them, in point of force and bravery, over the Per- But when mysterious Superstition came, sians, exemplified by the action of Thermopyla, And, with her civil sister* leagu'd, involv'd the battle of Marathon, and the retreat of the ten In studied darkness the desponding mind; thousand. Its full exertion, and most beautiful Then tyrant Power the righteous scourge unloos'd: effects, in Athens. Liberty the source of free For yielded reason speaks the soul a slave. philosophy. The various schools which took their Instead of useful works, like Nature's, great, rise from Socrates. Enumeration of fine arts: Enormous, cruel wonders crush'd the land; eloquence, poetry, music, sculpture, painting, and And round a tyrant's tomb,† who none deserv'd, architecture; the effects of Liberty in Greece, For one vile carcass perish'd countless lives. and brought to their utmost perfection there. Transition to the modern state of Greece. Why Liberty declined, and was at last entirely lost among the Greeks. Concluding reflection.
THUS spoke the goddess of the fearless eye;
And at her voice, renew'd, the vision rose.
"First in the dawn of time, with eastern swains,
In woods, and tents, and cottages, I liv'd;
While on from plain to plain they led their flocks,
In search of clearer spring, and fresher field.
These, as increasing families disclos'd
The tender state, I taught an equal sway.
Few were offences, properties, and laws.
Beneath the rural portal, palm o'erspread,
The father-senate met. There Justice dealt,
With reason then and equity the same,
Free as the common air, her prompt decree;
Nor yet had stain'd her sword with subject's blood.
The simpler arts were all their simple wants
Had urg'd to light. But instant, these supplied,
Another set of fonder wants arose,
And other arts with them of finer aim;
Till, from refining want to want impell'd,
The mind by thinking push'd her latent powers,
And life began to glow, and arts to shine.
"At first, on brutes alone the rustic war
Lanch'd the rude spear; swift, as he glar'd along,
On the grim lion, or the robber-wolf.
For then young sportive life was void of toil,
Demanding little, and with little pleas'd:
But when to manhood grown, and endless joys,
Led on by equal toils, the bosom fir'd;
Lewd lazy Rapine broke primeval peace,
And, hid in caves and idle forests drear,
From the lone pilgrim and the wandering swain,
Seiz'd what he durst not earn. Then brother's blood
First, horrid, smok'd on the polluted skies.
Awful in justice, then the burning youth,
Led by their temper'd sires, on lawless men,
The last, worst monsters of the shaggy wood,
Turn'd the keen arrow, and the sharpen'd spear.
Then war grew glorious. Heroes then arose;
Who, scorning coward self, for others liv'd,
Toil'd for their ease, and for their safety bled.
West with the living day to Greece I came :
Earth smil'd beneath my beam: the Muse before
Sonorous flew, that low till then in woods
Then the great Dragon, couch'd amid his floods,
Swell'd his fierce heart, and cried- This flood is
mine;
"Tis I that bid it flow.-But, undeceiv'd,
His frenzy soon the proud blasphemer felt;
Felt that, without my fertilizing power,
Suns lost their force, and Niles o'erflow'd in vain.
Nought could retard me: nor the frugal state
Of rising Persia, sober in extreme,
Beyond the pitch of man, and thence revers'd
Into luxurious waste; nor yet the ports
Of old Phoenicia; first for letters fam'd,
That paint the voice, and silent speak to sight,
Of arts prime source, and guardian! by fair stars,
First tempted out into the lonely deep;
To whom I first disclos'd mechanic arts,
The winds to conquer, to subdue the waves,
With all the peaceful power of ruling trade;
Earnest of Britain. Nor by these retain'd;
Nor by the neighboring land, whose palmy shore
The silver Jordan laves. Before me lay
The promis'd land of arts, and urg'd my flight.
"Hail, Nature's utmost boast! unrival'd Greece!
My fairest reign! where every power benign
Conspir'd to blow the flower of human-kind,
And lavish'd all that genius can inspire.
