Графични страници
PDF файл
ePub

To his behefts, and act what you disdain,
Yet nourish in your hearts the gen'rous love
Of piety and truth, no more reftrain

The manly zeal; but all your finews move
The prefent to reclaim, the future race improve!
LXXXIV.

Eftfoons by your joint efforts fhall be quell'd
Yon haughty GIANT, who fo proudly fways
A fceptre by repute alone upheld;

Who where he cannot dictate ftrait obeys.
Accuftom'd to conform his flattering phrafe
To numbers and high-plac'd authority,
Your party he will join, your maxims praife,
And drawing after all his menial fry,
Soon teach the general voice your act to ratify.
LXXXV.

Ne for th' atchievement of this great emprize
The want of means or counfel may ye dread.
From

my TWIN-DAUGHTERS' fruitful wombs fhall rife

A race of letter'd fages, deeply read

In Learning's various writ: by whom y-led

Through each well cultur'd plot, each beauteous grove,

Where antique Wisdom whilom wont to tread,

With mingled glee and profit may ye rove,

And cull each virtuous plant, each tree of knowledge prove.

LXXXVI. Your

LXXXVI.

Yourselves with virtue thus and knowledge fraught Of what, in ancient days of good or great Hiftorians, bards, philofophers have taught; Join'd with whatever elfe of modern date Maturer judgment, search more accurate Discover'd have of Nature, Man, and God, May by new laws reform the time-worn ftate Of cell-bred difcipline, and fmoothe the road That leads through Learning's valeto Wisdom's bright abode. LXXXVII.

By you invited to her fecret bow'rs

Then fhall PÆDIA reafcend her throne
With vivid laurels girt and fragrant flow'rs;
While from their forked mount descending down
Yon fupercilious pedant train fhall own
Her empire paramount, ere long by Her
Y-taught a leffon in their schools unknown,
"To Learning's richest treasures to prefer
"The knowledge of the world, and man's great business there.
LXXXVIII.

On this prime science, as the final end
Of all her difcipline, and nurturing care,
Her eye PÆDIA fixing aye fhall bend
Her every thought and effort to prepare

Her

Her tender pupils for the various war,
Which Vice and Folly fhall upon them wage,
As on the perilous march of life they fare
With prudent lore fore-arming every age
'GainftPleasure's treacherous joys,and Pain's embattled rage.
LXXXIX.

Then shall my youthful fons, to Wisdom led
By fair example and ingenuous praise,

With willing feet the paths of Duty tread;
Through the world's intricate or rugged ways
Conducted by Religion's facred rays;

Whose foul-invigorating influence

Shall purge their minds from all impure allays
Of fordid selfishness and brutal fenfe,

And fwell th' ennobled heart with bleft benevolence.
XC...

Then alfo fhall this emblematick pile,

By magick whilom fram'd to sympathize

With all the fortunes of this changeful ifle,

Still, as my fons in fame and virtue rife,

Grow with their growth, and to th' applauding kies
It's radiant cross up-lift; the while, to grace

The multiplying niches, fresh fupplies

Of worthies fhall fucceed, with equal pace

Aye following their fires in virtue's glorious race.

XCI. Fir'd

XCI.

Fir'd with th' idea of her future fame
She rofe majeftick from her lowly fted;
While from her vivid eyes a sparkling flame
Out-beaming, with unwonted light o'erspread
That monumental pile; and as her head
To every front fhe turn'd, difcover'd round
The venerable forms of heroes dead;

Who for their various merit erft renown'd,

In this bright fane of glory fhrines of honour found.
XCII.

On thefe that royal dame her ravish'd eyes
Would often feaft; and ever as fhe spy'd
Forth from the ground the length'ning firucture rise
With new-plac'd fiatues deck'd on every fide,
Her parent-breaft would fwell with gen'rous pride.
And now with her in that fequester'd plain,
The Knight awhile conftraining to abide,
She to the Fairy Youth with pleasure fain

Those fculptur'dchiefs did fhew,and their great lives explain1.

Great lives explain.] I cannot forbear taking occafion from these words to make my acknowledgements to the writers of Biographia Britannica, for the pleasure and profit I have lately received from perusing the two first volumes of that ufeful and entertaining work, of which the monumental Aructure above-mentioned, decorated with the ftatues of great and good men, is no improper emblem. This work, which contains the lives of the most eminent perfons, who have flourished in Great Britain and Ireland, from the earliest ages, down to the prefent time, appears to me, as far as

bas hitherto gone, to be executed with great fpirit, acCuracy, and judgment; and deferves, in my opinion, to be encouraged by all, who have at heart the honour of their Country, and that of their particular families and friends; and who can any ways affift the ingenious and laborious authors, to render as perfect as poffible, a defign so apparently calculated to ferve the publick, by fetting in the trueft and fulleft light the characters of perfons already generally, though perhaps too indiflinctly known; and retrieving from obfcurity and oblivion, examples of private and retired merit, which, though less glaring and oftentatious than the former, are not, however, of a less extenfive or lefs beneficial influence. To those, who may happen not to have feen this repofitory of British glory, I cannot give a better idea of it, than in the following lines of Virgil:

Hic

ic manus ob patriam pugnando vulnera passi ; Quique facerdotes cafti, dum vita manebat; Quique pii pates & Phaba digna locuti; Inventas aut qui vitam excoluere per artes; Quique fui memores alios fecere merendo. Who is Simmi donɔ to dusid el val. Virg. Æn. L. 6. ¿ saotleda moí bolo..

The End of the FIRST CANTO.

[ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small]
« ПредишнаНапред »