Afpice murorum moles, præruptaque faxa,
Obrutaque hori enti vafta theatra fitu:
Hæc funt Roma. Viden' velut ipfa cadavera tanta
Urbis adhuc fpirent imperiofa minas?
NOUGH of Grongar, and the fhady dales
Of winding Towy, Merlin's fabled haunt,
I fang 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 waste,
Where yellow Tiber his neglected wave
Mournfully rolls. Yet once again, my Mufe,
Yet once again, and foar a loftier flight;
Lo the refiftless 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
Tow'ring aloft, upon the glitt'ring plain,
Like broken rocks, a vaft circumference;
Rent palaces, crush'd columns, rifted moles,
Fanes roll'd on fanes, and tombs on buried tombs.
Deep lies in duft the Theban obelifç,
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 shore
Out-ftretch'd, unwieldy, his ifland length appears
Above the foamy flood. Globofe and huge,
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 oraifon 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 toilfome step up the proud Palatin,
Through fpiry cyprefs groves, and tow'ring pine,
Waving aloft o'er the big ruins brows,
On num'rous arches rear'd; and frequent stopp'd,
The funk ground ftartles me with dreadful chafm,
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,
a Fountains at Rome adorned with the ftatues of those rivers. "The Cloacæ, which are conveyances for the filth and dirt of the
Whither the great Tarquinian genius dooms
Each wave impure; and proud with added rains,
Hark how the mighty billows lafh 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 swell,
In vain; convey'd to Tiber's lowest wave.
Hence over airy plains, by cryftal 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 vases bofs'd, and huge inscriptive stones,
And intermingling vines; and figur'd nymphs,
Floras and Chloes 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 shades,
Shot from the crooked clefts of nodding tow'rs;
A folemn wilderness! With error fweet,
I wind the ling'ring ftep, where'er the path
"city, are a work of very great antiquity, and are called by Pliny "Opus Omnium Maximum, on account of the great capaciousness and "firmness of the vaults. They were eight hundred years old in his "time, being made by Tarquinius Prifcus, and continue to this day.” Wright's Travels, 1730, p. 361.
Mazy conducts me, which the vulgar foot
O'er fculptures 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
Hiftoric urns and breathing ftatues rife,
And speaking bufts! Sweet Scipio, Marius ftern,
Pompey fuperb, the fpirit-ftirring 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. The next regard
Be Tully's graceful attitude; uprais'd,
His out-ftretch'd arm he waves, in act to speak
< Several ftatues of the Pagan gods have been converted into images See Dr. Middleton's Letter from Rome, vol. iii. p. 84.
4to edition of his works.
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