As this part contains a defcription of the establishment of Liberty in Rome, it begins with a view of the Grecian colonies fettled in the fouthern parts of Italy, which with Sicily conftituted the Great Greece of the ancients. With these colonies the fpirit of Liberty, and of republics, fpreads over Italy; to ver. 32. Tranfition to Pythagoras and his philofophy, which he taught through those free ftates and cities; to ver. 71. Amidft the many fmall republics in Italy, Rome the deftined feat of Liberty. Her establishment there dated from the expulfion of the Tarquins. How differing from that in Greece; to ver. 88. Reference to a view of the Roman republic given in the first part of this poem to mark its rife and fall, the peculiar purport of this. During its first ages, the greatest force of Liberty and Virtue exerted; to ver. 103. The fource whence derived the heroic virtues of the RoEnumeration of thefe virtues. Thence their fecurity at home; their glory, fuccefs, and empire, abroad; to ver. 226. Bounds of the Roman empire, geographically defcribed; to ver. 257. The ftates of Greece reftored to Liberty by Titus Quintus Flaminius, the highest inftance of public generofity and beneficence; to ver. 328. The lofs of Liberty in Rome. Its caufes, progrefs, and completion in the death of Brutus; to ver. 485. Rome under the emperors; to ver. 513. From Rome the Goddefs of Liberty goes among the Northern Nations; where, by infufing into them her fpirit and general principles, She lays the ground-work of her future establishments; fends them in vengeance on the Roman empire, now totallyenflaved; and then, with arts and sciences in her train, quits earth during the dark ages; to ver. 550. The celeftial regions, to which Liberty retired, not proper to be opened to the view of mortals.

mans.

LIBE ERT Y.

H

PART III.

ERE melting mix'd with air th' ideal forms,
That painted still whate'er the Goddess fung.
Then I, impatient: "From extinguish'd Greece,
"To what new region ftream'd the human day?"
She foftly fighing, as when Zephyr leaves,
Refign'd to Boreas, the declining year,
Refum'd: Indignant, thefe laft fcenes I fled;
And long ere then, Leucadia's cloudy cliff,
And the Ceraunian hills behind me thrown,
All Latium ftood arouz'd. Ages before,
Great mother of republics! Greece had pour'd,
Swarm after swarm, her ardent youth around,
On Afia, Afric, Sicily, they ftoop'd,
But chief on fair Hefperia's winding shore;
Where, from Lacinium to Etrurian vales,
They roll'd increafing colonies along,
And lent materials for my Roman Reign.
With them my Spirit spread; and numerous states
And cities rofe, on Grecian models form'd;
As its parental policy, and arts,

Each had imbib'd. Befides, to each affign'd
A guardian genius, o'er the public weal,

Kept

Kept an unclofing eye; try'd to fuftain,

Or more fublime, the foul infus'd by Me:

And strong the battle rose, with various wave,

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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 fo the Samian Sage; to him belongs
The brightest witness of recording fame.
For these free ftates his native ifle forfook,
And a vain tyrant's tranfitory fmile,
He fought Crotona's pure falubrious air,

And through great Greece his gentle wisdom taught;
Wisdom that calm'd for liftening years the mind,
Nor ever heard amid the storm of zeal,
His mental eye first launch'd into the deeps

Of boundlefs æther; where unnumber'd orbs,
Myriads on myriads, through the pathlefs fky
Unerring roll, and wind their steady way.
There he the full confenting choir beheld;
There firft difcern'd the fecret band of love,
The kind attraction, that to central funs

Binds circling earths, and world with world unites.

30

35

40

45

Inftructed thence, he great ideas form'd

Of the whole-moving, all-informing God,

The fun of beings! beaming unconfin'd

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Light, life, and love, and ever-active power:

Whom nought can image, and who best approves

The

The filent worship of the moral heart,

That joys in bounteous heaven, and spreads the joy.
Nor fcorn'd the foaring fage to ftoop to life,

And bound his reafon to the sphere of man.
He gave the four yet reigning virtues name;
Infpir'd the ftudy of the finer arts,

That civilize mankind, and laws devis'd
Where with enlighten'd justice mercy mix'd.
He ev❜n, into his tender fyftem, took
Whatever shares the brotherhood of life:
He taught that life's indiffoluble 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 fome kindred foul,
To turn the human heart. Delightful truth!
Had he beheld the living chain afcend,

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60

65

And not a circling form, but rifing whole.
Amid thefe fmall republics one arose,

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On yellow Tyber's bank, almighty Rome,
Fated for Me. A nobler spirit warm'd
Her fons; and, rouz'd by tyrants, nobler still

It burn'd in Brutus; the proud Tarquins chac'd,
With all their crimes; bade radiant æras rise,
And the long honours of the conful-line.

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T

Here, from the fairer, not the greater, plan
Of Greece I vary'd; whofe unmixing states,
By the keen foul of emulation pierc'd,
Long wag'd alone the bloodless war of arts,
And their best empire gain'd, But to diffuse

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O'er