BEING THE THIRD PART OF

A POEM .

And guardian vigor of the free-born soul,

And the Ceraunian hills behind me thrown, All crude attempts of violence are vain;

All Latium stood arous'd. Ages before,
For, firm within, and while at heart untouch'd, Great mother of republics! Greece had pour'd,
Ne'er yet by force was Freedom overcome. Swarm after swarm, her ardent youth around.
But soon as Independence stoops the head, On Asia, Afric, Sicily, they stoop’d,
To vice enslav'd, and vice-created wants ; But chief on fair Hesperia's winding shore ;
Then to some foul corrupting hand, whose waste Where, from Lacinium* to Etrurian vales,
These heighten'd wants with fatal bounty feeds : They roll'd increasing colonies along,
From man to man the slackening ruin runs, And lent materials for my Roman reign.
Til the whole state unnerv'd in slavery sinks." 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
ROME:

A guardian genius, o'er the public weal,
Kept an unclosing eye ; tried to sustain,

Or more sublime, the soul infus’d by me :
LIBERTY,

And strong the battle rose, with various ware,
Against the tyrant demons of the land.
Thus they their little wars and triumphs knew;

Their flows of fortune, and receding times,
The Contents of Part III.

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 ;t 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 Greeces his gentle wisdom taugha; free states and cities. Amidst the many small Wisdom that calm'd for listening years the mind, il republics in Italy, Rome the destined seat of Nor ever heard amid the storm of zeal. 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, througi the pathless sky Roman republic given in the first part of this Unerring roll, and wind their steady way. poem: to mark its rise and fall, the peculiar There he the full consenting choir beheld; 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. empire, abroad. Bounds of the Roman empire, The Sun of beings! beaming unconfin'd 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 Rone. Its

That joys in bounteous Heaven, and spreuds the jos 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 virtuess 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 of her future establishments : sends them in ven

Where with enlighten'd justice mercy mixida geance on the Roman empire, now totally enslaved; He ev'n, into his tender system, took and then, with arts and sciences in her train, quits Whatever shares the brotherhood of life : Earth during the dark ages. The celestial re

He taught, that life's indissoluble flame, gions, to which Liberty retired, not proper to be From brute to man, and man to brute again, opened to the view of mortals.

For ever shifting, runs th' eternal round;
Thence tried against the blood-polluted meal,

And limbs yet quivering with some kindred soul, HERE melting mix'd with air th' ideal forms,

To turn the human heart. Delightful truth!
That painted still whate'er the goddess sung.
Then I, impatient: “From extinguish d Greece,
To what new region stream'd the human day?"

* A promontory in Calabria. She softly sighing, as when Zephyr leaves,

† Pythagoras. Resign’d to Boreas, the declining year,

| Samos, over which then reigned the tyrant Polycrates Resum'd ; "Indignant, these last scenes I fled ;* § The southern parts of Italy, and Sicily, so called And long ere then, Leucadia's cloudy cliff,

because of the Grecian colonies there settled.

| His scholars were enjoined silence for five years, * The last struggles of liberty in Greece.

I The four cardinal virtues.

Had he beheld the living chain ascend,

While he his honest roots to gold preferr'd; And not a circling form, but rising whole.

While truly rich, and by his Sabine field, “ Amid these small republics one arose,

The man maintain'd, the Roman's splendor all On yellow Tyber's bank, almighty Rome,

Was in the public wealth and glory plac'd :
Fated for me. A nobler spirit warm'd

Or ready, a rough swain, to guide the plow;
Her sons; and, rous’d by tyrants, nobler still Or else, the purple o'er his shoulder thrown,
It burn'd in Brutus : the proud Tarquins chas'd, In long majestic flow, to rule the state,
Wiih all their crimes; bade radiant eras rise, With Wisdom's purest eye; or, clad in steel,
And the long honors of the consul-line.

