To kindle brutal daring apt for war;
To lock the breast, and steal th' obdurate heart.
Amid the piercing cries of fore diftrefs
Impenetrable. But away thine eye;
Behold yon fteepy cliff; the modern pile
Perchance may now delight, while that, rever'd *
In ancient day, the page alone declares,
Or narrow coin through dim cærulean ruft,
The fane was Jove's, its fpacious golden roof,
O'er thick-furrounding temples beaming wide,
Appear'd, as when above the morning hills
Half the round fun afcends; and tower'd aloft,
Suftain'd by columns huge, innumerous
As cedars proud on Canaan's verdant heights
Darkening their idols, when Aftarte lur'd
Too-profperous Ifrael from his living strength.
And next regard yon venerable dome,
Which virtuous Latium, with erroneous aim,
Rais'd to her various deities, and nam'd
Pantheon; plain and round; of this our world
Majestic emblem; with peculiar grace
Before its ample orb, projected stands
The many-pillar'd portal: nobleft work
Of human skill: here, curious architect,
If thou effay'ft, ambitious, to furpafs
Palladius, Angelus, or British Jones,.
On thefe fair walls extend the certain fcale,
And turn th' inftructive compafs: careful mark
How far in hidden art, the noble plain
Extends, and where the lovely forms commence
Of flowing sculpture: nor neglect to note
the taper columns, and what weight
Their leafy brows fustain: fair Corinth first
Boafted their order, which Callimachus
(Reclining ftudious on Afopus' banks
Beneath an urn of some lamented nymph)
Haply compos'd; the urn with foliage curl'd
Thinly conceal'd, the chapiter inform'd.
See the tall obelisks from Memphis old,
One stone enormous each, or Thebes convey'd ;
Like Albion's spires they rush into the skies.
And there the temple, where the fummon'd ftate*
In deep of night conven'd: ev'n yet methinks
The vehement orator in rent attire
Perfuafion pours, ambition finks her creft;
And lo the villain, like a troubled sea,
That toffes up her mire! Ever disguis'd,
Shall treafon walk? fhall proud oppreffion yoke
The neck of virtue? Lo the wretch, abash'd,
Self-betray'd Catiline! O Liberty,
Parent of happiness, celestial-born ;
When the first man became a living foul,
His facred genius thou; be Britain's care;
With her fecure, prolong thy lov'd retreat ;
*The temple of Concord, where the feuate met on Catiline's confpiracy.
Thence blefs mankind; while yet among her fons,
Ev'n yet there are, to shield thine equal laws,
Whose bofoms kindle at the facred names
Of Cecil, Raleigh, Walfingham, and Drake.
May others more delight in tuneful airs;
In masque and dance excel; to sculptur'd ftone
Give with fuperior fkill the living look;
More pompous piles erect, or pencil soft
With warmer touch the visionary board:
But thou, thy nobler Britons teach to rule;
To check the ravage of tyrannic sway;
To quell the proud; to fpread the joys of peace,
And various bleffings of ingenious trade.
Be these our arts; and ever may we guard,
Ever defend thee with undaunted heart.
Ineftimable good! who giv'ft us Truth,
Whose hand upleads to light, divinest Truth,
Array'd in every charm: whofe hand benign
Teaches unwearied toil to cloath the fields,
And on his various fruits infcribes the name
Of Property: O nobly hail'd of old
By thy majestic daughters, Judah fair,
And Tyrus and Sidonia, lovely nymphs,
And Libya bright, and all-enchanting Greece,
Whofe numerous towns and ifles, and peopled feas,
Rejoic'd around her lyre; th' heroic note
(Smit with fublime delight) Aufonia caught,
And plann'd imperial Rome. Thy hand benign
Rear'd up her towery battlements in ftrength;
Bent her wide bridges o'er the fwelling stream
Of Tufcan Tiber; thine thofe folemn domes
Devoted to the voice of humbler prayer;
And thine thofe piles* undeck'd, capacious, vaft,
In days of dearth where tender Charity
Difpens'd her timely fuccours to the poor.
Thine too thofe mufically-falling founts,
To flake the clammy lip; adown they fall,
Mufical ever; while from yon blue hills,
Dim in the clouds, the radiant aqueducts
Turn their innumerable arches o'er
The fpacious defert, brightening in the fun,
Proud and more proud in their auguft approach:
High o'er irriguous vales and woods and towns,
Glide the foft whifpering waters in the wind,
And here united pour their filver ftreams
Among the figur'd rocks, in murmuring falls,
Mufical ever. Thefe thy beauteous works:
And what befide felicity could tell
Of human benefit: more late the reft;
At various times their turrets chanc'd to rife,
When impious tyranny vouchfaf'd to smile.
Behold by Tiber's flood, where modern Rome † Couches beneath the ruins: there of old
With arms and trophies gleam'd the field of Mars:
There to their daily fports the noble youth
Rufh'd emulous; to fling the pointed lance;
+ Modern Rome itands chiefly on the old Campus Martius.
Tovault the fteed; or with the kindling wheel
In dufty whirlwinds sweep the trembling goal;
Or wrestling, cope with adverse swelling breasts,
Strong grappling arms, close heads, and distant feet;
Or clash the lifted gauntlets: there they form'd
Their ardent virtues : in the boffy piles,
The proud triumphal arches; all their wars,
Their conquefts, honours, in the sculptures live.
And see from every gate those ancient roads,
With tombs high verg'd, the folemn paths of Fame:
Deferve they not regard? O'er whose broad flints
Such crowds have roll'd, fo many ftorms of war;
So many pomps; fo many wondering realms:
Yet ftill through mountains pierc'd, o'er vallies rais`d,
In even state, to distant feas around,
They stretch their pavements. Lo, the fane of Peace, Built by that prince, who to the truft of
Was honest, the delight of human-kind.
Three nodding ifles remain; the reft an heap
Of fand and weeds; her fhrines, her radiant roofs,
And columns proud, that from her spacious floor,
As from a fhining fea, majestic rose
An hundred foot aloft, like stately beech
Around the brim of Dion's glassy lake,
Charming the mimic painter: on the walls
Hung Salem's facred spoils; the golden board,
And golden trumpets, now conceal'd, entomb'd
By the funk roof.-O'er which in distant view
|