And fee the rivers how they run,
Through woods and meads, in fhade and fun,
Sometimes fwift, fometimes flow,
Wave fucceeding wave, they go
A various journey to the deep,
Like human life, to endless fleep!
Thus is Nature's vefture wrought,
To inftruct our wandering thought;
Thus the dreffes green and gay,
To difperfe our cares away.

Ever charming, ever new,
When will the landskip tire the view!
The fountain's fall, the river's flow,
The woody vallies, warm and low;
The windy fummit, wild and high,
Roughly rushing on the sky!
The pleafant feat, the ruin'd, tower,
The naked rock, the fhady bower;
The town and village, dome and farm,
Each give each a double charm,
As pearls upon an Æthiop's arm.

See on the mountain's fouthern fide,
Where the profpect opens wide,
Where the evening gilds the tide ;
How close and finall the hedges lie!
What streaks of meadows cross the eye!
A step methinks may pass the stream,
So little diftant dangers feem;
So we, mistake the future's face,
Ey'd through Hope's deluding glass;
As you fummits foft and fair,
Clad in colours of the air,
Which, to those who journey near,
Barren, brown, and rough appear;
Still we tread the fame coarse way,
The prefent's ftill a cloudy day.

O may I with myself agree,
And never covet what I fee:
Content me with an humble fhade,
My paffions tam'd, my wishes laid;
For, while our wishes wildly roll,
We banish quiet from the foul:
"Tis thus the bufy beat the air,
And mifers gather wealth and care.
Now, ev'n now, my joys run high,
As on the mountain-turf I lie ;
While the wanton Zephyr fings,
And in the vale perfumes nis wings;
While the waters murmur deep;
While the thepherd charms his sheep;
While the birds unbounded fly,
And with mufic fill the sky,
Now, ev'n now, my joys run high.

Be full, ye courts; be great who will;
Search for Peace with all your skill:
Open wide the lofty door,
Seek her on the marble floor.

In vain you fearch, fhe is not there;
In vain ye fearch the domes of care!
Grafs and flowers Quiet treads,
On the meads, and mountain-heads,
Along with Pleafure, clofe ally'd,
Ever by each other's fide:

And often, by the murmuring rill, Hears the thrush, while all is ftill, Within the groves of Grongar Hill.

THE

RUINS OF ROME.

"Afpice murorum moles, præruptaque faxa, "Obrutaque horrenti vefta theatra fitu : "Hæc funt Roma. Viden' velut ipfa cadavera

tantæ

"Urbis adhuc spirent imperiosa minas ?”

JANUS VITALIS.'

NOUGH of Grongar, and the fhady dales

Merlin's haunt

fing inglorious. Now the love of arts,
And what in metal or in stone remains
Of proud antiquity, through 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 wafte,
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; obfcur'd in duft;
Ev'n yet majestical: the folemn scene
Elates the foul, while now the rifing Sun
Flames on the ruins in the purer air
Towering aloft, upon the glittering plain,
Like broken rocks, a vast circumference;
Rent palaces, crush'd columns, rifled moles,
Fanes roll'd on fanes, and tombs on buried tombs.
Deep lies in duft the Theban obelisk
Immenfe along the wafte; minuter art,
Gliconian forms, or Phidian, fubtly fair,
O'erwhelming; as th' immense Leviathan
The finny brood, when near Ierne's fhore
Out-ftretch'd, unwieldy, his ifland length appears
Above the foamy flood. Globofe and huge,
Grey-mouldering temples fwell, and wide o'ercaft
The folitary landscape, hills and woods,

And boundlefs wilds; while the vine-mantled brows

The pendent goats unveil, regardless they
Of hourly peril, though the clifted domes
Tremble to every wind. The pilgrim oft
At dead of night, 'mid his oraifon hears
Aghaft the voice of time, difparting towers,
Tumbling all precipitate down-dafh'd,
Rattling around, loud thundering 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 ftreams.

