550. The celestial regions, to which Liberty | He er'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, And limbs yet quivering with some kindred soul, To turn the human heart. Delightful truth! Had he beheld the living chain ascend, And not a circling form, but rising whole. "Amid these small republics one arose, On yellow Tyber's bank, almighty Rome, Fated for me. A nobler spirit warm'd
PART III.
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,
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,
Each had imbib'd. Besides, to each assign'd
A guardian genius, o'er the public weal,
Kept an unclosing eye; try'd 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
Of story vow'd to Rome, on deeds intent
That truth beyond the flight of fable bore.
"Not so the Samian sage; to him belongs
The brightest witness of recording fame.
For these free states his native isle forsook,
And a vain tyrant's transitory smile,
He sought Crotona's pure salubrious air,
And through Great Greece his gentle wisdom
taught;
Wisdom that calm'd for listening years the mind,
Nor ever heard amid the storm of zeal,
His mental eye first lanch'd into the deeps
Of boundless ether; where unnumber'd orbs,
Myriads on myriads, through the pathless sky
Unerring roll, and wind their steady way.
There he the full consenting choir beheld;
There first discern'd the secret band of love,
The kind attraction, that to central suns
Binds circling earths, and world with world unites.
Instructed thence, he great ideas form'd
Of the whole-moving, all-informing God,
The Sun of beings! beaming unconfin'd
Light, life, and love, and ever-active power:
Whom nought can image, and who best approves
The silent worship of the moral heart,
That joys in bounteous Heaven, and spreads the joy.
Nor scorn'd the soaring sage to stoop to life,
And bound his reason to the sphere of man.
He gave the four yet reigning virtues name,
Inspir'd the study of the finer arts,
That civilize mankind, and laws devis'd
Where with enlighten'd justice mercy mix'd.
50
Her sons; and, rous'd by tyrants, nobler still
It burn'd in Brutus; the proud Tarquins chas'd,
With all their crimes; bade radiant eras rise,
And the long honours of the consul-line.
46
Here, from the fairer, not the greater, plan
Of Greece I vary'd; whose unmixing states,
80
By the keen soul of emulation pierc'd,
Long wag'd alone the bloodless war of arts,
And their best empire gain'd. But to diffuse
O'er men an empire was my purpose now:
To let my martial majesty abroad;
Into the vortex of one state to draw
![[blocks in formation]](https://books.google.com.mx/books/content?id=_skUAAAAYAAJ&output=html_text&pg=PA478&img=1&zoom=3&hl=en&q=%22Verum+age,+et+his,+qui+se+lectori+credere+malunt,+Quam+spectator-is+fastidia%22&cds=1&sig=ACfU3U0IP5lt_QmHSuuFGqHq9tZHGeG-7w&edge=0&edge=stretch&ci=512,642,439,164)
And, soon as her resistless legions shone,
The nations stoop'd around; though then appear'd
Her grandeur most, yet in her dawn of power,
By many a jealous equal people press'd,
Then was the toil, the mighty struggle then;
Then for each Roman I an hero told;
And every passing sun, and Latian scene,
Saw patriot virtues then, and awful deeds,
That or surpass the faith of modern times,
Or, if believ'd, with sacred horrour strike.
"For then, to prove my most exalted power,
I to the point of full perfection push'd,
To fondness or enthusiastic zeal,
110
The great, the reigning passion of the free.
That godlike passion! which, the bounds of self
Divinely bursting, the whole public takes
Into the heart, enlarg'd, and burning high
With the mix'd ardour of unnumber'd selves;
Of all who safe beneath the voted laws
Of the same parent state, fraternal, live.
From this kind sun of moral nature flow'd
Virtues, that shine the light of human kind,
And, ray'd through story, warm remotest time.
These virtues too, reflected to their source,
Increas'd its flame. The social charm went round,
The fair idea, more attractive still,
As more by virtue mark'd: till Romans, all 120
One band of friends, unconquerable grew. [voice,
"Hence, when their country rais'd her plaintive
The voice of pleading Nature was not heard;
And in their hearts the fathers throbb'd no more:
Stern to themselves, but gentle to the whole.