Clear sunny climates, by the breezy main,
Iönian or Egean, temper'd kind.
Light, airy soils. A country rich, and gay;
Broke into hills with balmy odors crown'd,
And, bright with purple harvest joyous vales.
Mountains and streams, where verse spontaneous
flow'd:
Whence deem'd by wondering men the seat of gods
And still the mountains and the streams of song.
All that boon Nature could luxuriant pour
Of high materials, and my restless arts
Frame into finish'd life. How many states,
And clustering towns, and monuments of fame,
And scenes of glorious deeds, in little bounds!
From the rough tract of bending mountains, beat
By Adria's here, there by Egean.waves;
To where the deep-adorning Cyclade Isles
In shining prospect rise, and on the shore
Of farthest Crete resounds the Libyan main.
"O'er all two rival cities rear'd the brow,
And balanc'd all. Spread on Eurota's bank,
Amid a circle of soft-rising hills,
Had tun'd the reed, and sigh'd the shepherd's pain; The patient Sparta one: the sober, hard,
But now, to sing heroic deeds, she swell'd
A nobler note, and bade the banquet burn.
For Greece, my sons of Egypt I forsook :
A boastful race, that in the vain abyss
Of fabling ages lov'd to lose their source,
And with their river trac'd it from the skies.
While there my laws alone despotic reign'd,
And king, as well as people, proud obey'd:
I taught them science, virtue, wisdom, arts;
By poets, sages, legislators sought:
The school of polish'd life, and human-kind.
And man-subduing city; which no shape
Of pain could conquer, nor of pleasure charm.
Lycurgus there built, on the solid base
Of equal life, so well a temper'd state;
Where mix'd each government, in such just poise.
Each power so checking, and supporting, each;
That firm for ages, and unmov'd, it stood,
The fort of Greece! without one giddy hour, One shock of faction, or of party-rage.
For, drain'd the springs of wealth, corruption there
Lay wither'd at the root. Thrice-happy land!
Had not neglected art, with weedy vice
Confounded, sunk. But if Athenian arts
Lov'd not the soil; yet there the calm abode
Of wisdom, virtue, philosophic ease,
Of manly sense and wit, in frugal phrase
Confin'd, and press'd into laconic force.
There, too, by rooting thence still treacherous self,
The public and the private grew the same.
The children of the nursing public hall,
And at its table fed, for that they toil'd,
For that they liv'd entire, and ev'n for that
The tender mother urg'd her son to die.
"Of softer genius, but not less intent
To seize the palm of empire, Athens rose:
Where, with bright marbles big and future pomp,
Hymettus spread, amid the scented sky,
His thymy treasures to the laboring bee,
And to botanic hand the stores of health:
Wrapt in a soul-attenuating clime,
Between lissus and Cephissust glow'd
This hive of science, shedding sweets divine,
Of active arts, and animated arms.
There, passionate for me, an easy-mov'd,
A quick, refin'd, a delicate, humane,
Enlighten'd people reign'd. Oft on the brink
Of ruin, hurried by the charm of speech,
Enforcing hasty counsel immature,
Totter'd the rash democracy; unpois'd,
And by the rage devour'd, that ever tears
A populace unequal; part too rich,
And part or fierce with want, or abject grown.
Solon, at last, their mild restorer, rose:
Allay'd the tempest; to the calm of laws
Reduc'd the settling whole; and, with the weight
Which the two senates to the public lent,
As with an anchor fix'd the driving state.
"Nor was my forming care to these confin'd.
For emulation through the whole I pour'd,
Noble contention! who should most excel
In government well-pois'd, adjusted best
To public weal: in countries cultur'd high:
In ornamented towns, where order reigns,
Free social life, and polish'd manners fair:
In exercise, and arms; arms only drawn
For common Greece, to quell the Persian pride:
In moral science, and in graceful arts.
Hence, as for glory peacefully they strove,
The prize grew greater, and the prize of all.
By contest brighten'd, hence the radiant youth
Pour'd every beam; by generous pride inflam'd,
Felt every ardor burn: their great reward
The verdant wreath, which sounding Pisas gave.
