Grey-mould'ring temples fwell, and wide o'ercaft

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 oraison hears
Aghaft the voice of time, difparting tow'rs,
Tumbling all precipitate down-dash'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 fearch

Of ancient arts, the delicate of mind,

Curious and modeft, from all climes refort,
Grateful fociety with thefe I raise

The toilsome 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 statues of those rivers.

On

On num'rous arches rear'd: and frequent stopp'd,
The funk ground startles me with dreadful chasm,
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, 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 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 dash and fwell,

In vain; convey'd to Tiber's lowest wave.

Hence over airy plains, by cryftal founts,

That weave their glitt'ring waves with tuneful lapfe, Among the fleeky pebbles, agate clear,

Cerulean ophite, and the flow'ry vein

Of orient jafper, pleas'd I move along,
And vases boss'd, and huge inscriptive stones,

VOL. I.

R

And

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 shrines, with old decay
Ruftic and green, and wide-embow'ring fhades,
Shot from the crooked clefts of nodding tow'rs;
A folemn wilderness! With error fweet,

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, monftrous 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' INAPPLICABLE NAME.

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

And speaking bufts! Sweet Scipio, Marius stern, .

Several statues of the pagan gods have been converted into images of faints.

Pompey

Pompey fuperb, the spirit-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,
Defponding Brutus, dubious of the right,
In evil days, of faith, of public weal
Solicitous and fad. Thy next regard
Be Tully's graceful attitude; uprais'd,
His out-stretch'd arm he waves, in act to speak,
Before the filent mafters 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 unsheath 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 arms.
Such virtue Clelia, Cocles, Manlius, rous'd;
Such were the Fabii, Decii; fo infpir'd

The Scipio's battled, and the Gracchi spoke :
So rofe the Roman ftate. Me now, of these

Deep-mufing, high ambitious thoughts inflame
Greatly to ferve my country, diftant land,

And build me virtuous fame; nor fhall the duft
Of these 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 num'rous portico's and domes upfwell,
With obelifcs and columns interpos'd,
And pine, and fir, and oak: so fair a scene
Sees not the dervise from the spiral tomb
Of ancient Chammos, 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 Mufe's stream,
Lucid Ilyffus, weeps her filent schools,

And groves, unvifited by bard or fage.
Amid the tow'ry ruins, huge, fupreme,

Th' enormous amphitheatre behold,

From the Palatin hill one fees most of the remarkable antiquities.

Moun