Hence sweeten'd pain, the luxury of toil;
Patience, that baffled Fortune's utmost rage;
High-minded Hope, which at the lowest ebb,
When Brennus conquer'd, and when Çannæ bled,
The bravest impulse felt, and scorn'd despair. 150
140
159
Hence Moderation a new conquest gain'd; As on the vanquish'd, like descending Heaven, Their dewy mercy dropp'd, their bounty beam'd, And by the labouring hand were crowns bestow'd. Fruitful of men, hence hard laborious life, Which no fatigue can quell, no season pierce. Hence, Independence, with his little pleas'd, Serene, and self-sufficient, like a god; In whom Corruption could not lodge one charm, While he his honest roots to gold preferr'd; While truly rich, and by his Sabine field, The man maintain'd, the Roman's splendour all Was in the public wealth and glory plac'd : Or ready, a rough swain, to guide the plough; Or else, the purple o'er his shoulder thrown, In long majestic flow, to rule the state, With Wisdom's purest eye; or, clad in steel, To drive the steady battle on the foe. Hence every passion, ev'n the proudest, stoop'd, To common good: Camillus, thy revenge; 150 Thy glory, Fabius. All submissive hence, Consuls, dictators, still resign'd their rule, The very moment that the laws ordain'd. Though Conquest o'er them clapp'd her eagle-wings, Her laurels wreath'd, and yok'd her snowy steeds To the triumphal car; soon as expir'd The latest hour of sway, taught to submit (A harder lesson that than to command) Into the private Roman sunk the chief. If Rome was serv'd, and glorious, careless they By whom. Their country's fame they deem'd their And, above envy, in a rival's train, [own; Sung the loud lös by themselves deserv'd. Hence matchless courage. On Cremera's bank, Hence fell the Fabii; hence the Decii dy'd; And Curtius plung'd into the flaming gulf. Hence Regulus the wavering fathers firm'd, By dreadful counsel never given before, For Roman honour sued, and his own doom. Hence he sustain'd to dare a death prepar'd By Punic rage. On earth his manly look Relentless fix'd, he from a last embrace, By chains polluted, put his wife aside, His little children climbing for a kiss ; Then dumb through rows of weeping wondering A new illustrious exile! press'd along. Nor less impatient did he pierce the crowds Opposing his return, than if, escap'd From long litigious suits, he glad forsook The noisy town a while, and city cloud, To breath Venafrian, or Tarentine air. Need I these high particulars recount? The meanest bosom felt a thirst for fame; Flight their worst death, and shame their only fear. Life had no charms, nor any terrours fate, When Rome and glory call'd. But, in one view, Mark the rare boast of these unequal'd times. Ages revolv'd unsully'd by a crime: Astrea reign'd, and scarcely needed laws To bind a race elated with the pride Of virtue, and disdaining to descend To meanness, mutual violence, and wrongs. While war around them rag'd, in happy Rome All peaceful smil'd, all save the passing clouds That often hang on Freedom's jealous brow! And fair unblemish'd centuries elaps'd, When not a Roman bled but in the field. Their virtue such, that an unbalanc'd state, Still between noble and plebeian tost,
[friends,
As flow'd the wave of fluctuating power,
Was thence kept firm, and with triumphant prow
Rode out the storms. Oft though the native feuds,
That from the first their constitution shook,
(A latent ruin, growing as it grew)
Stood on the threatening point of civil war
Ready to rush: yet could the lenient voice
Of wisdom, soothing the tumultuous soul,
Those sons of virtue calm. Their generous hearts,
Unpetrify'd by self, so naked lay,
And sensible to truth, that o'er the rage
Of giddy faction, by oppression swell'd,
Prevail'd a simple fable, and at once
To peace recover'd the divided state.
But if their often-cheated hopes refus'd
The soothing touch; still, in the love of Rome,
The dread dictator found a sure resource.
Was she assaulted? was her glory stain'd?
One common quarrel wide-inflam'd the whole.
Foes in the forum in the field were friends,
210
By social danger bound; each fond for cach, 220 And for their dearest country all, to die,
"Thus up the hill of empire slow they toil'd: Till, the bold summit gain'd, the thousand states Of proud Italia blended into one; Then o'er the nations they resistless rush'd, And touch'd the limits of the failing world.
"Let Fancy's eye the distant lines unite. See that which borders wild the western main, Where storms at large resound, and tides immense : From Caledonia's din cerulean coast, 230
And moist Hibernia, to where Atlas, lodg'd
Amid the restless clou and leaning heaven,
Hangs o'er the deep that borrows thence its name.
Mark that oppos'd, where first the springing Morn
Her roses sheds, and shakes around her dews:
From the dire deserts by the Caspian lav'd,
To where the Tigris and Euphrates, join'd,
Impetuous tear the Babylonian plain;
And blest Arabia aromatic breathes.
