Afpice murorum moles, præruptaque faxa,
Obrutaque borrenti vafta theatra fitu:

Hæc funt Roma. Viden' velut ipfa cadavera tantæ
Urbis adhuc fpirent imperiofa minas?

Janus Vitalis,

NOUGH of Grongar, and the fhady dales

E of winding Towy, Merlin's fabled haunt,

I fung inglorious. Now the love of arts,
And what in metal or in ftone remains
Of proud antiquity, thro' various realms
And various languages and ages fam'd,
Bears me remote, o'er Gallia's woody bounds,
O'er the cloud-piercing Alps remote; beyond
The vale of Arno purpled with the vine,
Beyond the Umbrian and Etrufcan hills,
To Latium's wide champain, forlorn and waste,

Where

Where yellow Tiber his neglected wave
Mournfully rolls. Yet once again, my Mufe,
Yet once again, and foar a loftier flight;
Lo the refiftless theme, imperial Rome.

Fall'n, fall'n, a filent heap; her heroes all
Sunk in their urns; behold the pride of pomp,
The throne of nations fall'n; obscure in duft;
Ev'n yet majeftical; the folemn scene
Elates the foul, while now the rifing fun
Flames on the ruins in the purer air
Tow'ring aloft, upon the glitt'ring plain,
Like broken rocks, a vast circumference;
Rent palaces, crush'd columns, rifted moles,
Fanes roll'd on fanes, and tombs on buried tombs.
Deep lies in duft the Theban obelifc,
Immenfe along the wafte; minuter art,
Gliconian forms, or Phidian, fubtly fair,
O'erwhelming; as th' immenfe LEVIATHAN
The finny brood, when near Ierne's shore
Out-ftretch'd, unwieldly, his ifland length appears
Above the foamy flood. Globose and huge,
Grey-mould'ring temples fwell, and wide o'ercaft
The folitary landskape, hills and woods,

And boundless wilds; while the vine-mantled brows

The pendent goats unveil, regardless they
Of hourly peril, though the clefted domes
Tremble to every wind. The pilgrim oft
At dead of night, 'mid his oraison hears

Aghaft

Aghaft the voice of time, difparting tow'rs,
Tumbling all precipitate down-dafh'd,

Rattling around, loud thund'ring to the moon :
While murmurs footh each aweful interval
Of ever-falling waters; fhrouded Nile,
Eridanus, and Tiber with his twins,

And palmy Euphrates; they with dropping locks,
Hang o'er their urns, and mournfully among
The plaintive-echoing ruins pour their streams.
Yet here advent'rous in the facred fearch

Of ancient arts, the delicate of mind,
Curious and modeft, from all climes refort,
Grateful fociety! with these I raise

The toilfome step up the proud Palatin,
Through fpiry cyprefs groves, and tow'ring pine,
Waving aloft o'er the big ruins brows,

On num'rous arches rear'd and frequent stopp'd,'
The funk ground startles me with dreadful chasm,
Breathing forth darkness from the vast profound
Ofifles and halls, within the mountain's womb.
Nor these the nether works; all these beneath,
And all beneath the vales and hills around,
Extend the cavern'd fewers, maffy, firm,
As the Sibyline grot befide the dead
Lake of Avernus; fuch the fewers huge,
Whither the great Tarquinian genius dooms

• Fountains at Rome adorned with the ftatues of thofe rivers.

Each

Each wave impure; and proud with added rains,
Hark how the mighty billows lash their vaults,
And thunder; how they heave their rocks in vain
Though now inceffant Time has roll'd around
A thousand winters o'er the changeful world,
And yet a thousand fince, th' indignant floods
Roar loud in their firm bounds, and dash and fwell,
In vain; convey'd to Tiber's lowest wave.

Hence over airy plains, by cryftal founts,

That weave their glitt'ring waves with tuneful lapse,
Among the fleeky pebbles, agate clear,
Cerulean ophite, and the flow'ry vein
Of orient jafper, pleas'd I move along,
And vases boss'd, and huge infcriptive stones,
And intermingling vines; and figur'd nymphs,.
Flora's and Chloe's of delicious mould,

Cheering the darkness; and deep empty tombs,
And dells, and mould'ring fhrines, with old decay
Ruftick and green and wide-embow'ring fhades,
Shot from the crooked clefts of nodding tow'rs;
A folemn wilderness! With error fweet,
I wind the ling'ring ftep, where-e'er the path
Mazy conducts me, which the vulgar foot
O'er fculptures maim'd has made; Anubis, Sphinx,
Idols of antique guife, and horned Pan,
Terrifick, monftrous fhapes! propoft'rous gods,
Of Fear and Ign'rance, by the fculptor's hand
Hewn into form, and worship'd; as ev'n now

Blindly

2

Blindly they worship at their breathlefs mouths"
In varied appellations: men to these

(From depth to depth in darkʼning error fall'n)
At length afcrib'd th' INAPPLICABLE NAME.
How doth it please and fill the memory

With deeds of brave renown; while on each hand
Hiftorick urns and breathing ftatues rise,

And speaking bufts! Sweet Scipio, Marius ftern,
Pompey superb, the fpirit-stirring form
Of Cæfar raptur'd with the charm of rule
And boundless fame; impatient for exploits,
His eager eyes upcaft, he foars in thought
Above all height: and his own Brutus fee,
Defponding Brutus, dubious of the right,
In evil days, of faith, of publick weal
Solicitous and fad. Thy next regard
Be Tully's graceful attitude; uprais'd,
His out-ftretch'd arm he waves, in act to speak
Before the filent mafters of the world,

And eloquence arrays him. There behold,
Prepar❜d for combat in the front of war
The pious brothers; jealous Alba ftands

In fearful expectation of the strife,

And youthful Rome intent: the kindred foes

Fall on each other's neck in filent tears;

In forrowful benevolence embrace -

Several ftatues of the Pagan gods have been converted

into images of faints.

How