The boat of well-pleas'd Nature! Sculpture feiz'd,
And bade them ever fmile in Parian ftone.
Selecting beauty's choice, and that again
Exalting, blending in a perfect whole,
Thy workmen left ev'n Nature's felf behind.
From those far different, whose prolific hand
Peoples a nation; they for years on years,
By the cool touches of judicious toil,
Their rapid genius curbing, pour'd it all
Through the live features of one breathing stone.
There, beaming full, it fhone; expreffing gods:
Jove's awful brow, Apollo's air divine,
The fierce atrocious frown of finew'd Mars,
Or the fly graces of the Cyprian Queen.
Minutely perfect all! Each dimple funk,
And every muscle fwell'd, as Nature taught.
In treffes, braided gay, the marble wav’d;
Flow'd in loofe robes, or thin transparent veils ;
Sprung into motion; foften'd into flesh;
Was fir'd to paffion, or refin'd to foul.
Nor lefs thy pencil, with creative touch,
Shed mimic life, when all thy brightest dames,
Affembled, Zeuxis in his Helen mix'd.
And when Apelles, who peculiar knew
To give a grace that more than mortal fmil'd,
The foul of beauty! call'd the Queen of Love,
Fresh from the billows, blushing orient charms.
Ev'n fuch enchantment then thy pencil pour'd,
That cruel-thoughted War th' impatient torch
Dash'd to the ground; and, rather than destroy
The patriot picture, let the city 'fcape.
First elder Sculpture taught her Sister Art
Correct defign; where great ideas fhone,
And in the fecret trace expreffion spoke:
Taught her the graceful attitude; the turn,
And beauteous airs of head; the native act,
Or bold, or eafy; and, caft free behind,
The swelling mantle's well-adjusted flow.
Then the bright Mufe, their eldest fifter, came;
And bade her follow where fhe led the way:
Bade earth, and fea, and air, in colours rise;
And copious action on the canvafs glow;
Gave her gay fable; fpread invention's store;
Enlarg'd her view; taught compofition high,
And just arrangement, circling round one point,
That starts to fight, binds and commands the whole.
Caught from the heavenly Muse a nobler aim,
And, fcorning the soft trade of mere delight,
O'er all thy temples, porticos, and fchools,
Heroic deeds fhe trac'd, and warm difplay'd
Each moral beauty to the ravish'd eye.
There, as th' imagin'd prefence of the God,
Arous'd the mind, or vacant hours induc'd
Calm contemplation, or assembled youth
Burn'd in ambitious circle round the sage,
The living leffon stole into the heart,
With more prevailing force than dwells in words.
Thefe rouze to glory; while, to rural life,
The fofter canvass oft repos'd the foul.
There gayly broke the fun-illumin'd cloud
The leffening profpect, and the mountain blue,
Vanish'd in air; the precipice frown'd, dire;
White, down the rock, the rufhing torrent dafh'd; 355
The fun fhone, trembling, o'er the distant main;
The tempeft foam'd, immense; the driving storm
Sadden'd the skies, and, from the doubling gloom,
On the fcath'd oak the ragged lightning fell;
In closing shades, and where the current strays,
With peace, and love, and innocence around,
Pip'd the lone fhepherd to his feeding flock :
Round happy parents fmil'd their younger felves;
And friends convers'd, by death divided long.
To public Virtue thus the fmiling Arts,
Unblemish'd handmaids, ferv'd! the Graces they
To drefs this faireft Venus. Thus rever'd,
And plac'd beyond the reach of fordid care,
The high awarders of immortal fame,
Alone for glory thy great masters ftrove;
Courted by kings, and by contending states
Affum'd the boafted honour of their birth.
In Architecture too thy rank fupreme!
That art where most magnificent appears
The little builder man; by thee refin'd,
And, smiling high, to full perfection brought.
Such thy fure rules, that Goths of every age,
Who fcorn'd their aid, have only loaded earth
With labour'd heavy monuments of shame.
Not thofe gay domes that o'er thy fplendid shore
Shot, all proportion, up. First unadorn'd,
And nobly plain, the manly Doric rofe;
Th' Ionic then, with decent matron grace,
Her airy pillar heav'd; luxuriant last,
The rich Corinthian fpread her wanton wreath.
The whole fo measur'd true, fo leffen'd off
By fine proportion, that the marble pile,
Form'd to repel the ftill or ftormy waste
Of rolling ages, light as fabrics look'd
That from the magic wand aërial rife.
These were the wonders that illumin'd Greece,
From end to end-Here interrupting warm,
Where are they now? (I cry'd) fay, Goddess, where? And what the land thy darling thus of old?
Sunk! the refum'd: deep in the kindred gloom
Of fuperftition, and of flavery funk!
No glory now can touch their hearts, benumb'd
By loofe dejected floth and fervile fear;
No fcience pierce the darkness of their minds
No nobler art the quick ambitious foul
Of imitation in their breast awake.
Ev'n, to fupply the needful arts of life,
Mechanic toil denies the hopeless hand.
Scarce any trace remaining, veftige grey,
Or nodding column on the defert fhore,
To point where Corinth, or where Athens ftood.
A faithlefs land of violence, and death!
Where commerce parleys, dubious, on the shore;
And his wild impulse curious search restrains,
Afraid to trust th' inhospitable clime.
Neglected nature fails; in fordid want
Sunk, and debas'd, their beauty beams no more.
The fun himfelf feems angry, to regard,
Of light unworthy, the degenerate race;
And fires them oft with peftilential rays:
While earth, blue poifon fteaming on the fkies,
Indignant, shakes them from her troubled fides.
But as from man to man, Fate's first decree,
Impartial Death the tide of riches rolls,
So ftates must die, and Liberty go round.
Fierce was the stand, ere virtue, valour, arts,
And the foul fir'd by Me (that often, stung
With thoughts of better times and old renown,
From hydra-tyrants try'd to clear the land)
Lay quite extinct in Greece, their works effac'd
And grofs o'er all unfeeling bondage spread.
Sooner I mov'd my much-reluctant flight,
Pois'd on the doubtful wing: when Greece with Greece Embroil'd in foul contention fought no more
For common glory, and for common weal :
But, falfe to freedom, fought to quell the free;
Broke the firm band of peace, and facred love,
That lent the whole irrefragable force;
And, as around the partial trophy blush'd,
Prepar'd the way for total overthrow.
Then to the Perfian power, whofe pride they scorn'd,
When Xerxes pour'd his millions o'er the land,
Sparta, by turns, and Athens, vilely fued;
Sued to be venal parricides, to spill
Their country's bravest blood, and on themselves 44
To turn their matchlefs mercenary arms.
Peaceful in Sufa, then, fat the great king;
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