A

S this Part contains a defcription of the establish

ment of LIBERTY in ROME, it begins with a view of the Grecian colonies fettled in the fouthern parts of Italy, which with Sicily constituted the Great Greece of the Ancients. With thefe colonies the Spirit of LIBERTY, and of Republics, Spread over Italy; to Ver. 32. Tranfition to PYTHAGORAS and his philofophy, which he taught thro' thofe free ftates and cities; to Ver. 71. Amidst the many fmall Republics in Italy, ROME the deftined feat of LIBERTY. Her establishment there dated from the expulfion of the Tarquins. How differ ing from that in GREECE; to Ver. 88. Reference to a view of the ROMAN REPUBLIC given in the First Part of this Poem: to mark its Rife and Fall, the peculiar purport of This. During its first ages, the greatest force of LIBERTY, and Virtue, exerted; to Ver. 103. The fource whence derived the Heroic Virtues of the ROMANS. Enumeration of thefe Virtues. Thence their fecurity at home; their glory, fuccefs, and empire, abroad; to Ver. 226. Bounds of the Roman empire geographically defcribed; to Ver. 257. The ftates of GREECE reflored to LIBERTY, by TITUS QUINTUS FLAMINIUS, the higheft inflance of public generofity and beneficence; to Ver. 328. The loss of LIBERTY in ROME. Its caufes, progress, and completion in the death of BRUTUS; to Ver. 485. Rome under the emperors; to Ver. 513. From ROME the GODDESS of LIBERTY goes among the NORTHERN NATIONS; where, by infufing into them her Spirit and general principles, She lays the ground-work of her future establishments ; fends them in vengeance on the Roman empire, now totally enflaved; and then, with Arts and Sciences in her train, quits earth during the dark ages; to Ver. 550. The celeftial regions, to which LIBERTY retired, not proper to be opened to the view of mortals.

LIBERTY.

PART

III.

H

ERE melting mix'd with air th' ideal forms, That painted ftill whate'er the GODDESS fung. Then 1, impatient." From extinguifh'd GREECE, "To what new region stream'd the Human Day ?" She, foftly fighing, as when Zephir leaves, Refign'd to Boreas, the declining year, Refum'd.-Indignant, these † last scenes I fled And long ere then, Leucadia's cloudy cliff, And the Geraunian hills behind me thrown," All LATIUM ftood arous'd. Ages before, Great mother of republics! GREECE had pour'd, Swarm after fwarm, her ardent youth around. On Afia, Afric, Sicily, they ftoop'd,

;

But chief on fair HESPERIA's winding fhore;
Where, from * Lacinium to Etrurian vales,
They roll'd encreafing colonies along,
And lent materials for my ROMAM REIGN.
With them my Spirit spread; and numerous states
And cities rofe, on Grecian models form'd ;

As its parental policy, and arts,

Each had imbib'd. Besides, to each affign'd
A Guardian Genius, o'er the public weal,

The last struggles of Liberty in GREECE.
A promontory in Calabria.

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Kept

Kept an unclofing eye; try'd to fuftain,

Or more fublime, the soul infus'd by Mɛ:
And strong the battle rose, with various wave,
Against the Tyrant Demons of the land.
Thus they their little wars and triumphs knew ;
Their flows of fortune, and receding times,
But almost all below the proud regard
Of story vow'd to Rome, on deeds intent
That Truth beyond the flight of Fable bore.

Not fo the SAMIAN SAGE; to him belongs
The brightest witness of recording Fame.
For these free states his native § isle forfook,
And a vain tyrant's tranfitory fmile,
He fought Crotona's pure falubrious air,

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And thro' Great Greece his gentle wildom taught; Wisdom that call'd for | liftening years the mind, Nor ever heard amid the ftorm of zeal.

His mental eye first launch'd into the deeps

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Of boundless ether; where unnumber'd orbs,
Myriads on myriads, thro' the pathless sky
Unerring roll, and wind their steady way.

There he the full confenting choir beheld ;

There first discern'd the secret band of love,
The kind attraction that to central funs

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Binds circling earths, and world with world unites.
Inftructed thence, he great ideas form'd -
Of the whole moving all-informing GOD,
The Sun of beings! beaming unconfin'd
Light, life, and love, and ever-active power:

PYTHAGORAS.

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Samos, over which then reigned the tyrant POLYCRATES.
The fouthern parts of Italy and Sicily, fo called because

of the Grecian colonies there fettled.

His fcholars were enjoined filence for five years.

Whom

Whom nought can image, and who beft approves
The filent worship of the moral heart,

That joys in bounteous heaven, and spreads the joy.
Nor fcorn'd the foaring fage to stoop to life,

And bound his reason to the sphere of Man.
He gave the four yet reigning virtues name;
Infpir'd the study of the finer arts,

That civilize mankind, and laws devis'd
Where with enlighten'd justice mercy mix'd.
He even, into his tender system, took
Whatever shares the brotherhood of life:
He taught that life's indiffoluble flame,
From brute to Man, and Man to brute again,
For ever fhifting, runs th' eternal round
Thence try'd against the blood-polluted meal,
And limbs yet quivering with some kindred foul,
To turn the human heart. Delightful truth!
Had he beheld the living chain ascend,
And not a circling Form, but rifing Whole.
Amid thefe fmall republics one arofe,
On yellow Tyber's bank, almighty ROME,
Fated for ME. A nobler fpirit warm'd
Her fons; and, rous'd by tyrants, nobler still

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It burn'd in BRUTUS; the proud Tarquins chas'd, 75
With all their crimes; bade radiant aeras rise,
And the long honours of the Conful-line.

Here from the fairer, not the greater, plan
Of GREECE I vary'd; whose unmixing states,
By the keen foul of emulation pierc'd,
Long wage'd alone the bloodless war of arts,
And their best empire gain'd. But to diffuse
O'er Men an empire was my purpose now!
To let my martial majefty abroad

The four cardinal virtues.
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