Yet here, adventurous in the facred fearch
Of ancient arts, the delicate of mind,
Curious and modest, from all climes refort.
Grateful fociety! with these I raise

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

On numerous arches rear'd: and frequent stopp'd,
The funk ground startles me with dreadful chasm,
Breathing forth darkness from the vaft profound
Of ifles and halls, within the mountain's womb.
Nor thefe the nether works; all these beneath,
And all beneath the vales and hills around,'
Extend the cavern'd fewers, maffy, firm,
As the Sibylline grot befide the dead
Lake of Avernus; fuch the fewers huge,
Whither the great Tarquinian genius dooms
Each wave impure; and proud with added rains,
Hark now 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 swell,
In vain; convey'd to Tiber's lowest wave.

Hence over airy plains, by crystal founts,
That weave their glittering waves with tuneful lapfe,
Among the fleeky pebbles, agate clear,
Cerulean ophite, and the flowery vein
Of orient jafper, pleas'd I move along,
And vafes bofs'd, and huge infcriptive stones,
And intermingling vines; and figur'd nymphs,
Flora's and Chloe's of delicious mould,
Chearing the darkness; and deep empty tombs,
And dells, and mouldering fhrines, with old decay
Ruftic and green, and wide-embowering shades,
Shot from the crooked clefts of nodding towers.
A folemn wilderness! with error sweet,
I wind the lingering step, 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,

Terrific, monftrous fhapes! prepofterous Gods,
Of Fear and Ignorance, by the fculptor's hand
Hewn into form, and worshipp'd; as ev'n now
Blindly they worthip at their breathless mouths +
In varied appellations: men to these
(From deep to depth in darkening error fall'n)
At length afcrib'd th' Inapplicable Name.

How doth it pleafe and fill the memory
With deeds of brave renown, while on each hand
Hiftoric urns and breathing ftatues rife,

And fpeaking bufts! Sweet Scipio, Marius ftern,
Pompey fuperb, 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,

Fountains at Rome adorned with the ftatues of thofe rivers.

† Several statues of the Pagan gods have been converted into ima_. » of faints,

Defponding Brutus, dubious of the right,
In evil days, or iaith, of public weal,
Solicitous and fad. Thy next regard
Be Tully's graceful attitude: unprais'd,
His out-ftretch'd arm he waves, in act to speak
Before the filent matters of the world,
And eloquence arrays him. There behold
Prepar'd for combat in the front of war
The pious brothers; jealous Alba stands
In fearful expectation of the ftrife,

And youthful Rome intent: the kindred foes
Fall on each other's neck in filent tears;
In forrowful benevolence embrace-
Howe'er, they foon unfheath the flashing fword,
Their country calls to arms; now all in vain
The mother clafps the knee, and ev'n the fair
Now weeps in vain; their country calls to arins.
Such virtue Clelia, Cocles, Manlius, rouz'd;
Such were the Fabii, Decii; fo inspir'd,
The Scipios battled, and the Gracchi spoke :
So rofe the Roman ftate. Me now, of these
Deep-mufing, high ambitious thoughts inflame
Greatly to serve my country, diftant land,
And build me virtuous fame; nor fhall the dust
Of thefe fall'n piles with fhew of fad decay
Avert the good refolve, mean argument,
The fate alone of matter.-Now the brow
We gain enraptur'd; beauteously distinct *
The numerous porti cos and domes upfwell,
With obelisks and columns interpos'd,
And pine, and fir, and oak: fo air a scene
Sees not the dervise from the spiral tomb
Of ancient Chanimos, while his eye beholds
Proud Memphis' reliques o'er th' Ægyptian plain :
Nor hoary hermit from Hymettus' brow,
Though graceful Athens, in the vale beneath.
Along the windings of the Muse's stream,
Lucid Ilyffus weeps her filent schools,
And groves, unvifited by bard or fage.
Amid the towery ruins, huge, fupreme,
Th' enormous amphitheatre behold,
Mountainous pile! o'er whofe capacious womb
Pours the broad firmament its varied light;
While from the central floor the feats afcend
Round above round, flow-widening to the verge
A circuit vaft and high; nor lets had held
Imperial Rome, and her attendant realms,
When drunk with rule the will'd the fierce delight.
And op'd the gloomy caverns, whence out-rum
Before th' innumerable fhouting crowd
The fiery, madded, tyrants of the wilds,
Lions and tigers, wolves and elephants,
And defperate men, more fell. Abhorr'd intent!
By frequent converfe with familiar death,
To kindle brutal daring apt for war;
To lock the breast, and steal th' obdurate heart
Amid the piercing cries of fore distress
Impenetrable. But away thine eye;
Behold yon steepy cliff; the modern pile
Perchance may now delight, while that, rever'd
In ancient days, the page alone declares,
Or narrow coin through dim cærulean rust.
The fane was Jove's, its fpacious golden roof,
O'er thick-furrounding temples beaming wide,