To drive the steady battle on the foe.
“ Here, from the fairer, not the greater, plan Hence every passion, ev'n the proudest, stoop'd
Of Greece I varied; whose unmixing states, To common good : Camillus, thy revenge ;
By the keen soul of emulation pierc'd,

Thy glory, Fabius. All submissive hence, Long wag'd alone the bloodless war of arts, Consuls, dictators, still resign'd their rule, And their best empire gain'd. But to diffuse The very moment that the laws ordain'd. O'er men an empire was my purpose now:

Though Conquest o'er them clapp'd her eagle-wings, To let my martial majesty abroad;

Her laurels wreath’d, and yok'd her snowy steeds Into the vortex of one state to draw

To the triumphal car; soon as expir'd
The whole mix'd force, and liberty, on Earth ; The latest hour of sway, taught to submit,
To conquer tyrants, and set nations free.

(A harder lesson that than to cornmand,) Already have I given, with flying touch, Into the private Roman sunk the chief. A broken view of this my amplest reign.

If Rome was serv'd, and glorious, careless they Now, while its first, last, periods you survey, By whom. Their country's fame they deem'd their Mark how it laboring rose, and rapid fell. (world.

own; "When Rome in noon-tide empire grasp'd the And, above envy, in a rival's train, And, soon as her resistless legions shone,

Sung the loud lös by themselves deservid. The nations stoop'd around : though then appear'd Hence matchless courage. On Cremera's bank, Her grandeur most, yet in her dawn of power, Hence fell the Fabii; hence the Decii died; By many a jealous equal people press'd,

And Curtius plung’d into the flaming gulf. Then was the toil, the mighty struggle then; Hence Regulus the wavering fathers firm'd, Then for each Roman I an hero told;

By dreadful counsel never giv'n before, And every passing sun, and Latian scene,

For Roman honor sued, and his own doom. Saw patriot virtues then, and awful deeds,

Hence he sustain'd to dare a death prepar'd
That or surpass the faith of modern times, By Punic rage. On earth his manly look
Or, if believ'd, with sacred horror strike.

Relentless fix'd, he from a last embrace,
For then, to prove my most exalted power, By chains polluted, put his wise aside,
I to the point of full perfection push'd,

His little children climbing for a kiss; [friends, To fondness or enthusiastic zeal,

Then dumb through rows of weeping wondering The great, the reigning passion of the free. A new illustrious exile! press'd along. That godlike passion! which, the bounds of self Nor less impatient did he pierce the crowds Divinely bursting, the whole public takes Opposing his return, than if, escap'd Into the heart, enlarg'd, and burning high From long litigious suits, he glad forsook With the mix'd ardor of unnumber'd selves; The noisy town awhile, and city cloud, Of all who safe beneath the voted laws

To breathe Venafrian or Tarentine air. Of the same parent state, fraternal, live.

Need I these high particulars recount? From this kind sun of moral nature flow'd

The meanest bosom felt a thirst for fame,
Virtues, that shine the light of human-kind, Flight their worst death, and shame their only fear
And, ray'd through story, warm remotest time. Life had no charms, nor any terrors fate,
These virtues, too, reflected to their source, When Rome and glory call d. But, in one view
Increas'd its flame. The social charm went round, Mark the rare boast of these unequal'd times.
The fair idea, more attractive still,

Ages revolv'd unsullied by a crime;
As more by virtue mark’d: till Romans, all Astrea reign'd, and scarcely needed laws
One band of friends, unconquerable grew. (voice, To bind a race elated with the pride

" Hence, when their country rais'd her plaintive of virtue, and disdaining to descend
The voice of pleading Nature was not heard ; To meanness, mutual violence, and wrongs.
And in their hearts the fathers throbb'd no more : While war around them rag'd, in happy Rome
Stern to themselves, but gentle to the whole. All peaceful smild, all save the passing clouds
Hence sweeten'd pain, the luxury of toil; That often hang on Freedom's jealous brow!
Patience, that baffled Fortune's utmost rage ; And fair unblemish'd centuries elapsid,
High-minded Hope, which at the lowest ebb, When not a Roman bled but in the field.
When Brennus conquer'd, and when Canne bled, Their virtue such, that an unbalanc'd state
The bravest impulse felt, and scorn'd despair. Still between noble and plebeian tost,
Hence, Moderation a new conquest gain'd; As flow'd the wave of fluctuating power,
As on the vanquish’d, like descending Heaven, Was thence kept firm, and with triumphant prow
Their dewy mercy dropp'd, their bounty beam'd, Rode out the storms. Oft though the native feuds,
And by the laboring hand were crowns bestow'd. That from the first their constitution shook,
Fruitful of men, hence hard laborious life, (A latent ruin, growing as it grew.)
Which no fatigue can quell, no season pierce. Stood on the threatening point of civil war
Hence, Independence, with his little pleas'd, Ready to rush: yet could the lenient voice
Serene, and self-sufficient, like a god;