See that dividing far the watery north,
Parent of floods! from the majestic Rhine,
Drunk by Batavian meads, to where, seven-
mouth'd,
In Euxine waves the flashing Danube roars;
To where the frozen Tanaïs scarcely stirs
The dead Meotic pool, or the long Rha,
In the black Scythian sea his torrent throws.
Last, that beneath the burning zone behold.
See where it runs, from the deep-loaded plaias
180 Of Mauritania to the Libyan sands,
Where Ammon lifts amid the torrid waste
A verdant isle, with shade and fountain fresh;
And farther to the full Egyptian shore,
To where the Nile from Ethiopian clouds,
His never-drain'd ethereal urn, descends.
In this vast space what various tongues, and states!
What bounding rocks, and mountains, floods and
seas!
What purple tyrants quell'd, and nations freed!
"O'er Greece descended chief, with stealth
The Roman bounty in a flood of day: [divine,
As at her Isthmian games, a fading pomp! 260
Her full-assembled youth innumerous swarm'd.
On a tribunal rais'd Flaminius sat;
A victor he, from the deep phalanx pierc'd
Of iron-coated Macedon, and back
The Grecian tyrant to his bounds repell'd.
In the high thoughtless gaiety of game,
While sport alone their unambitious hearts
Possess'd; the sudden trumpet, sounding hoarse,
From many a thousand hearts ecstatic sprung.
On every hand rebellow'd to their joy
The swelling sea, the rocks, and vocal hills:
Through all her turrets stately Corinth shook;
And, from the void above of shatter'd air,
The flitting bird fell breathless to the ground. 290
What piercing bliss! how keen a sense of faine,
Did then, Flaminius, reach thy inmost soul!
And with what deep-felt glory didst thou then
Escape the fondness of transport d Greece!
Mix'd in a tempest of superior joy,
They left the sports; like Bacchanals they flew,
Each other straining in a strict embrace,
Nor strain'd a slave; and loud acclaims till night
Round the proconsul's tent repeated rung.
Then, crown'd with garlands, came the festive
Hours;
299
And music, sparkling wine, and converse warm, Their raptures wak'd anew. Ye gods!' they cry'd,
'Ye guardian gods of Greece! And are we free?
Was it not madness deem'd the very thought?
And is it true? How did we purchase chains?
At what a dire expense of kindred blood?
And are they now dissolv'd? And scarce one drop
For the fair first of blessings have we paid?
Courage, and conduct, in the doubtful field,
When rages wide the storm of mingling war,
Are rare indeed; but how to generous ends
To turn success, and conquest, rarer still:
That the great gods and Romans only know.
Lives there on Earth, almost to Greece unknown,
A people so magnanimous, to quit
Their native soil, traverse the stormy deep,
And by their blood and treasure, spent for us,
Redeem our states, our liberties, and laws!
There does! there does! oh, saviour Titus! Rome!'
Thus through the happy night they pour'd their
And in my last reflected beams rejoic'd. [sonls,
As when the shepherd, on the mountain brow,322
Sits piping to his flocks, and gamesome kids ;
Meantime the Sun, beneath the green Earth sunk,
Slants upward o'er the scene a parting gleam:
Short is the glory that the mountain gilds,
Plays on the glittering flocks, and glads the swain;
To western worlds irrevocable roll'd,
Rapid, the source of light recalls his ray."
Here interposing I." Oh, queen of men! 330 Beneath whose sceptre in essential rights Equal they live; though plac'd, for common good, Various, or in subjection, or command; And that by common choice: alas! the scene, With virtus, freedom, and with glory bright,
!
Streams into blood, and darkens into woe."
Thus she pursued.-" Near this great era, Rome
Began to feel the swift approach of fate,
That now her vitals gain'd; still more and more
Her deep divisions kindling into rage,
349
And war with chains and desolation charg'd.
From an unequal balance of her sons
These fierce contentions sprung; and, as increas'd
This hated inequality, more fierce
They flam'd to tumult. Independence fail'd;
Here by luxurious wants, by real there;
And with this virtue every virtue sunk,
As, with the sliding rock, the pile sustain'd.
A last attempt, too late, the Gracchi made,
To fix the flying scale, and poise the state.
On one side swell'd aristocratic pride;
With Usury, the villain! whose fell gripe
Bends by degrees to baseness the free soul;
And Luxury rapacious, cruel, mean,
Mother of vice! while on the other crept
A populace in want, with pleasure fir'd;
Fit for proscriptions, for the darkest deeds,
As the proud feeder bade: inconstant, blind,
Deserting friends at need, and dup'd by foes;
Loud and seditious, when a chief inspir'd
Their headlong fury, but, of him depriv'd,
Already slaves that lick'd the scourging hand.