"Hence flourish'd Greece; and hence a race of
As gods by conscious future times ador'd:
*A mountain near Athens.
Two rivers, betwixt which Athens was situated.
The Areopagus, or supreme court of judicature, which Solon reformed and improved; and the council of four hundred, by him instituted. In this council all affairs of state were deliberated, before they came to be voted in the assembly of the people.
§ Or Olympia, the city where the Olympic games were celebrated.
In whom each virtue wore a smiling air,
Each science shed o'er life a friendly light,
Each art was nature. Spartan valor hence,
At the fam'd pass,* firm as an isthinus stood;
And the whole eastern ocean, waving far
As eye could dart its vision, nobly check'd,
While in extended battle, at the field
Of Marathon, my keen Athenians drove
Before their ardent band, an host of slaves.
Hence through the continent ten thousand
Greeks
Urg'd a retreat, whose glory not the prime
Of victories can reach. Deserts, in vain,
Oppos'd their course; and hostile lands, unknown;
And deep rapacious floods, dire-bank'd with death;
And mountains, in whose jaws destruction grinn'd,
Hunger, and toil; Armenian snows, and storms;
And circling myriads still of barbarous foes.
Greece in their view, and glory yet untouch'd,
Their steady column pierc'd the scattering herds,
Which a whole empire pour'd; and held its way
Triumphant, by the sage-exalted chieft
Fir'd and sustain'd. Oh, light and force of mind,
Almost almighty in severe extremes !
The sea at last from Colchian mountains seen, Kind-hearted transport round their captains threw The soldiers' fond embrace; o'erflow'd their eyes With tender floods, and loos'd the general voice, To cries resounding loud- The sea! the sea!'
"In Attic bounds hence heroes, sages, wits, Shone thick as stars, the milky-way of Greece! And though gay wit and pleasing grace was theirs,
All the soft modes of elegance and ease;
Yet was not courage less, the patient touch
Of toiling art, and disquisition deep.
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My spirit pours a vigor through the soul,
Th' unfetter'd thought with energy inspires,
Invincible in arts, in the bright field
Of nobler science, as in that of arms.
Athenians thus not less intrepid burst
The bonds of tyrant darkness, than they spurn
The Persian chains: while through the city, full
Of mirthful quarrel, and of witty war,
Incessant struggled taste refining taste,
And friendly free discussion, calling forth
From the fair jewel truth its latent ray.
O'er all shone out the great Athenian sage,
And father of philosophy: the sun,
From whose white blaze emerg'd, each various sect
Took various tints, but with diminish'd beam.
Tutor of Athens! he, in every street,
Dealt priceless treasure! goodness his delight,
Wisdom his wealth, and glory his reward.
Deep through the human heart, with playful art,
His simple question stole: as into truth,
And serious deeds, he smil'd the laughing race;
Taught moral, happy life, whate'er can bless,
Or grace mankind; and what he taught he was.
Compounded high, though plain, his doctrine broke
In different schools. The bold poetic phrase
Of figur'd Plato; Xenophon's pure strain,
Like the clear brook that steals along the vale;
Dissecting truth, the Stagyrite's keen eye;
Th' exalted Stoic pride; the Cynic sneer;
The slow-consenting Academic doubt;
And, joining bliss to virtue, the glad ease
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Of Epicurus, seldom understood.
They, ever candid, reason still oppos'd
To reason; and, since virtue was their aim,
Each by sure practice tried to prove his way
The best. Then stood untouch'd the solid base
Of Liberty, the liberty of mind:
For systems yet, and soul-enslaving creeds,
Slept with the monsters of succeeding times.
From priestly darkness sprung th' enlightening arts
Of fire, and sword, and rage, and horrid names.
"O, Greece! thou sapient nurse of finer arts!
Which to bright science blooming fancy bore,
Be this thy praise, that thou, and thou alone,
In these hast led the way, in these excell'd,
Crown'd with the laurel of assenting time.
