Afpice murorum moles, præruptaque faxa,
Obrutaque borrenti vafta theatra fitu:
Hæc funt Roma. Viden' velut ipfa cadavera tante Urbis adbuc fpirent imperiofa minas?
NOUGH of Grongar, and the fhady dales
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, 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 refistless 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 fcene
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 vaft circumference;
Rent palaces, crufh'd columns, rifted moles,
Fanes roll'd on fanes, and tombs on buried tombs.
Deep lies in duft the Theban obelisc,
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 fhore
Out-stretch'd, unwieldly, his ifland length appears
Above the foamy flood. Globofe and huge,
Grey-mould'ring temples fwell, and wide o'ercast
The folitary landskip, 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 oraifon hears
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 search
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 cypress groves, and tow'ring pine,
Waving aloft o'er the big ruins brows,
Fountains at Rome adorned with the ftatues of thofe rivers.
On num'rous arches rear'd: and frequent ftopp'd,
The funk ground startles me with dreadful chafi,
Breathing forth darkness from the vast profound
Of ifles 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, massy, 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 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 dafh and fwell,
In vain; convey'd to Tiber's lowest wave.
Hence over airy plains, by crystal 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 vafes bofs'd, and huge infcriptive ftones,
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
Ruftic and green, and wide-embòw'ring fhades,
Shot from the crooked clefts of nodding tow'rs;
A folemn wilderness! With error sweet,
I wind the ling'ring ftep, where-e'er the path
Mazy conducts me, which the vulgar foot
O'er sculptures maim'd has made; Anubis, Sphinx,
Idols of antique guife, and horned Pan,
Terrific, monstrous fhapes! prepoft'rous gods,
Of Fear and Ign'rance, by the fculptor's hand
Hewn into form, and worship'd; as ev'n now
Blindly they worship at their breathlefs mouths
In varied appellations: men to these
(From depth to depth in dark'ning error fall'n)
At length afcrib'd th' IN APPLICABLE NAME.
How doth it please and fill the memory
With deeds of brave renown, while on each hand
Historic urns and breathing statues rife,
And speaking bufts! Sweet Scipio, Marius ftern,
Several statues of the pagan gods have been converted into images of faints.
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