This firm republic, that against the blast Of opposition rose; that (like an oak, Nurs'd on feracious Algidum, whose boughs Still stronger shoot beneath the rigid axe) By loss, by slaughter, from the steel itself, Ev'n force and spirit drew; smit with the calm, The dead serene of prosperous fortune, pin'd. Nought now her weighty legions could oppose ;370 Her terrour once on Afric's tawny shore, Now smok'd in dust, a stabling now for wolves; And every dreaded power receiv'd the yoke. Besides, destructive, from the conquer'd, east, In the soft plunder came that worst of plagues, That pestilence of mind, a fever'd thirst For the false joys which luxury prepares. Unworthy joys! that wasteful leave behind No mark of honour, in reflecting hour, No secret ray to glad the conscious soul; At once involving in one ruin wealth, And wealth-acquiring powers: while stupid self, Of narrow gust, and hebetating sense Devour the nobler faculties of bliss. Hence Roman virtue slacken'd into sloth; Security relax'd the softening state; And the broad eye of government lay clos'd; No more the laws inviolable reign'd, And public weal no more: but party rag'd; And partial power, and licence unrestrain'd, £90 Let discord through the deathful city loose. First, mild Tiberius, on thy sacred head The fury's vengeance fell; the first, whose blood Had since the consuls stain'd contending Rome. Of precedent pernicious! with thee bled Three hundred Romans; with thy brother, next, Three thousand more; till, into battles turn'd Debates of peace, and forc'd the trembling laws, The forum and comitia horrid grew, A sceffe of barter'd power, or reeking gore. When, half-asham'd, Corruption's thievish arts, And ruffian force began to sap the mounds And majesty of laws; if not in time Repress'd severe, for human aid too strong The torrent turns, and overbears the whole.
400
"Thus luxury, dissension, a mix'd rage
Of boundless pleasure and of boundless wealth,
Want wishing change, and waste repairing war,
Rapine for ever lost to peaceful toil,
Guilt unaton'd, profuse of blood revenge,
Corruption all avow'd, and lawless force,
Each heightening each, alternate shook the state.
Meantime.ambition, at the dazzling head
Of hardy legions, with the laurels heap'd
And spoil of nations, in one circling blast
Combin'd in various storm, and from its base
The broad republic tore. By virtue built,
It touch'd the skies, and spread o'er shelter'd Earth
An ample roof: by virtue too sustain'd,
And balane'd steady, every tempest sung
Innoxious by, or bade it firmer stand.
A rage impatient of an equal name;
Or to the nobler Cæsar, on whose brow
O'er daring vice deluding virtue smil'd,
And who no less a vain superior scorn'd.
Both bled, but bled in vain. New traitors rose,
The venal WILL be bought, the base have lords.
To these vile wars I left ambitious slaves;
And from Philippi's field, from where in dust
The last of Romans, matchless Brutus! lay,
Spread to the north untam'd a rapid wing.
411
"What though the first smooth Cæsar's arts
Merit and virtue, simulating me? [caress'd,
Severely tender! cruelly humane!
The chain to clinch, and make it softer sit
On the new-broken still ferocious state.
From the dark third, succeeding, I beheld
But when, with sudden and enormous change, 420 Th' imperial monsters all.-A race on Earth 490
Vindictive, sent the scourge of human-kind!
Whose blind profusion drain'd a bankrupt world;
Whose lust to forming Nature seems disgrace;
And whose infernal rage bade every drop
Of ancient blood, that yet retain'd my flame,
To that of Pætus, in the peaceful bath,
Or Rome's affrighted streets, inglorious flow.
But almost just the meanly-patient death,
That waits a tyrant's unprevented stroke.
430 | Titus indeed gave one short evening gleam; 500
More cordial felt, as in the midst it spread
Of storm, and horrour. The delight of men;
He who the day, when his o'erflowing hand
Had made no happy heart, concluded lost;
Trajan and he, with the mild sire and son,
His son of virtue! eas'd awhile mankind;
And arts reviv'd beneath their gentle beam.:
Then was their last effort: what sculpture rais'd
To Trajan's glory, following triumphs stole; 509
And mix'd with Gothic forms, (the chissel's shame)
On that triumphal arch, the forms of Greece.