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In thy full language, speaking mighty things;
Like a clear torrent close, or else diffus'd
A broad majestic stream, and rolling on
Through all the winding harmony of sound:
In it the power of eloquence, at large,
Breath'd the persuasive or pathetic soul;
Still'd by degrees the democratic storm,
Or bade it threatening rise, and tyrants shook,
Flush'd at the head of their victorious troops.
In it the Muse, her fury never quench d,
By mean unyielding phrase, or jarring sound,
Her unconfin'd divinity display'd;
And, still harmonious, form'd it to her will:
Or soft depress'd it to the shepherd's moan,
Or rais'd it swelling to the tongue of gods.
"Heroic song was thine; the fountain-bard,*
Whence each poetic stream derives its course.
Thine the dread moral scene, thy chief delight!
Where idle Fancy durst not mix her voice,
When Reason spoke august; the fervent heart
Or plain'd, or storm'd; and in th' impassion'd man,
Concealing art with art, the poet sunk.
This potent school of manners, (but when left
To loose neglect, a land-corrupting plague,)
Was not unworthy deem'd of public care,
And boundless cost, by thee; whose every son,
Ev'n last mechanic, the true taste possess'd
Of what had flavor to the nourish'd soul.
"The sweet enforce of the poetic strain,
Thine was the meaning music of the heart.
Not the vain trill, that, void of passion, runs
In giddy mazes, tickling idle ears;
But that deep-searching voice, and artful hand,
To which respondent shakes the varied soul.
Thy fair ideas, thy delightful forms,
By Love imagin'd, by the Graces touch'd,
In tresses, braided gay, the marble wav'd;
Flow'd in loose robes, or thin transparent veils;
Sprung into motion; soften'd into flesh;
Was fir'd to passion, or refin'd to soul.
"Nor less thy pencil, with creative touch,
Shed mimic life, when all thy brightest dame
Assembled, Zeuxis in his Helen mix'd.
And when Apelles, who peculiar knew
To give a grace that more than mortal smil'd,
The soul of beauty! call'd the queen of Love,
Fresh from the billows, blushing orient charms.
Ev'n such enchantment then thy pencil pour'd,
That cruel-thoughted War th' impatient torch
Dash'd to the ground; and, rather than destroy
The patriot picture, let the city 'scape.t
First elder Sculpture taught her sister Art
Correct design; where great ideas shone,
And in the secret trace expression spoke :
Taught her the graceful attitude; the turn,
And beauteous airs of head; the native act,
Or bold, or easy; and, cast free behind,
The swelling mantle's well-adjusted flow.
Then the bright Muse, their elder sister, came;
And bade her follow where she led the way:
Bade earth, and sea, and air, in colors rise;
And copious action on the canvas glow:
Gave her gay fable; spread invention's store;
Enlarg'd her view; taught composition high,
And just arrangement, circling round one point,
That starts to sight, binds and commands the whole
Caught from the heavenly Muse a nobler aim,
And, scorning the soft trade of mere delight,
O'er all thy temples, porticoes, and schools,
Heroic deeds she trac'd, and warm display'd
Each moral beauty to the ravish'd eye.
There, as th' imagin'd presence of the god
Arous'd the mind, or vacant hours induc'd
Calm contemplation, or assembled youth
Burn'd in ambitious circle round the sage,
The living lesson stole into the heart,
With more prevailing force than dwells in words.
These rouse to glory; while, to rural life,
The softer canvas oft repos'd the soul.
There gaily broke the sun-illumin'd cloud;
The lessening prospect, and the mountain blue,
Vanish'd in air; the precipice frown'd, dire;
White, down the rock the rushing torrent dash'd
The Sun shone, trembling, o'er the distant main;
The tempest foam'd, immense; the driving storm
Sadden'd the skies, and, from the doubling gloom,
On the scath'd oak the ragged lightning fell;
The boast of well-pleas'd Nature! Sculpture seiz'd, In closing shades, and where the current strays,
And bade them ever smile in Parian stone.