Of wisdom, soothing the tumultuous soul, In whom Corruption could not lodge one charm, Those sons of virtue calm. Their generous hearts

Unpetrified by self, so naked lay,

Their countries, cities, liberties, and laws : And sensible to truth, that o'er the rage

Taxes remit, and garrisons withdraw.' Of giddy faction, by oppression swell’d,

The crowd, astonish'd half, and half-inform’d, Prevail'd a simple fable, and at once

Star'd dubious round ; some question'd, some ex To peace recover'd the divided state.

claim'd, But if their often-cheated hopes refus'd

(Like one who, dreaming, between hope and fear, The soothing touch ; still, in the love of Rome, Is lost in anxious joy,) • Be that again, The dread dictator found a sure resource.

Be that again proclaim'd, distinct, and loud.' Was she assaulted ? was her glory stain'd ? Loud, and distinct, it was again proclaim'd; One common quarrel wide-inflam'd the whole. And still as midnight in the rural shade, Foes in the forum, in the field were friends, When the gale slumbers, they the words devour'd. By social danger bound ; each fond for each, Awhile severe amazement held them mute; And for their dearest country all, to die.

Then, bursting broad, the boundless shout to Heaven “ Thus up the hill of empire slow they toil'd : From many a thousand hearts ecstatic sprung. Till, the bold summit gain'd, the thousand states On every hand rebellow'd to their joy Of proud Italia blended into one ;

The swelling sea, the rocks, and vocal hills : Then o'er the nations they resistless rush'd, Through all her turrets stately Corinth» shook ; And touch'd the limits of the failing world. And, from the void above of shatter'd air,

" Let Fancy's eye the distant lines unite. The fitting bird fell breathless to the ground. See that which borders wild the western main, What piercing bliss! how keen a sense of fame, Where storms at large resound, and tides immense : Did then, Flaminius, reach thy inmost soul! From Caledonia's dim cerulean coast,

And with what deep-felt glory didst thou then And moist Hibernia, to where Atlas, lodg'd Escape the fondness of transported Greece! Amid the restless clouds, and leaning Heaven, Mix'd in a tempest of superior joy, Hangs o'er the deep that borrows thence its name. They left the sports ; like Bacchanals they flew, Mark that oppos'd, where first the springing Morn Each other straining in a strict embrace, Her roses sheds, and shakes around her dews : Nor strain'd a slave; and loud acclaims till night From the dire deserts by the Caspian lav'd, Round the proconsul's tent repeated rung. To where the Tigris and Euphrates, join'd, Then, crown'd with garlands, came the festive Hours, Impetuous tear the Babylonian plain ;

And music, sparkling wine, and converse warm, And blest Arabia aromatic breathes.

Their raptures wak'd anew.-Ye gods!' they See that dividing far the watery north,

cried, Parent of floods ! from the majestic Rhine, • Ye guardian gods of Greece! And are we free? Drunk by Batavian meads, to where, seven-mouth'd, Was it not madness deem'd the very thought? In Euxine waves the flashing Danube roars ; And is it true? How did we purchase chains ? To where the frozen Tanaïs* scarcely stirs At what a dire expense of kindred blood ? The dead Meotic pool, or the long Rhat

And are they now dissolv'd ? And scarce one drop In the black Seythian sea his torrent throws. For the fair first of blessings have we paid ? Last, that beneath the burning zone behold : Courage, and conduct, in the doubtful field, See where it runs, from the deep-loaded plains When rages wide the storm of mingling war, Of Mauritania to the Libyan sands,

Are rare indeed ; but how to generous ends
Where Ammon lifts amid the torrid waste

To turn success and conquest, rarer still:
A verdant isle, with shade and fountain fresh ; That the great gods and Romans only know.
And farther to the full Egyptian shore,

Lives there on Earth, almost to Greece unknown,
To where the Nile from Ethiopian clouds, A people so magnanimous, to quit
His never-drain'd ethereal urn, descends.

