There huge Colosses rose, with trophies crown'd,
And Runic characters were graved around..
There sat Zamolxis with erected eyes,

And Odin here in mimic trances dies.

There on rude iron columns, smear'd with blood,
The horrid forms of Scythian heroes stood,

Druids and bards (their once loud harps unstrung)
And youths that died to be by poets sung.
These and a thousand more of doubtful fame,
To whom old fables gave a lasting name,
In ranks adorn'd the temple's outward face;
The wall in lustre and effect like glass,
Which o'er each object casting various dyes,
Enlarges some, and others multiplies :
Nor void of emblem was the mystic wall,
For thus romantic fame increases all.

The temple shakes, the sounding gates unfold,
Wide vaults appear, and roofs of fretted gold:
Raised on a thousand pillars, wreath'd around
With laurel foliage, and with eagles crown'd:
Of bright, transparent beryl were the walls,
The friezes gold, and gold the capitals:

As heaven with stars, the roof with jewels glows,
And ever-living lamps depend in rows.
Full in the passage of each spacious gate,

The sage historians in white garments wait;

Graved o'er their seats the form of Time was found,
His scythe reversed, and both his pinions bound.
Within stood heroes, who through loud alarms
In bloody fields pursued renown in arms.
High on a throne with trophies charged, I view'd
The youth that all things but himself subdued";

the Scythians. Odin, or Woden, was the great legislator and hero of the Goths. They tell us of him, that, being subject to fits, he persuaded his followers, that during those trances he received inspirations, from whence he dictated his laws; he is said to have been the inventor of the Runic characters.

These were the priests and poets of those people, so celebrated for their savage virtue. Those heroic barbarians accounted it a dishonour to die in their beds, and rushed on to certain death in the prospect of an after-life, and for the glory of a song from their bards in praise of their actions.

a "It shone lighter than glass,

And made well more than it was,

As kind of thing Fame is."

b Alexander the Great; the tiara was the crown peculiar to the Asian princes; his desire to be thought the son of Jupiter Ammon caused him to

His feet on sceptres and tiaras trod,

And his horn'd head belied the Libyan god.
There Cæsar, graced with both Minervas, shone ;
Cæsar, the world's great master, and his own;
Unmoved, superior still in every state,
And scarce detested in his country's fate.
But chief were those, who not for empire fought,
But with their toils their people's safety bought :
High o'er the rest Epaminondas stood;
Timoleon, glorious in his brother's blood";
Bold Scipio, saviour of the Roman state;
Great in his triumphs, in retirement great;
And wise Aurelius, in whose well-taught mind
With boundless power unbounded virtue join'd,
His own strict judge, and patron of mankind.

Much-suffering heroes next their honours claim,
Those of less noisy and less guilty fame,
Fair Virtue's silent train: supreme of these
Here ever shines the godlike Socrates:
He whom ungrateful Athens could expel,
At all times just, but when he sign'd the shell:
Here his abode the martyr'd Phocione claims,
With Agis, not the last of Spartan names:
Unconquer'd Cato shows the wound he tore,
And Brutus his ill genius meets no more.
But in the centre of the hallow'd choirf,
pompous columns o'er the rest aspires;

Six

wear the horns of that god, and to represent the same upon his coins; which was continued by several of his successors.

c Timoleon had saved the life of his brother Timophanes in the battle between the Argives and Corinthians; but afterwards killed him when he affected the tyranny, preferring his duty to his country to all the obligations of blood.

d Aristides, who for his great integrity was distinguished by the appellation of the Just. When his countrymen would have banished him by the ostracism, where it was the custom for every man to sign the name of the person he voted to exile in an oyster-shell, a peasant, who could not write, came to Aristides to do it for him, who readily signed his own name.

e Who, when about to drink the hemlock, charged his son to forgive his enemies, and not revenge his death on those Athenians who had decreed it. f In the midst of the Temple, nearest the throne of Fame, are placed the greatest names in learning of all antiquity. These are described in such attitudes as express their different characters: the columns on which they are raised are adorned with sculptures, taken from the most striking subjects of their works; which sculpture bears a resemblance, in its manner and character, to the manner and character of their writings.

g"From the dees many a pillere,

Of metal that shone not full clere, &c.
Upon a pillere saw I stonde

Around the shrine itself of Fame they stand,
Hold the chief honours, and the fane command.
High on the first, the mighty Homer shone1;
Eternal adamant composed his throne;
Father of verse, in holy fillets drest,

His silver beard waved gently o'er his breast;
Tho' blind, a boldness in his looks appears:
In years he seem'd, but not impair'd by years.
The wars of Troy were round the pillar seen :
Here fierce Tydides wounds the Cyprian Queen;
Here Hector glorious from Patroclus' fall,
Here dragg'd in triumph round the Trojan wall :
Motion and life did every part inspire,

Bold was the work, and proved the master's fire ;
A strong expression most he seem'd to affect,
And here and there disclosed a brave neglect.
A golden column next in rank appear'di
On which a shrine of purest gold was rear'd;
Finish'd the whole, and labour'd ev'ry part,
With patient touches of unwearied art:

That was of lede and iron fine,
Him of the sect Saturnine,
The Ebraicke Josephus the old, &c.
Upon an iron piller strong,
That painted was all endlong,
With tiger's blood in every place,
The Tholosan that hight Stace,

That bare of Thebes up the name,

h❝Full wonder hye on a pillere

Of iron, he the great Omer,

" &c.