Selecting beauty's choice, and that again
Exalting, blending in a perfect whole,
Thy workmen left ev'n Nature's self behind.
From those far different, whose prolific hand
Peoples a nation; they, for years on years,
By the cool touches of judicious toil,
Their rapid genius curbing, pour'd it all
Through the live features of one breathing stone.
There, beaming full, it shone, expressing gods:
Jove's awful brow, Apollo's air divine,
The fierce atrocious frown of sinew'd Mars,
Or the sly graces of the Cyprian queen.
Minutely perfect all! Each dimple sunk,
And every muscle swell'd, as Nature taught.
With peace, and love, and innocence around,
Pip'd the lone shepherd to his feeding flock:
Round happy parents smil'd their younger selves;
And friends convers'd, by death divided long.
"To public Virtue thus the smiling Arts,
Unblemish'd handmaids, serv'd! the Graces they
To dress this fairest Venus. Thus rever'd,
And plac'd beyond the reach of sordid care,
The high awarders of immortal fame,
Alone for glory thy great masters strove;
† When Demetrius besieged Rhodes, and could have reduced the city, by setting fire to that quarter of it where stood the house of the celebrated Protogenes, he chose rather to raise the siege, than hazard the burning of a famous picture called Jalysus, the masterpiece of that painter.
Courted by kings, and by contending states Assum'd the boasted honor of their birth.
"In Architecture, too, thy rank supreme!
That art where most magnificent appears
The little builder man; by thee refin'd,
And, smiling hig.1, to full perfection brought.
Such thy sure rules, that Goths of every age,
Who scorn'd their aid, have only loaded Earth
With labor'd heavy monuments of shame.
Not those gay domes that o'er thy splendid shore
Shot, all proportion, up. First unadorn'd,
And nobly plain, the manly Doric rose;
Th' Ionic then, with decent matron grace,
Her airy pillar heav'd; luxuriant last,
The rich Corinthian spread her wanton wreath.
The whole so measur'd true, so lessen'd off
By fine proportion, that the marble pile,
Form'd to repel the still or stormy waste
Of rolling ages, light as fabrics look'd
That from the magic wand aërial rise.
"These were the wonders that illumin'd Greece, From end to end."-Here interrupting warm, "Where are they now?" I cried, "say, goddess,
And what the land thy darling thus of old?"
Sunk!" she resum'd: "deep in the kindred gloom
Of superstition, and of slavery, sunk!
No glory now can touch their hearts, benumb'd
By loose dejected sloth and servile fear;
No science pierce the darkness of their minds;
No nobler art the quick ambitious soul
Of imitation in their breast awake.
Ev'n, to supply the needful arts of life,
Mechanic toil denies the hopeless hand.
Scarce any trace remaining, vestige grey,
Or nodding column on the desert shore,
To point where Corinth or where Athens stood.
A faithless land of violence, and death!
Where Commerce parleys, dubious, on the shore;
And his wild impulse curious search restrains,
Afraid to trust th' inhospitable clime.
Neglected Nature fails; in sordid want
Sunk, and debas'd, their beauty beams no more.
The Sun himself seems angry, to regard,
Of light unworthy, the degenerate race;
And fires them oft with pestilential rays:
While Earth, blue poison steaming on the skies,
Indignant, shakes them from her troubled sides.
But as from man to man, Fate's first decree,
Impartial Death the tide of riches rolls,
So states must die, and Liberty go round.
"Fierce was the stand, ere virtue, valor, arts,
And the soul fir'd by me (that often, stung
With thoughts of better times and old renown,
From hydra-tyrants tried to clear the land)
Lay quite extinct in Greece, their works effac'd,
And gross o'er all unfeeling bondage spread.
Sooner I mov'd my much-reluctant flight,
When Xerxes pour'd his millions o'er the land,
Sparta, by turns, and Athens, vilely sued;
Sued to be venal parricides, to spill
Their country's bravest blood, and on themselves
To turn their matchless mercenary arms.