Appear'd, as when above the morning hills
Half the round fun afcends; and tower'd aloft
Suftain'd by columns huge, innumerous
As cedars proud on Canaan's verdant heights
Darkening their idols, when Aftarte lur'd
Too-profperous Ifrael from his living ftrength.
And next regard yon venerable dome,
Which virtuous Latium, with erroneous aim,
Rais'd to her various deities, and nam'd
Pantheon; plain and round; of this our world
Majestic emblem; with peculiar grace
Before its ample orb, projected stands
The many-pillar'd portal: noblest work
Of human skill: here, curious architect,
If thou effay'ft, ambitious, to furpass
Palladius, Angelus, or British Jones,
On thefe fair walls extend the certain scale,
And turn th' inftructive compass: careful mark
How far in hidden art, the noble plain
Extends, and where the lovely forms commence
Of flowing sculpture: nor neglect to note
How range the taper columns, and what weight
Their leafy brows fuftain: fair Corinth first
Boafted their order, which Callimachus
(Reclining ftudious on Afopus' banks
Beneath an urn of fome lamented nymph)
Haply compos'd; the urn with foilage curl'd
Thinly conceal'd, the chapiter inform'd.

See the tall obelisks from Memphis old,
One ftone enormous each, or Thebes convey'd ;
Like Albion's fpires they ruth into the skies.
And there the temple, where the fummon'd state*
In deep of night conven'd: ev'n yet methinks
The vehement orator in rent attire
Perfuafion pours, ambition finks her creft;
And lo the villain, like a troubled fea,
That toffes up her mire! Ever difguis'd,
Shall treafon walk? fhall proud opreffion yoke
The neck of virtue? Lo the wretch, abafh'd,
Self-betray'd Catiline! O Liberty,
Parent of happiness, celeftial-born;
When the first man became a living foul,
His facred genius thou; be Britain's care;
With her fecure, prolong thy lov'd retreat;
Thence blefs mankind; while yet among her fons,
Ev'n yet there are, to thield thine equal laws,
Whofe bofoms kindle at the facred names
Of Cecil, Raleigh, Walfingham, and Drake,
May others more delight in tuneful airs;

In mafque and dance excel; to sculptur'd ftone
Give with fuperior fkill the living look;
More pompous piles erect, or pencil foft
With warmer touch the vifionary board :
But thou, thy nobler Britons teach to rule;
To check the ravage of tyrannic sway;

To quell the proud; to spread the joys of peace,
And various bleffings of ingenious trade.
Be thefe our arts; and ever may we guard,
Ever defend thee with undaunted heart.
Ineftimable good! who giv'ft us Truth,
Whofe hand upleads to light, divinest Truth,
Array'd in every charm: whofe hand benign
Teaches unwearied toil to cloath the fields,
And on his various fruits infcribes the narne
Of Property: O nobly hail'd of eld

