Their own, like others, foon their place refign'd,
Or disappear'd, and left the first behind.
Nor was the work impair'd by ftorms alone,
But felt th' approaches of too warm a fun;
For Fame, impatient of extremes, decays
Not more by envy than excess of Praise.

40

Yet part no injuries of heav'n could feel,

45

Like cryftal faithful to the graving steel:

The rock's high fummit, in the temple's fhade,
Nor heat could melt, nor beating storm invade.

IMITATIONS.

VER. 41. Nor was the work impair'd, etc.]
Tho gan I in myne harte caft,

That they were molte away for hate,
And not away with ftormes beate.

VER. 45. Yet part no injuries, etc.]
For on that other fide I fey

Of that hill which northward ley,
How it was written full of names
Of folke, that had afore great fames,
Of old time, and yet they were

As fresh as men had written hem there

The felf day, or that houre

That I on hem gan to poure:
But well I wifte what it made;
It was conferved with the fhade
(All the writing that I fye)
Of the caftle that stoode on high,
And ftood eke in fo cold a place,
That heate might it not deface. P.

Their names infcrib'd unnumber'd ages past
From time's first birth, with time itself fhall laft; 50
Thefe ever new, nor fubject to decays,

Spread, and grow brighter with the length of days.
So Zembla's rocks (the beauteous work of froft)
Rise white in air, and glitter o'er the coast!
Pale funs, unfelt, at distance roll away,
And on th' impaffive ice the light'nings play;
Eternal fnows the growing mass supply,

Till the bright mountains prop th' incumbent sky;
As Atlas fix'd, each hoary pile appears,
The gather'd winter of a thousand years,
On this foundation Fame's high temple ftands;
Stupendous pile! not rear'd by mortal hands.
Whate'er proud Rome or artful Greece beheld,
Or elder Babylon its frame excell'd.

Four faces had the dome, and ev'ry face
Of various ftructure, but of equal grace:
Four brazen gates, on columns lifted high,
Salute the diff'rent quarters of the sky.

NOTES.

55

60

65

VER. 65. Four faces had the dome, etc.] 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 facred to Heroes and Worthies, Those whofe ftatues are after mentioned, were the first names of old Greece in arms and arts. P.

Here fabled Chiefs in darker ages born,

Or Worthies old, whom arms or arts adorn,
Who cities rais'd, or tam'd a monftrous race;
The walls in venerable order grace :

Heroes in animated marble frown,

And Legiflators feem to think in ftone.

70

80

Weftward, a fumptuous frontifpiece appear'd 75 On Doric pillars of white marble rear'd, Crown'd with an architrave of antique mold, And sculpture rifing on the roughen'd gold. In fhaggy spoils here Thefeus was beheld, And Perfeus dreadful with Minerva's fhield: There great Alcides ftooping with his toil, Refts on his club, and holds th'Hefperian spoil: Here Orpheus fings; trees moving to the found Start from their roots, and form a fhade around: Amphion there the loud creating lyre Strikes, and beholds a fudden Thebes afpire! Cythæron's echoes answer to his call,

And half the mountain rolls into a wall:

85

There might you fee the length'ning spires afcend, The domes fwell up, the wid'ning arches bend, 90 The growing tow'rs, like exhalations rife,

And the huge columns heave into the skies.

NOTES.

VER. 81. There great Alcides, etc.] This figure of Hercules is drawn with an eye to the pofition of the famous ftatue of Farnefe, P.

The Eaftern front was glorious to behold, With diamond flaming, and Barbaric gold.

There Ninus fhone, who fpread th' Affyrian fame, 95
And the great founder of the Perfian name:
There in long robes the royal Magi fland,
Grave Zoroafter waves the circling wand;
The fage Chaldæans rob'd in white appear'd,
And Brachmans, deep in defert woods rever'd. 10d
These stop'd the moon, and call'd th’unbody'd frades
To midnight banquets in the glimm'ring glades;
Made vifionary fabricks round them rife,
And airy spectres fkim before their eyes;
Of Talismans and Sigils knew the pow'r,
And careful watch'd the Planetary hour.
Superior and alone, Confucius ftood,
Who taught that ufeful fçience, to be good.
But on the South, a long majestic race
Of Ægypt's Priests the gilded niches grace,

NOTES.

105

VER. 96. And the great founder of the Perfian name:] Cyrus was the beginning of the Perfian, as Ninus was of the Affyrian Monarchy. The Magi and Chaldæans (the chief of whom was Zoroafter) employed their ftudies upcn magic and aftrology, which was in a manner almost all the learning of the ancient Afian people. We have fcarce any account of a moral philofopher except Confucius, the great law-giver of the Chinese, who lived about two thousand years ago. P.

VER. 110. Egypt's priefs, etc.] The learning cf the old Ægyptian Priefts confifted for the moft part in geometry and VOL. II.

D

Who meafur'd earth, defcrib'd the starry spheres,
And trac'd the long records of lunar years.
High on his car Sesoftris ftruck my view,
Whom scepter'd flaves in golden harness drew:
His hands a bow and pointed jav'lin hold;
His giant limbs are arm'd in scales of gold.
Between the ftatues Obelisks were plac'd,
'And the learn'd walls with Hieroglyphics grac❜d.
Of Gothic ftructure was the Northern fide,

115

O'er wrought with ornaments of barb'rous pride. 120 There huge Coloffes rofe, with trophies crown'd, And Runic characters were grav'd around.

NOTES.

aftronomy: they also preserved the History of their nation, Their greateft Hero upon record is Sefoftris, whofe actions and conquefts may be feen at large in Diodorus, etc. He is faid to have caufed the Kings he vanquished to draw him in his Chariot. The pofture of his ftatue, in these verses, is correfpondent to the defcription which Herodotus gives of one of them remaining in his own time,

P.

VER. 119. Of Gothic ftructure was the Northern fide,] The Architecture is agreeable to that part of the world. The learning of the northern nations lay more obfcure than that of the reft; Zamolxis was the difciple of Pythagoras, who taught the immortality of the foul to the Scythians. Odin, or Woden, was the great legislator and hero of the Goths. that being fubject to fits, he perfuaded his followers, that during thofe trances he received inspirations, from whence he dictated his laws he is faid to have been the inventor of the Runic characters.

P.

They tell us of him,