Peaceful in Susa, then, sate the great king;*
And by the trick of treaties, the still waste
Of sly corruption, and barbaric gold,
Effected what his steel could ne'er perform.
Profuse he gave them the luxurious draught,
Inflaming all the land: unbalanc'd wide
Their tottering states; their wild assemblies rul'd
As the winds turn at every blast the seas:
And by their listed orators, whose breath
Still with a factious storm infested Greece,
Rous'd them to civil war, or dash'd them down
To sordid peace.t-Peace! that, when Sparta
Astonish'd Artaxerxes on his throne,
Gave up, fair-spread o'er Asia's sunny shore,
Their kindred cities, to perpetual chains.
What could so base, so infamous a thought,
In Spartan hearts inspire? Jealous, they saw
Respiring Athens rear again her walls;
And the pale fury fir'd them, once again
To crush this rival city to the dust.
For now no more the noble social soul
Of Liberty my families combin'd;
But by short views, and selfish passions, broke,
Dire as when friends are rankled into foes,
They mix'd severe, and wag'd eternal war;
Nor felt they, furious, their exhausted force;
Nor, with false glory, discord, madness blind,
Saw how the blackening storm from Thracia came.
Long years roll'd on, by many a battle stain'd,
The blush and boast of Fame! where courage, art,
And military glory, shone supreme:
But let detesting ages, from the scene
Of Greece self-mangled, turn the sickening eye.
At last, when bleeding from a thousand wounds,
She felt her spirits fail; and in the dust
Her latest heroes, Nicias, Conon, lay,
Agesilaus, and the Theban Friends :||
The Macedonian vulture mark'd his time,
By the dire scent of Charonea lur'd,¶
And, fierce-descending, seiz'd his hapless prey.
"Thus tame submitted to the victor's yoke
Greece, once the gay, the turbulent, the bold;
For every Grace, and Muse, and Science born;
With arts of war, of government, elate;
To tyrants dreadful, dreadful to the best;
Whom I myself could scarcely rule: and thus
The Persian fetters, that enthrall'd the mind,
Were turn'd to formal and apparent chains.
Unless Corruption first deject the pride,
*So the kings of Persia were called by the Greeks. †The peace made by Antalcidas, the Lacedæmonian
Pois'd on the doubtful wing: when Greece with admiral, with the Persians; by which the Lacedæmoni
Embroil'd in foul contention fought no more
For common glory, and for common weal:
But, false to freedom, sought to quell the free;
Broke the firm band of peace, and sacred love
That lent the whole irrefragable force;
And, as around the partial trophy blush'd,
Prepar'd the way for total overthrow.
ans abandoned all the Greeks established in the Lesser Asia to the dominion of the king of Persia.
↑ Athens had been dismantled by the Lacedæmonians, at the end of the first Peloponnesian war, and was at this time restored by Conon to its former splendor § The Peloponnesian war. Pelopidas and Epaminondas.
The battle of Charonea, in which Philip of Mace
Then to the Persian power, whose pride they scorn'd, don utterly defeated the Greeks.
And guardian vigor of the free-born soul,
All crude attempts of violence are vain;
For, firm within, and while at heart untouch'd,
Ne'er yet by force was Freedom overcome.
But soon as Independence stoops the head,
To vice enslav'd, and vice-created wants;
Then to some foul corrupting hand, whose waste
These heighten'd wants with fatal bounty feeds:
From man to man the slackening ruin runs,
Till the whole state unnerv'd in slavery sinks."
The Contents of Part III.
And the Ceraunian hills behind me thrown,
All Latium stood arous'd. Ages before,
Great mother of republics! Greece had pour'd.
Swarm after swarm, her ardent youth around.
On Asia, Afric, Sicily, they stoop'd,
But chief on fair Hesperia's winding shore;
Where, from Lacinium* to Etrurian vales,
They roll'd increasing colonies along,
And lent materials for my Roman reign.