By thy majestic daughters, Judah fair,
And Tyrus and Sidonia, lovely nymphs,
And Libya bright, and all-enchanting Greece,
Whose numerous towns and ifles, and peopled feas,
Rejoic'd around her lyre; th' heroic note
(Smit with fublime delight) Aufonia caught,
And plann'd imperial Rome. Thy hand benign
Rear'd up her towery battlements in strength;
Bent her wide bridges o'er the swelling stream
Of Tuscan Tiber; thine those folemn domes
Devoted to the voice of humbler prayer;
And thine those piles* undeck'd, capacious, vaft,
In days of dearth where tender Charity
Difpens'd her timely fuccours to the poor.
Thine too thofe mufically-falling founts,
To flake the clammy lip; adown they fall,
Mufical ever; while from yon blue hills,
Dim in the clouds, the radiant aqueducts
Turn their innumerable arches o'er

The fpacious defert, brightening in the fun,
Proud and more proud in their august approach:
High o'er irriguous vales and woods and towns,
Glide the foft whispering waters in the wind,
And here united pour their filver streams
Among the figur'd rocks, in murmuring falls,
Musical ever. These thy beauteous works:
And what befide felicity could tell

Of human benefit: more late the reft;
At various times their turrets chanc'd to rife,
When impious tyranny vouchsaf'd to smile,

Behold by Tiber's flood, where modern Rome t
Couches beneath the ruins: there of old
With arms and trophies gleam'd the field of Mars:
There to their daily fports the noble youth
Rufh'd emulous; to fling the pointed lance:
To vault the fteed; or with the kindling wheel
In dufty whirlwinds fweep the trembling goal;
Or wrestling, cope with adverse swelling breasts,
Strong grappling arms, close heads, and distant feet;
Or clash the lifted gauntlets: there they form'd
Their ardent virtues: in the boffy piles,
The proud triumphal arches; all their wars,
Their conquefts, honours, in the sculptures live.
And fee from every gate thofe ancient roads,
With tombs high verg'd, the folemn paths of Fame :
Deferve they not regard? O'er whose broad flints
Such crowds have roll'd, fo many ftorms of war;
So many pomps; fo many wondering realms:
Yet ftill through mountains pierc'd, o'er vallies
rais'd,

In even state, to diftant feas around,

They stretch their pavements. Lo, the fane of Peace, Built by that prince, who to the truft of power

Was honeft, the delight of human-kind.

Three nodding ifles remain; the rest an heap

of fand and weeds; her fhrines, her radiant roofs,
And columns proud, that from her spacious floor,
As from a fhining fea, majestic rose
An hundred foot aloft, like ftately beech
Around the brim of Dion's glaffy lake,
Charming the mimic painter: on the walls
Hung Salem's facred fpoils; the golden board,
And golden trumpets, now conceal'd entomb'd

Begun by Vefpafian, and finished by Titus.

Her fpeedy growth alarm'd the states around, Jealous; yet, foon by wondrous virtue won, They fink into her bofom. From the plough Rofe her dictators; fought, o'ercame, return'd, Yes, to the plough return'd, and hail'd their peers; For then no private pomp, no houfhold state, The public only fwell'd the generous breast. Who has not heard the Fabian heroes fung? Dentatus' fcars, or Mutius' flaming hand? How Manlius fav'd the capitol? the cho ce Of steady Regulus? As yet they stood, Simple of life; as yet feducing wealth Was unexplor'd, and thame of poverty Yet unimagin'd-Shine not all the fields With various fruitage? murmur not the brooks Along the flowery vallies? They, content, Feafted at nature's hand, indelicate, Blithe, in their eafy tafte; and only fought Toknow heir duties; that their only ftrife, Their generous ftrife, and greatly to perforin. They through all shapes of peril and of pain, Intent on honour, dar'd in thickest death To fnatch the glorious deed. Nor Trebia quell'd, Nor Thrafymene, nor Cannæ's bloody field, Their dauntless courage; ftorming Hannibal In vain the thunder of the battle roll'd, The Thunder of the battle they return'd Back on his Punick fhores; till Carthage fell, And danger fled afar. The city gleam'd With precious fpoils: alas, profperity! Ah, baneful ftate! yet ebb'd not all their ftrength In foft luxurious pleasures; proud defite Of boundless sway, and feverish thirst of gold, Rouz'd them again to battle. Beauteous Greece, Torn from her joys, in vain with languid arm Half rais'd her rufty fhield; nor could avail The fword of Dacia, nor the Parthian dart; Nor yet the car of that fam'd British chief, Which feven brave years beneath the doubtless wing Of victory, dreadful roll'd its griding wheels Over the bloody war: the Roman arms Triumph'd, till Fame was filent to their foes.