"Meantime o'er rocky Thrace, and the deep
Of gelid Hemus, I pursued my flight; [vales
And, piercing farthest Scythia, westward swept
Sarmatia, travers'd by a thousand streams.
A sullen land of lakes, and fens immense,
Of rocks, resounding torrents, gloomy heaths,
And cruel deserts black with sounding pine;
Where Nature frowns: though sometimes into
smiles
The first of mankind sunk into the last,
As once in virtue, so in vice extreme,
This universal fabric yielded loose,
Before ambition still; and thundering down,
At last, beneath its ruins crush'd a world.
A conquering people, to themselves a prey,
Must ever fall; when their victorious troops,
In blood and rapine savage grown, can find
No land to sack and pillage but their own.
"By brutal Marius, and keen Sylla, first
Effus'd the deluge dire of civil blood,
Unceasing woes began, and this, or that,
(Deep-drenching their revenge) nor virtue spar'd,
Nor sex, nor age, nor quality, nor name,
Till Rome, into an human shambles turn'd,
Made deserts lovely.-Oh, to well-earn'd chains
Devoted race!-If no true Roman then,
No Scævola there was, to raise for Me
A vengeful hand: was there no father, robb'd
Of blooming youth to prop his wither'd age? 440
No son, a witness to his hoary sire
In dust and gore defil'd? no friend, forlorn?
No wretch that doubtful trembled for himself?
None brave, or wild, to pierce a monster's heart,
Who, heaping horrour round, no more deserv'd
The sacred shelter of the laws he spurn'd?
No. Sad o'er all profound dejection sat,
And nerveless fear. The slave's asylum theirs:
Or flight, ill-judging, that the timid back
Turns weak to slaughter; or partaken guilt.
In vain from Sylla's vanity I drew
450
An unexampled deed. The power resign'd,
And all unhop'd the common-wealth restor❜d,
Amaz'd the public, and effac'd his crimes.
Through streets yet streaming from his murderous
Unarm'd he stray'd, unguarded, unassail'd, [hand
And on the bed of peace his ashes laid:
A grace, which I to his demission gave.
But with him dy'd not the despotic soul.
Ambition saw that stooping Rome could bear 460
A master, nor had virtue to be free.
Hence, for succeeding years, my troubled reign
No certain peace, no spreading prospect, knew.
Destruction gather'd round. Still the black soul,
Or of a Cataline, or Rullus, swell'd
With fell designs; and all the watchful art
Of Cicero demanded, all the force,
470
All the state-wielding magic of his tongue;
And all the thunder of my Cato's zeal.
With these I linger'd; till the flame anew
Burst out in blaze immense, and wrapt the world.
The shameful contest sprung, to whom mankind
Should yield the neck: to Pompey, who conceal'd
VOL. XII.
She softens; and immediate, at the touch 520
Of southern gales, throws from the sudden glebe
Luxuriant pasture, and a waste of flowers.
But, cold-comprest, when the whole loaded heaven
Descends in snow, lost in one white abrupt,
Lies undistinguish'd earth; and, seiz'd by frost,
Lakes, headlong streams, and floods, and oceans
sleep,
Yet there life glows; the furry millions there,
Deep-dig their dens beneath the sheltering snows:
And there a race of men prolific swarms,
To various pain, to little pleasure us'd; 530
On whom, keen-parching beat Riphran winds;
Hard like their soil, and like their climate fierce,
The nursery of nations!-These I rous'd,
Drove land on land, on people people pour'd ;
Till from almost perpetual night they broke,
As if in search of day; and o'er the banks
Of yielding empire, only slave-sustain'd,
Resistless rag'd, in vengeance urg'd by me.
"Long in the barbarous heart the bury'd seeds Of freedom lay, for many a wintery age; 540 And though my spirit work'd, by slow degrees,
|
I i
![[ocr errors]](https://books.google.com.mx/books/content?id=_skUAAAAYAAJ&output=html_text&pg=PA482&img=1&zoom=3&hl=en&q=%22Verum+age,+et+his,+qui+se+lectori+credere+malunt,+Quam+spectator-is+fastidia%22&cds=1&sig=ACfU3U2LfKdN24zGT5oMQj4hIBF1WwKaYw&edge=0&edge=stretch&ci=79,72,6,8)
Nought but its pride and fierceness yet appear'd.
Then was the night of time, that parted worlds.
I quitted Earth the while. As when the tribes
Aerial, warn'd of rising winter, ride
Autumnal winds, to warmer climates borne ;
So, arts and each good genius in my train,
I cut the closing gloom, and soar'd to Heaven.
