If the following attempt to trace Liberty, from the first ages down to her excellent establishment in GreatBritain, can at all merit your approbation, and prove an entertainment to Your Royal Highnefs; if it can in any degree answer the dignity of the subject, and of the name under which I prefume to shelter it; I have my beft reward: particularly as it affords me an opportunity of declaring that I am, with the greatest zeal and refpect,
and most devoted fervant,
My lamented Talbot! while with thee
The Muse gay rov'd the glad Hefperian round,
And drew th' inspiring breath of ancient arts;
Ah! little thought she her returning verfe
Should fing our darling fubject to thy fhade.
And does the myftic veil, from mortal beam,
Involve thofe eyes where every virtue fimil❜d,
And all thy Father's candid spirit fhone?
The light of reafon, pure, without a cloud;
Full of the generous heart, the mild regard;
Honour difdaining blemish, cordial faith,
And limpid truth, that looks the very foul.
But to the death of mighty nations turn,
My ftrain; be there abforpt the private tear.
Mufing, I lay; warm from the facred walks,
Where at each step imagination burns:
While, fcatter'd wide around, aweful, and hoar,
Lies, a vaft monument, once-glorious Rome,
The tomb of empire! ruins! that efface
Whate'er, of finish'd, modern pomp can boast.
Snatch'd by these wonders to that world where thought Unfetter'd ranges, Fancy's magic hand C
Led me anew o'er all the folemn scene,
Still in the mind's pure eye more folemn dreft.
When ftrait, methought, the fair majestic Power
Of Liberty appear'd. Not, as of old,
Extended in her hand the cap, and rod,
Whose flave-enlarging touch gave double life:
But her bright temples bound with British oak,
And naval honours nodded on her brow.
Sublime of port: loofe o'er her shoulder flow'd
Her fea-green robe, with constellations gay.
An island-goddess now; and-her high care
The queen of ifles, the mistress of the main.
My heart beat filial transport at the fight;
And, as she mov'd to fpeak, th' awaken'd Muse
Liften'd intenfe. A while fhe look'd around,
With mournful eye the well-known ruins mark'd,
And then, her fighs repreffing, thus began.
Mine are these wonders, all thou fee'st is mine; But, ah, how chang'd; the falling poor remains Of what exalted once th' Aufonian fhore.
Look back through time; and, rifing from the gloom, Mark the dread fcene, that paints whate'er I fay.
The great republic fee! that glow'd, sublime,
With the mixt freedom of a thousand ftates;
Rais'd on the thrones of kings her Curule Chair,
And by her Fafces' aw'd the fubject world.
See bufy millions quickening all the land,
With cities throng'd, and teeming culture high:
For Nature then finil'd on her free-born fons,
And pour'd the plenty that belongs to Men.
Behold, the country chearing, villas rife,
In lively profpect; by the fecret lapfe
Of brooks now loft and ftreams renown'd in song :
In Umbria's clofing vales, or on the brow
Of her brown hills that breathe the fcented gale :
On Baia's viny coaft; where peaceful seas,
Fan'd by kind zephyrs, ever kiss the fhore ;
And funs unclouded fhine, through purest air:
Or in the spacious neighbourhood of Rome;
Far-fhining upward to the Sabine hills,
To Anio's roar, and Tibur's olive fhade;
To where Preneste lifts her airy brow;
Or downward spreading to the funny shore,
Where Alba breathes the freshness of the main.
See diftant mountains leave their vallies dry,
And o'er the proud arcade their tribute pour,
To lave imperial Rome. For ages laid,
Deep, maffy, firm, diverging every way,
With tombs of heroes facred, fee her roads:
By various nations trod, and fuppliant kings;
With legions flaming, or with triumph gay.
Full in the centre of these wondrous works,
The pride of earth! Rome in her glory fee!
Behold her demi-gods, in fenate met;
All head to counsel, and all heart to act:
The common-weal infpiring every tongue
With fervent eloquence, unbrib'd, and bold;
Ere tame Corruption taught the fervile herd
To rank obedient to a master's voice.
Her Forum fee, warm, popular, and loud,
In trembling wonder hush'd, when the two Sires,
As they the private father greatly quell'd,
Stood up the public fathers of the state.
See Juftice judging there, in human shape.
Hark! how with freedom's voice it thunders high,
Or in foft murmurs finks to Tully's tongue.
Her tribes, her cenfus, fee; her generous troops,
Whofe pay was glory, and their best reward.
Free for their country and for Me to die;
Ere
a
grew trade.
mercenary
Mark, as the purple triumph waves along,
The highest pomp and lowest fall of life.
Her feftive games, the fchool of heroes, fee;
Her Circus, ardent with contending youth;
Her ftreets, her temples, palaces, and baths,
Full of fair forms, of Beauty's eldest-born,
And of a people caft in virtue's mold.
While sculpture lives around, and Asian hills
Lend their best stores to heave the pillar'd dome :
All that to Roman ftrength the softer touch
Of Grecian art can join. But language fails
To paint this fun, this centre of mankind;
Where every virtue, glory, treasure, art,
Attracted strong, in heighten'd lustre met.
Need I the contraft mark? unjoyous view!
A land in all, in government, in arts,
In virtue, genius, earth and heaven, revers’d.
Who but, thefe far-fam'd ruins to behold,
Proofs of a people, whofe heroic aims
Soar'd far above the little felfish sphere
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