Steep its ascent, and slippery was the way:
The wondrous rock like Parian marble shone,
And seemed, to distant sight, of solid stone. 30
Inscriptions here of various names I viewed,'
The greater part by hostile time subdued;
Yet wide was spread their fame in ages past,
And poets once had promised they should last.
Some fresh engraved appeared of wits re-
nowned;
I looked again, nor could their trace be found.
Critics I saw, that other names deface,
And fix their own, with labour, in their place :
Their own, like others, soon their place re-
signed,
Or disappeared, and left the first behind.
Nor was the work impaired by storms alone,2
What manner stone this rock was,
For it was like a lymed glass,
But that it shone full more clere ;
But what of congeled matere
It was, I niste redily;
But at the last espied I,
And found that it was every dele,
A rock of ice, and not of stele."-P.
1 "Tho saw I all the hill y-grave
With famous folkes names fele,
That had been in muchel wele,
And her fames wide y-blow;
But well unneth might I know,
Any letters for to rede
Their names by, for, out of drede
They weren almost off-thawen so,
That of the letters one or two
Were molte away of every name,
So unfamous was wexe their fame;
But men said what may ever last."-P.
2 "Tho gan I in myne harte cast,
That they were molte away for heate
And not away with stormes beate."-P.
But felt the approaches of too warm a sun;
For Fame, impatient of extremes, decays
Not more by envy than excess of praise.
Yet part no injuries of heaven could feel,1
Like crystal faithful to the graving steel:
The rock's high summit, in the temple's shade,
Nor heat could melt, nor beating storm invade.
Their names inscribed unnumbered ages past
From Time's first birth, with Time itself shall
last;
These ever new, nor subject to decays,
Spread, and grow brighter with the length of
So Zembla's rocks (the beauteous work of
Rise white in air, and glitter o'er the coast;
Pale suns, unfelt, at distance roll away,
And on the impassive ice the lightnings play;
Eternal snows the growing mass supply,
Till the bright mountains prop the incumbent
sky:
As Atlas fixed, each hoary pile appears,
The gathered winter of a thousand years.
On this foundation Fame's high temple stands;
Stupendous pile! not reared by mortal hands.
"For on that other side I sey
Of that hill which northward ley,
How it was written full of names
Of folke, that had afore great fames
Of olde time, and yet they were
As fresh as men had written hem there
The self day, or that houre
That I upon hem gan to poure;
But well I wiste what it made;
It was conserved with the shade
(All the writing that I sye)
Of the castle that so stood on high,
And stood eke in so cold a place,
That heate might not it deface."-P.
Whate'er proud Rome or artful Greece beheld,
Or elder Babylon, its frame excelled.
Four faces had the dome, and every face1
Of various structure, but of equal grace:
Four brazen gates, on columns lifted high,
Salute the different quarters of the sky.
Here fabled chiefs in darker ages born,
Or worthies old, whom arms or arts adorn,
Who cities raised, or tamed a monstrous race,
The walls in venerable order grace.
Heroes in animated marble frown,
And legislators seem to think in stone.
Westward, a sumptuous frontispiece appeared,
On Doric pillars of white marble reared,
Crowned with an architrave of antique mould,
And sculpture rising on the roughened gold.
In shaggy spoils here Theseus was beheld,
And Perseus dreadful with Minerva's shield: 80
There great Alcides stooping with his toil,"
Rests on his club, and holds the Hesperian
spoil.
Here Orpheus sings; trees moving to the sound,
Start from their roots, and form a shade around:
Amphion there the loud-creating lyre
Strikes, and beholds a sudden Thebes aspire!
Citharon's echoes answer to his call,
And half the mountain rolls into a wall:
1 The temple is described to be square, the four fronts with open gates facing the different quarters of the world, as an intimation that all nations of the earth may alike be received into it. The western front is of Grecian architecture: the Doric order was peculiarly sacred to heroes and worthies. Those whose statues are after mentioned, were the first names of old Greece in arms and arts.-P.
2 This figure of Hercules is drawn with an eye to the position of the famous statue of Farnese.-P.
There might you see the lengthening spires
ascend,
The domes swell up, the widening arches bend,
The growing towers, like exhalations rise,
And the huge columns heave into the skies.
The Eastern front was glorious to behold,
With diamond flaming, and barbaric gold.
There Ninus shone, who spread the Assyrian
fame,
And the great founder of the Persian name:
There in long robes the royal Magi stand,
Grave Zoroaster waves the circling wand,
The sage Chaldeans robed in white appeared,
And Brachmans, deep in desert woods revered.
These stopped the moon, and called the unbodied
shades
To midnight banquets in the glimmering glades;
Made visionary fabrics round them rise,
And airy spectres skim before their eyes;
Of talismans and sigils knew the power,
And careful watched the planetary hour.
Superior, and alone, Confucius stood,
Who taught that useful science, to be good.
But on the South, a long majestic race
Of Egypt's priests the gilded niches grace,2 110
1 Cyrus was the beginning of the Persian, as Ninus was of the Assyrian monarchy. The Magi and Chaldeans (the chief of whom was Zoroaster) employed their studies upon magic and astrology, which was, in a manner, almost all the learning of the ancient Asian people. We have scarce any account of a moral philosopher, except Confucius, the great lawgiver of the Chinese, who lived about two thousand years ago.-P.
The learning of the old Egyptian priests consisted for the most part in geometry and astronomy. They also preserved the history of their nation. Their greatest hero upon record is Sesostris, whose
Who measured earth, described the starry spheres,
And traced the long records of lunar years.
High on his car, Sesostris struck my view,
Whom sceptred slaves in golden harness drew :
His hands a bow and pointed javelin hold; 115
His giant limbs are armed in scales of gold.
Between the statues obelisks were placed,
And the learned walls with hieroglyphics graced.
Of Gothic structure was the Northern side,1
O'erwrought with ornaments of barbarous
pride.
There huge Colosses rose, with trophies crowned,
And Runic characters were graved around.
There sat Zamolxis with erected eyes,
And Odin here in mimic trances dies.
There on rude iron columns, smeared with
The horrid forms of Scythian heroes stood, Druids and bards 2 (their once loud harps unstrung),
actions and conquests may be seen at large in Diodorus, &c. He is said to have caused the kings he vanquished to draw him in his chariot. The posture of his statue, in these verses, is correspondent to the description which Herodotus gives of one of them remaining in his own time.-P.
1 The architecture is agreeable to that part of the world. The learning of the northern nations lay more obscure than that of the rest. Zamolxis was the disciple of Pythagoras, who taught the immortality of the soul to the Scythians. Odin, or Woden, was the great legislator and hero of the Goths. They tell us of him, that, being subject to fits, he persuaded his followers, that during those trances he received inspirations, from whence he dictated his laws. He is said to have been the inventor of the Runic characters.-P.
2 These were the priests and poets of those people,
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