With them my spirit spread; and numerous states
And cities rose, on Grecian models form'd;
As its parental policy, and arts,
Nor ever heard amid the storm of zeal.
Each had imbib'd. Besides, to each assign'd A guardian genius, o'er the public weal, Kept an unclosing eye; tried to sustain, Or more sublime, the soul infus'd by me: And strong the battle rose, with various wave, Against the tyrant demons of the land. Thus they their little wars and triumphs knew; Their flows of fortune, and receding times, But almost all below the proud regard As this part contains a description of the establish- Of story vow'd to Rome, on deeds intent ment of Liberty in Rome, it begins with a view That truth beyond the flight of fable bore. of the Grecian colonies settled in the southern "Not so the Samian sage;† to him belongs parts of Italy, which with Sicily constituted the The brightest witness of recording fame. Great Greece of the ancients. With these colo- For these free states his native islet forsook, nies the spirit of Liberty, and of republics, And a vain tyrant's transitory smile; spreads over Italy. Transition to Pythagoras and He sought Crotona's pure salubrious air, his philosophy, which he taught through those And through Great Greece his gentle wisdom taugin free states and cities. Amidst the many small Wisdom that calm'd for listening years the mind, republics in Italy, Rome the destined seat of Liberty. Her establishment there dated from His mental eye first lanch'd into the deeps the expulsion of the Tarquins. How differing of boundless ether; where unnumber'd orbs, from that in Greece. Reference to a view of the Myriads on myriads, through the pathless sky Roman republic given in the first part of this Unerring roll, and wind their steady way. There he the full consenting choir beheld; poem: to mark its rise and fall, the peculiar purport of this. During its first ages, the greatest The kind attraction, that to central suns There first discern'd the secret band of love, force of Liberty and virtue exerted. The source whence derived the heroic virtues of the Ro- Binds circling earths, and world with world unites. mans. Enumeration of these virtues. Thence Instructed thence, he great ideas form'd their security at home: their glory, success, and of the whole-moving, all-informing God, The Sun of beings! beaming unconfin'd empire, abroad. Bounds of the Roman empire, geographically described. The states of Greece Light, life, and love, and ever-active power: restored to Liberty by Titus Quintus Flaminius, Whom nought can image, and who best approves the highest instance of public generosity and be- The silent worship of the moral heart, neficence. The loss of Liberty in Rome. That joys in bounteous Heaven, and spreads the joy causes, progress, and completion in the death of Nor scorn'd the soaring sage to stoop to life, Brutus. Rome under the emperors. From Rome, And bound his reason to the sphere of man. the goddess of Liberty goes among the Northern He gave the four yet reigning virtues¶ name; nations; where, by infusing into them her spirit Inspir'd the study of the finer arts, and general principles, she lays the groundwork That civilize mankind, and laws devis'd Where with enlighten'd justice mercy mix'd. Whatever shares the brotherhood of life: He ev'n, into his tender system, took He taught, that life's indissoluble flame, From brute to man, and man to brute again, For ever shifting, runs th' eternal round; Thence tried against the blood-polluted meal, And limbs yet quivering with some kindred soul, To turn the human heart. Delightful truth!
of her future establishments: sends them in ven
geance on the Roman empire, now totally enslaved; and then, with arts and sciences in her train, quits Earth during the dark ages. The celestial regions, to which Liberty retired, not proper to be opened to the view of mortals.
HERE melting mix'd with air th' ideal forms,
That painted still whate'er the goddess sung.
Then I, impatient: "From extinguish'd Greece,
To what new region stream'd the human day?"
She softly sighing, as when Zephyr leaves,
Resign'd to Boreas, the declining year,
Resum'd; "Indignant, these last scenes I fled ;*
And long ere then, Leucadia's cloudy cliff,
The last struggles of liberty in Greece.
* A promontory in Calabria.
↑ Pythagoras.
Samos, over which then reigned the tyrant Polycrates § The southern parts of Italy, and Sicily, so called because of the Grecian colonies there settled.
His scholars were enjoined silence for five years.
The four cardinal virtues.
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