Glad I revisit thy neglected reign,

Oh take me to thy peaceful shade again.

10

But chiefly thee, whose influence breathed from
Augments the native darkness of the sky;
Ah, ignorance! soft salutary power!
Prostrate with filial reverence I adore.
Thrice hath Hyperion roll'd his annual race,
Since weeping I forsook thy fond embrace.
Oh say, successful dost thou still oppose
Thy leaden ægis 'gainst our ancient foes?
Still stretch, tenacious of thy right divine,
The massy sceptre o'er thy slumb'ring line?
And dews Lethean through the land dispense
To steep in slumbers each benighted sense?
If any spark of wit's delusive ray
Break out, and flash a momentary day,
With damp, cold touch forbid it to aspire,
And huddle up in fogs the dang'rous fire.

15

20

Oh say she hears me not, but, careless grown, Lethargic nods upon her ebon throne.

V. 4.

"Where rivers now

Stream, and perpetual draw their humid train."

Milton. Par. Lost, vii. 310.

V. 14. "To hatch a new Saturnian age of lead."

Pope. Dunciad, i. 28. And so in the speech of Ignorance in "Henry and Minerva," by I. B. 1729 (one among the poetical pieces bound up by Pope in his library, and now in my possession):

"Myself behind this ample shield of lead,

Will to the field my daring squadrons head." V. 17. "Let Fancy still my sense in Lethe steep.' Shakesp. T. Night. act iv. sc. 1.

Luke.

V. 22. "Here Ignorance in steel was arm'd, and there
Cloath'd in a cowl, dissembled fast and pray'r;

Goddess! awake, arise! alas, my fears!
Can powers immortal feel the force of years?
Not thus of old, with ensigns wide unfurl'd,
She rode triumphant o'er the vanquish'd world;
Fierce nations own'd her unresisted might,
And all was ignorance, and all was night.

25

30

Oh! sacred age! Oh! times for ever lost! (The schoolman's glory, and the churchman's boast.)

For ever gone-yet still to fancy new,
Her rapid wings the transient scene pursue,
And bring the buried ages back to view.
High on her car, behold the grandam ride
Like old Sesostris with barbaric pride;

* a team of harness'd monarchs bend

35

Against my sway her pious hand stretch'd out,
And fenc'd with double fogs her idiot rout."
Henry and Minerva.

And so in the Dunciad, b. i. ver. 80:

"All these, and more, the cloud-compelling queen
Beholds thro' fogs that magnify the scene."
Awake, arise, or be for ever fallen!"

V. 25.

Milt. P. L. i. 330. Luke.

V. 37. "Sesostris-like, such charioteers as these
May drive six harness'd monarchs if they please."
Young. Love of Fame, Sat. v.

'High on his car, Sesostris struck my view,
Whom sceptred slaves in golden harness drew."

And so S. Philips. Blenheim, v. 16:

Pope. T. of Fame. Luke.

"As curst Sesostris, proud Egyptian king,

That monarchs harness'd to his chariot yok'd."

THE ALLIANCE OF

EDUCATION AND GOVERNMENT.

A FRAGMENT.*

[See Mason's Memoirs, vol. iii. p. 99; and Musæ Etonenses, vol. ii. p. 152.]

ESSAY I.

Πόταγ ̓ ὦ 'γαθέ· τὴν γὰρ ἀοιδὰν

Οὔτι πα εἰς Αἴδαν γε τὸν ἐκλελάθοντα φυλαξεῖς.

Theocritus, Id. I. 63.

As sickly plants betray a niggard earth,
Whose barren bosom starves her generous birth,
Nor genial warmth, nor genial juice retains,
Their roots to feed, and fill their verdant veins :
And as in climes, where winter holds his reign,
The soil, though fertile, will not teem in vain,
Forbids her gems to swell, her shades to rise,
Nor trusts her blossoms to the churlish skies:

Var. V. 2. Barren] Flinty. MS.

*In a note to his Roman history, Gibbon says: "Instead of compiling tables of chronology and natural history, why did not Mr. Gray apply the powers of his genius to finish the philosophic poem of which he has left such an exquisite specimen?" Vol. iii. p. 248. 4to.- Would it not have been more philosophical in Gibbon to have lamented the situation in which Gray was placed; which was not only not favourable to the cultivation of poetry, but which naturally directed his thoughts to those learned inquiries, that formed the amusement or business of all around him?

5

10

So draw mankind in vain the vital airs,
Unform'd, unfriended, by those kindly cares,
That health and vigour to the soul impart, [heart:
Spread the young thought, and warm the opening
So fond instruction on the growing powers
Of nature idly lavishes her stores,
If equal justice with unclouded face
Smile not indulgent on the rising race,

And scatter with a free, though frugal hand,
Light golden showers of plenty o'er the land :
But tyranny has fix'd her empire there,

15

To check their tender hopes with chilling fear, 20 And blast the blooming promise of the year.

This spacious animated scene survey,

From where the rolling orb, that gives the day,
His sable sons with nearer course surrounds
To either pole, and life's remotest bounds,
How rude so e'er th' exterior form we find,
Howe'er opinion tinge the varied mind,
Alike to all, the kind, impartial heav'n
The sparks of truth and happiness has giv❜n:

Var. V. 19. But tyranny has] Gloomy sway have. MS.
V. 21. Blooming] Vernal. MS.

25

V. 9. "Vitales auras carpis," Virg. Æn. i. 387. Luke. V. 14. "And lavish nature laughs and throws her stores around," Dryden. Virgil, vii. 76. Luke.

V. 21. "Destroy the promise of the youthful year."

Pope. Vert. and Pomona, 108. Luke.

V. 36. "On mutual wants, build mutual happiness."

Pope. Ep. iii. 112.

V. 47. "Bellica nubes," Claudiani Laus Seren. 196.

Luke.

V. 48. So Claudian calls it, Bell. Getico, 641. "Cimbrica

30

With sense to feel, with memory to retain,
They follow pleasure, and they fly from pain;
Their judgment mends the plan their fancy draws,
The event presages, and explores the cause;
The soft returns of gratitude they know,
By fraud elude, by force repel the foe;
While mutual wishes, mutual woes endear
The social smile, the sympathetic tear.

35

40

Say then, through ages by what fate confin'd To different climes seem different souls assign'd? Here measur'd laws and philosophic ease Fix, and improve the polish'd arts of peace; There industry and gain their vigils keep, Command the winds, and tame th' unwilling deep: Here force and hardy deeds of blood prevail; There languid pleasure sighs in every gale. Oft o'er the trembling nations from afar Has Scythia breath'd the living cloud of war; And, where the deluge burst, with sweepy sway Their arms, their kings, their gods were roll'd

away.

As oft have issued, host impelling host,

The blue-eyed myriads from the Baltic coast.

45

50

tempestas." Pope. Hom. Od. 5, 303, "And next a wedge to drive with sweepy sway." See note on Bard, v. 75.

V. 50. So Thomson. Liberty, iv. 803:

“ Hence many a people, fierce with freedom, rush'd
From the rude iron regions of the North

To Libyan deserts, swarm protruding swarm."

And Winter, 840:

"Drove martial horde on horde, with dreadful sweep
Resistless rushing o'er the enfeebled South."

V. 51. So Pope. Dunciad, iii. 89:

"The North by myriads pours her mighty sons."