And now the world unrival'd they enjoy'd In proud fecurity: the crefted helm,

The plated greave and corfelet hung unbrac'd; Nor clank'd their arms, the fpear and founding fhield,

But on the glittering trophy to the wind.

Difolv'd in eafe and foft delights they lie,
Till every fun annoys, and every wind
Has chilling force, and every rain offends:
For now the frame no more is girt with strength
Mafculine, ner in luftiness of heart
Laughs at the winter ftorm, and fummer-beam,
Superior to their rage: enfeebling vice
Withers each nerve, and opens every pore
To painful feeling: flowery bowers they seek
(As æther prompts, as the fick fenfe approves)
Or cool Nymphean grots; or tepid baths
(Taught by the soft Ionians) they, along
The lawny vale, of every beauteous ftone,
Pile in the rofeat air with fond expence :
Through filver channels glide the vagrant waves,
And tall on filver beds cryftalline down,
Wielodious murmuring; while luxury

Over their naked limbs with wanton hand,
Sheds rofes, odours, fheds unheeded bane.

Swift is the flight of wealth; unnumber'd wante,
Brood of voluptuousness, cry out aloud
Neceffity, and feek the fplendid bribe.

The citron board, the bowl embofs'd with gems,
And tender foliage wildly wreath'd around
Of feeming ivy, by that artful hand,
Corinthian Thericles; whate'er is known
Of rareft acquifition; Tyrian garbs,
Neptunian Albion's high teftaceous food,
And flavour'd Chian wines with incenfe fum'd
To flake Patrician thirft; for these, their rights
In the vile streets they prostitute to fale;
Their ancient rights, their dignities, their laws,
Their native glorious freedom. Is there none,
Is there no villain, that will bind the neck
Stretch'd to the yoke? they come; the market
throngs.

But who has most by fraud or force amafs'd?
Who moft can charm corruption with his doles ?
He be the monarch of the state; and lo!
Didius, vile ufurer, though the crowd he mounts *,
Beneath his feet the Roman eagle cowers,
And the red arrows fill his grafp uncouth.
O Britons, O my countrymen, beware;
Gird, gird your hearts; the Romans once were free,
Were brave, were virtuous.-Tyranny howe'er
Deign'd to walk forth a while in pageant state,
And with licentious pleasures fed the rout,
The thoughtless many: to the wanton found
Of fifes and drums they danc'd, or in the fhade
Sung Cæfar, great and terrible in war,
Immortal Cæfar! Lo, a God, a God,

He cleaves the yielding fkies! Cæfar meanwhile
Gathers the ocean pebbles; or the gnat
Enrag'd purfues; or at his lonely meal
Starves a wide province; taftes, diflikes, and fling
To dogs and fycophants. A God, a God!
The flowery fhades and fhrines obfcene return.

But fee along the North the tempefts fwell
O'er the rough Alps, and darken all their snows!
Sudden the Goth and Vandal, dreaded names,
Rufh as the breach of waters, whelming all
Their domes, their villas; down the feftive piles,
Down fall their Parian porches, gilded baths,
And roll before the ftorm in clouds of duít.

Vain end of human ftrength, of human skill, Conqueft, and triumph, and domain, and pomp, And eafe, and luxury! O luxury,

Bane of elated life, of affluent ftates,
What dreary change, what ruin is not thine?
How doth thy bowl intoxicate the mind!
To the foft entrance of thy rofy cave
How dost thou lure the fortunate and great!
Dreadful attraction! while behind thee gapes
Th' unfathomable gulph where Asher lies
O'erwhelm'd, forgotten; and high-boafting Cham;
And Elam's haughty pomp; and beauteous Greece;
And the great queen of earth, imperial Rome.

* Didius Julianus, who bought the empire.