus the wavering fathers firm’d, To where the Tigris and Euphrates, join’d, By dreadful counsel never given before,

Impetuous tear the Babylonian plain ; For Roman honour sued, and his own doom. And blest Arabia aromatic breathes. Hence he sustain'd to dare a death prepard 170 See that dividing far the watery north, 240 By Punic rage. On earth his manly look Parent of floods! from the majestic Rhine, Relentless fix'd, he from a last ernbrace,

Drunk by Batavian meads, to where, seven. By chains polluted, put his wife aside,

mouth'd, His little children climbing for a kiss ;

In Euxine waves the flashing Danube roars ;
Then duinb through rows of weeping wondering, To where the frozen Tanaïs scarcely stirs
A new illustrious exile! press'd along. (friends, The dead Meotic pool, or the long Rha,
Nor less impatient did he pierce the crowds In the black Seythian sea his torrent throws.
Opposing his return, than if, escap'd

Last, that beneath the burning zone behold. From long litigious suits, be glad forsook

See where it runs, froin the deep-loaded plains The noisy town a while, and city cloud, 180 Of Mauritania to the Libyan sands, To breath Venafrian, or Tarentine air.

Where Ammon lifts amid the torrid waste 250 Need I these high particulars recount?

A verdant isle, with shade and fountain fresh; The meanest bosom felt a thirst for fame;

And farther to the full Egyptian shore, Flight their worst death, and shame their only fear. To where the Nile from Ethiopian clouds, Life had no charms, nor any terrours fate, His never-drain'd ethereal urn, descends. When Rome and glory call’d. But, in one view, In this vast space what various tongues, and states ! Mark the rare boast of these unequal'd times. What bounding rocks, and mountains, floods and Ages revolv'd unsully'd by a crime:

seas ! Astrea reign'd, and scarcely needed laws

What purple tyrants quell’d, and nations freed ! To bind a race elated with the pride

190 “ O'er Greece descended chief, with stealth Of virtue, and disdaining to descend

The Roman bounty in a flood of day: [divine,
To meanness, mutual violence, and wrongs. As at her Isthmian games, a fading pomp! 260
While war around them rag'd, in happy Rome Her full-assembled youth innumerous swarm’d.
All peaceful smil'd, all save the passing clouds On a tribunal rais'd Flaminius sat;

That often hang on Freedom's jealous brow! A victor he, from the deep phalanx pierc'd
And fair unblemish'd centuries elaps’d,

Of iron-coated Macedon, and back
When not a Roman bled but in the field.

The Grecian tyrant to his bounds repell’d. Their virtue such, that an unbalanc'd state, In the high thoughtless gaiety of game, Still between noble and plebeian tost,

While sport alone their unambitious hearts As flow'd the wave of fluctuating power,

200 l Possess'd; the sudden trumpet, sounding hoarse,

a