And with him Dares and Titus," &c.

"There saw I stand on a pillere

That was of tinned iron cleere,
The Latin poet Virgyle,

That hath bore up of a great while
The fame of pious Æneas.

And next him on a pillere was
Of copper, Venus' clerk Ovide,
That hath sowen wondrous wide
The great god of Love's fame-
Tho saw I on a pillere by
Of iron wrought full sternly
The great poet Dan Lucan,
That on his shoulders bore up then
As hye as that I might see,
The fame of Julius and Pompee.

And next him on a pillere stode

Of sulphur, like as he were wode,
Dan Claudian, sothe for to tell,

That bare up all the fame of hell," &c.

The Mantuan there in sober triumph sate,
Composed his posture, and his looks sedate;
On Homer still he fix'd a reverend eye,
Great without pride, in modest majesty.
In living sculpture on the sides were spread
The Latian wars, and haughty Turnus dead;
Eliza stretch'd upon the funeral pyre,
Eneas bending with his aged sire:

Troy flamed in burning gold, and o'er the throne
ARMS AND THE MAN in golden ciphers shone.

Four swans sustain a car of silver bright,

With heads advanced, and pinions stretch'd for flight:
Here, like some furious prophet, Pindar rode,
And seem'd to labour with the inspiring god.
Across the harp a careless hand he flings,
And boldly sinks into the sounding strings.
The figured games of Greece the column grace,
Neptune and Jove survey the rapid race.
The youths hang o'er the chariots as they run;
The fiery steeds seem starting from the stone;
The champions in distorted postures threat;
And all appear'd irregularly great.

Here happy Horace tuned the Ausonian lyre
To sweeter sounds, and temper'd Pindar's fire:
Pleased with Alcæus' manly rage to infuse
The softer spirit of the Sapphic muse.

j Pindar, being seated in a chariot, alludes to the chariot-races he celebrated in the Grecian games. The swans are emblems of poetry, their soaring posture intimates the sublimity and activity of his genius. Neptune presided over the Isthmian, and Jupiter over the Olympian games.

This expresses the mixed character of the odes of Horace: the second of these verses alludes to that line of his,

"Spiritum Graiæ tenuem camœnæ."

As another which follows, to

"Exegi monumentum ære perennius."

The action of the doves hints at a passage in the fourth ode of his third book:

"Me fabulosæ Vulture in Appulo,
Altricis extra limen Apuliæ,
Ludo fatigatumque somno,

Fronde novâ puerum palumbes

Texêre; mirum quod foret omnibus.
Ut tuto ab atris corpore viperis
Dormirem et ursis; ut premerer sacrâ
Lauroque collatâque myrto,

Non sine Dis animosus infans."

Which may be thus Englished :

"While yet a child, I chanced to stray,
And in a desert sleeping lay;

Around the shrine itself of Fame they stand,
Hold the chief honours, and the fane command.
High on the first, the mighty Homer shone1;
Eternal adamant composed his throne;
Father of verse, in holy fillets drest,

His silver beard waved gently o'er his breast;
Tho' blind, a boldness in his looks appears:
In years he seem'd, but not impair'd by years.
The wars of Troy were round the pillar seen:
Here fierce Tydides wounds the Cyprian Queen;
Here Hector glorious from Patroclus' fall,
Here dragg'd in triumph round the Trojan wall :
Motion and life did every part inspire,
Bold was the work, and proved the master's fire ;
A strong expression most he seem'd to affect,
And here and there disclosed a brave neglect.

A golden column next in rank appear'di
On which a shrine of purest gold was rear'd;
Finish'd the whole, and labour'd ev'ry part,
With patient touches of unwearied art:

That was of lede and iron fine,
Him of the sect Saturnine,
The Ebraicke Josephus the old, &c.

Upon an iron piller strong,

That painted was all endlong,

With tiger's blood in every place,

The Tholosan that hight Stace,

That bare of Thebes up the name," &c.

h❝Full wonder hye on a pillere

Of iron, he the great Omer,

And with him Dares and Titus," &c.

i "There saw I stand on a pillere
That was of tinned iron cleere,
The Latin poet Virgyle,

That hath bore up of a great while
The fame of pious Æneas.

And next him on a piliere was
Of copper, Venus' clerk Ovide,
That hath sowen wondrous wide
The great god of Love's fame-
Tho saw I on a pillere by
Of iron wrought full sternly
The great poet Dan Lucan,
That on his shoulders bore up then
As hye as that I might see,
The fame of Julius and Pompee.

And next him on a pillere stode

Of sulphur, like as he were wode,
Dan Claudian, sothe for to tell,

That bare up all the fame of hell," &c.