Their native soil, traverse the stormy deep,
In this vast space what various tongues, and states ! And by their blood and treasure, spent for us,
What bounding rocks, and mountains, floods and Redeem our states, our liberties, and laws!
seas ?

There does! there does! oh, savior Titus! Rome! What purple tyrants quell’d, and nations freed! Thus through the happy night they pour'd their “O'er Greece descended chief, with stealth divine,

souls, The Roman bounty in a flood of day:

And in my last reflected beams rejoic'd. As at her Isthmian games, a fading pomp! As when the shepherd, on the mountain brow, Her full-assembled youth innumerous swarm d. Sits piping to his flocks, and gamesome kids; On a tribunal rais'd Flaminius sat;

Meantime the Sun, beneath the green Earth sunk, A victor he, from the deep phalanx pierc'd Slants upward o'er the scene a parting gleam : Of iron-coated Macedon,t and back

Short is the glory that the mountain gilds, The Grecian tyrant to his bounds repell’d. Plays on the glittering flocks, and glads the swain In the high thoughtless gaiety of game,

To western worlds irrevocable rollid, While sport alone their unambitious hearts Rapid, the source of light recalls his ray." Possess'd ; the sudden trumpet, sounding hoarse,

Here interposing I :-“Oh, queen of men ! Bade silence o'er the bright assembly reign.

Beneath whose sceptre in essential rights Then thus a herald :- To the states of Greece Equal they live ; though plac'd, for common good, The Roman people, unconfin'd, restore

Various, or in subjection, or command ;

And that by common choice: alas! the scene, * The ancient name of the Volga.

With virtue, freedom, and with glory bright,
† The Caspian sea.
| The king of Macedonia.

$ The Isthmian games were celebrated at Corinth.

66

Streams into blood, and darkens into woe."

Repress'd severe, for human aid too strong Thus she pursued:

:-"Near this great era, Rome The torrent turns, and overbears the whole. Began to feel the swift approach of fate,

* Thus luxury, dissension, a mix'd rage That now her vitals gain'd; still more and more Of boundless pleasure and of boundless wealth, Her deep divisions kindling into rage,

Want wishing change, and waste repairing war, And war with chains and desolation charg'd. Rapine for ever lost to peaceful toil, From an unequal balance of her sons

Guilt unaton'd, profuse of blood revenge, These fierce contentions sprung; and, as increas'd Corruption all avow'd, and lawless force, This hated inequality, more fierce

Each heightening each, alternate shook the state They flam'd to tumult. Independence fail'd ; Meantime ambition, at the dazzling head Here by luxurious wants, by real there;

Of hardy legions, with the laurels heap'd And with this virtue every virtue sunk,

And spoil of nations, in one circling blast As, with the sliding rock, the pile sustain'd. Combin'd in various storm, and from its base A last attempt, 100 late, the Gracchi made, The broad republic tore. By virtue built, To fix the flying scale, and poise the state. It touch'd the skies, and spread o'er shelter'd Earth On one side swellid aristocratic pride;

An ample roof: by virtue too sustain'd, With Usury, the villain! whose fell gripe

And balanc'd steady, every tempest sung Bends by degrees to baseness the free soul; Innoxious by, or bade it firmer stand. And Luxury, rapacious, cruel, mean,

But when, with sudden and enormous change, Mother of Vice! while on the other crept

The first of mankind sunk into the last, A populace in want, with pleasure fir'd ;

As once in virtue, so in vice extreme,
Fit for proscriptions, for the darkest deeds,

This universal fabric yielded loose,
As the proud feeder bade; inconstanı, blind, Before ambition still; and thundering down,
Deserting friends at need, and dup'd by foes; At last, beneath its ruins crush'd a world.
Loud and seditious, when a chief inspir’d

A conquering people, to themselves a prey,
Their headlong fury, but, of him deprived, Must ever fall; when their victorious troops,
Already slaves, that lick'd the scourging hand. In blood and rapine savage grown, can find

“ This firm republic, that against the blast No land to sack and pillage but their own. Of opposition rose ; that (like an oak,