"In the bright regions there of purest day,
Far other scenes, and palaces, arise,
Adorn'd profuse with other arts divine.
All beauty here below, to them compar'd,
Would, like a rose before the mid-day Sun,
Shrink up its blossom; like a bubble, break
The passing poor magnificence of kings.
For there the King of Nature, in full blaze,
Calls every splendour forth; and there his court
Amid ethereal powers, and virtues, holds:
Angel, archangel, tutelary gods,
Of cities, nations, empires, and of worlds.
But sacred be the veil, that kindly clouds
A light too keen for mortals: wraps a view
Too softening fair, for those that here in dust
Must cheerful toil out their appointed years.
A sense of higher life would only damp
The school-boy's task, and spoil his playful hours.
Nor could the child of reason, feeble man,
With vigour through this infant being drudge;
Did brighter worlds, their unimagin'd bliss
Disclosing, dazzle and dissolve his mind."
NOTES ON PART III.
Ver. 7. The last struggles of liberty in Greece.
Ver. 15. A promontory in Calabria.
Ver. 32. Pythagoras.
Ver. 34. Samos, over which then reigned the tyrant Polycrates.
Ver. 37. The southern parts of Italy, and Sicily, so called because of the Grecian colonies there settled.
Ver. 38. His scholars were enjoined silence for five years.
Ver. 57. The four cardinal virtues.
Ver. 244. The ancient name of the Volga.
Ver. 245. The Caspian sea.
BRITAIN:
BEING THE FOURTH PART OF
LIBERTY,
A POEM.
THE CONTENTS OF PART IV.
DIFFERENCE betwixt the ancients and modern slightly touched upon, to ver. 30. Description of the dark ages. The goddess of Liberty, who during these is supposed to have left Earth, returns, attended with Arts and Science, to ver. 100. She first descends on Italy. Sculpture, Painting, and Architecture fix at Rome, to revive their several arts by the great models of antiquity there, which many barbarous invasions had not been able to destroy. The revival of these arts marked out. That sometimes arts may flourish for a while under despotic governments, though never the natural and genuine production of them, to ver. 254. Learning begins to dawn. The Muse and Science attend Liberty, who in her progress towards Great Britain raises several free states and cities. These enumerated, to ver. 381. Author's exclamation of joy, upon seeing the British seas and coasts rise in the vision, which painted whatever the goddess of Liberty said. She resumes her narration. The Genius of the Deep appears, and, addressing Liberty, associates Great Britain into his domi nion, to ver. 451. Liberty received and congratulated by Britannia, and the native Genii or Virtues of the island. These described. Animated by the presence of Liberty, they begin their operations. Their beneficent influence contrasted with the works and delusions of opposing demons, to ver. 626. Concludes with an abstract of the English history, marking the several advances of Liberty, down to her complete establishment at the Revolution.
LIBERTY.
PART IV.
STRUCK with the rising scene, thus I amaz'd:
"Ah, goddess, what a change! Is Earth the same?
Of the same kind the ruthless race she feeds?
And does the same fair Sun and ether spread
Round this vile spot their all-enlivening soul?
Lo! beauty fails; lost in unlovely forms
Of little pomp, magnificence no more
Exalts the mind, and bids the public smile:
While to rapacious interest glory leaves
Mankind, and every grace of life is gone."
10
[depth
To this the power, whose vital radiance calls From the brute mass of man an order'd world: "Wait till the morning shines, and from the Of Gothic darkness springs another day. True genius droops; the tender ancient taste Of beauty, then fresh-blooming in her prime, But faintly trembles through the callous soul, And grandeur, or of morals, or of life, Sinks into safe pursuits, and creeping cares. Ev'n cautious virtue seems to stoop her flight, 20 And aged life to deem the generous deeds Of youth romantic. Yet in cooler thought Well-reason'd, in researches piercing deep Through Nature's works, in profitable arts, And all that calm experience can diselose, (Slow guide, but sure) behold the world anew
![[ocr errors]](https://books.google.com.mx/books/content?id=_skUAAAAYAAJ&output=html_text&pg=PA482&img=1&zoom=3&hl=en&q=%22Verum+age,+et+his,+qui+se+lectori+credere+malunt,+Quam+spectator-is+fastidia%22&cds=1&sig=ACfU3U2LfKdN24zGT5oMQj4hIBF1WwKaYw&edge=0&edge=stretch&ci=985,367,14,20)
|