By brutal Marius, and keen Sylla, first
Nurs'd on feracious Algidum, whose boughs Effus'd the deluge dire of civil blood,
Still stronger shoot beneath the rigid ax)

Unceasing woes began, and this, or that,
By loss, by slaughter, from the steel itself,

(Deep-drenching their revenge) nor virtue spar'd,
Ev'n force and spirit drew; smit with the calm, Nor sex, nor age, nor qualiiy, nor name,
The dead serene of prosperous fortune, pin’d. Till Rome, into an human shambles turn'd,
Nought now her weighty legions could oppose; Made deserts lovely.-Oh, to well-earn'd chains
Her terror once on Afric's tawny shore,*

Devoted race !-If no true Roman then,
Now smok'd in dust, a stabling now for wolves; No Scavola there was, to raise for me
And every dreaded power receiv'd the yoke. A vengeful hand : was there no father, robb'd
Besides, destructive, from the conquerid East, Of blooming youth to prop his wither'd age?
In the soft plunder came that worst of plagues, No son, a witness to his hoary sire
That pestilence of mind, a fever'd thirst

In dust and gore defil'd ? no friend, forlorn ?
For the false joys which luxury prepares.

No wretch that doubtful trembled for himself? Unworthy joys ! that wasteful leave behind None brave, or wild, to pierce a monster's heart, No mark of honor, in reflecting hour,

Who, heaping horror round, no more deserv'd No secret ray to glad the conscious soul ;

The sacred shelter of the laws he spurn'd? At once involving in one ruin wealth,

No. Sad o'er all profound dejection sat, And wealth-acquiring powers: while stupid self, And nerveless fear. The slave's asylum theirs. Of narrow gust, and hebetating sense

Or flight, ill-judging, that the timid back Devour the nobler faculties of bliss.

Turns weak to slaughter; or partaken guilt. Hence Roman virtue slacken'd into sloth ;

In vain from Sylla's vanity I drew Security relax'd the softening state;

An unexampled deed. The power resign d. And the broad eye of governmeni lay clos'd; And all unhop'd the commonwealth restor’d, No more the laws inviolable reign'd,

Amaz'd the public, and effac'd his crimes. (hand
And public weal no more: but party rag'd, Through streets yet streaming from his murderous
And partial power, and license unrestrain det Unarm'd he stray'd, unguarded, unassaild,
Let discord through the deathful city loose. And on the bed of peace his ashes laid :
First, mild Tiberius, on thy sacred head

A grace, which I to his demission gave.
The fury's vengeance fell; the first, whose blood But with him died not the despotic soul.
Had since the consuls staind contending Rome. Ambition saw that stooping Rome could bear
Of precedent pernicious! with thee bled

A master, nor had virtue to be free.
Three hundred Romans; with thy brother, next, Hence, for succeeding years, my troubled reign
Three thousand more ; till, into battles turn'd No certain peace, no spreading prospect, knew,
Debates of peace, and forc'd the trembling laws, Destruction gather'd round. Still the black soul,
The forum and comitia horrid grew,

Or of a Catiline, or Rullus, swell'd
A scene of barier'd power, or reeking gore.
When, half-asham'd, Corruption's thievish arts
And ruffian force began to sap the mounds

I Pub. Servilius Rullus, tribune of the people, proposed And majesty of laws; if not in time

an Agrarian law, in appearance very advantageous for the people, but destructive of their liberty; and which

was defeated by the eloquence of Cicero, in his speech * Carthage.

† Tib. Gracchus.

With fell designs; and all the watchful art And, piercing farthest Scythia, westward swept Of Cicero demanded, all the force,

Sarmatia,ll travers’d by a thousand streams. All the state-wielding magic of his tongue ; A sullen land of lakes, and fens immense, And all the thunder of my Cato's zeal.

Of rocks, resounding torrents, gloomy heaths, With these I linger'd; till the flame anew

And cruel deserts black with sounding pine; Burst out in blaze immense, and wrapt the world. Where Nature frowns: though sometimes into The shameful contest sprung, to whom mankind

smiles Should yield the neck: to Pompey, who conceald She softens; and immediate, at the touch A rage impatient of an equal name;

Of southern gales, throws from the sudden glebe Or to the nobler Cæsar, on whose brow

Luxuriant pasture, and a waste of flowers. O'er daring vice deluding virtue smild,

But, cold-comprest, when the whole loaded heaven And who no less a vain superior scorn'd.

Descends in snow, lost in one white abrupt, Boch bled, but bled in vain. New traitors rose, Lies undistinguish'd earth ; and, seiz'd by frost, The venal will be bought, the base have lords. Lakes, headlong streams, and floods, and oceans To these wild wars I left ambitious slaves;

sleep. And from Philippi's field, from where in dust Yet there life glows; the furry millions there, The last of Romans, matchless Brutus! lay, Deep-dig their dens beneath the sheltering snows: Spread to the north untam'd a rapid wing.

And there a race of men prolific swarms, “What though the first smooth Cæsar's arts To various pain, to little pleasure us'd ; caress'd,

On whom, keen-parching beat Riphæan winds; Merit and virtue, simulating me?

Hard like their soil, and like their climate fierce, Severely tender! cruelly humane!

The nursery of nations !—These I rous'd, The chain to clinch, and make it softer sit

Drove land on land, on people people pour'd; On the new-broken still ferocious state.

Till from almost perpetual night they broke, From the dark third, * succeeding, I beheld

As if in search of day; and o'er the banks Th' imperial monsters all. A race on Earth Of yielding empire, only slave-sustain'd, Vindictive, sent the scourge of human-kind ! Resistless rag'd, in vengeance urg'd by me. Whose blind profusion drain'd a bankrupt world ; “ Long in the barbarous heart the buried seeds Whose lust to forming Nature seems disgrace ; Of freedom lay, for many a wintry age; And whose infernal rage bade every drop

And though my spirit work'd by slow degrees, Of ancient blood, that yet retain'd my flame, Nought but its pride and fierceness yet appear'd To that of Pætus,t in the peaceful bath,

Then was the night of time, that parted worlds. Or Rome's affrighted streets, inglorious flow. I quitted Earth the while. As when the tribes But almost just the meanly-patient death,

Aërial, warnd of rising winter, ride That waits a tyrant's unprevented stroke.

Autumnal winds, to warmer climates borne ; Titus indeed gave one short evening gleam; So, arts and each good genius in my train, More cordial felt, as in the midst it spread

I cut the closing gloom, and soar'd to Heaven
Of storm, and horror. The delight of men;

“In the bright regions there of purest day,
He who the day, when his o'erflowing hand Far other scenes, and palaces, arise,
Had made no happy heart, concluded lost; Adorn'd prof ise with other arts divine.
Trajan and he, with the mild sire and son, All beauty here below, to them compar'd,
His son of virtue! eas'd awhile mankind;

Would, like a rose before the mid-day Sun,
And arts reviv'd beneath their gentle beam. Shrink up its blossom ; like a bubble, break
Then was their last effort: what sculpture rais'd The passing poor magnificence of kings.
To Trajan's glory, following triumphs stole ; For there the King of Nature, in full blaze,
And mix'd with Gothic forms (the chisel's shame,) Calls every splendor forth ; and there his court,
On that triumphal arch,y the forms of Greece. Amid ethereal powers, and virtues, holds :
“ Meantime o'er rocky Thrace, and the deep Angel, archangel, tutelary gods,
vales

Of cities, nations, empires, and of worlds. Of gelid Hemus, I pursued my flight;

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 * Tiberius.

Must cheerful toil out their appointed years + Thrasea Pætus, put to death by Nero. Tacitus intro. A sense of higher life would only damp duces the account he gives of his death thus: “ After The school-boy's task, and spoil his playful hours. paving inhumanly slaughtered so many illustrious men, Nor could the child of reason, feeble man, ae (Nero) burned at last with a desire of cutting off vir. With vigor through this infant being drudge ; fue itself in the person of Thrasea,” &c.

Did brighter worlds, their unimagin'd bliss 1 Antoninus Pius, and his adopted son Marcus Aurelius, Disclosing, dazzle and dissolve his mind." afterwards called Antoninus Philosophus.

$ Constantine's arch, to build which, that of Trajan | The Ancient Sarmatia contained a vast tract of was destroyed, sculpture having been then almost entire country running all along the north of Europe, and ly lost.

Asia. 62