Pantheon; plain and round; of this our world
Majestick emblem; with peculiar grace,
Before its ample orb, projected stands
The many-pillar'd portal; nobleft work
Of human skill: here, curious architect,
If thou affay'ft, ambitious, to furpass
Palladius, Angelus, or British Jones,
On these fair walls extend the certain fcale,
And turn th' inftructive compass: careful mark How far in hidden art, the noble plain
Extends, and where the lovely forms commence
Of flowing sculpture: nor neglect to note
How range the taper columns, and what weight
Their leafy brows fuftain: fair Corinth first
Boafted their order which Callimachus
(Reclining ftudious on Afopus' banks
Beneath an urn of fome lamented nymph)
Haply compos'd; the urn with foliage curl'd
Thinly conceal'd, the chapiter inform'd.
See the tall obelifcs from Memphis old,
One ftone enormous each, or Thebes convey'd ;
Like Albion's fpires they rush into the skies.
And there the temple, where the fummon'd state *
In deep of night conven'd: ev'n yet methinks
The veh❜ment orator in rent attire
Perfuafion pours, ambition finks her creft;
And lo the villain, like a troubled fea,
That toffes up her mire! Ever difguis'd,
Shall treason walk? fhall proud oppreffion yoke
The neck of virtue? Lo the wretch, abafh'd,
Self-betray'd Catiline! O Liberty,
Parent of happiness, celeftial born;
When the first man became a living foul,
His facred genius thou; be Britain's care;
With her fecure, prolong thy lov'd retreat;
Thence blefs mankind; while yet among her fons,
Ev'n yet there are, to fhield thine equal laws,
Whose bosoms kindle at the facred names
Of Cecil, Raleigh, Walfingham and Drake.
May others more delight in tuneful airs ;
In mafque and dance excel; to fculptur'd stone
Give with superior skill the living look;
The temple of Concord, where the Senate met on Catiline's confpiracy.
More pompous piles erect, or pencil foft
With warmer touch the visionary board:
But thou, thy nobler Britons teach to rule;
To check the ravage of tyrannick fway;
To quell the proud; to fpread the joys of peace,
And various bleffings of ingenious trade.
Be these our arts; and ever may we guard,
Ever defend thee with undaunted heart.
Ineftimable good! who giv'ft us Truth,
Whose hand upleads to light, divinest Truth,
Array'd in ev'ry charm: whose hand benign
Teaches unwearied toil to cloath the fields,
And on his various fruits infcribes the name
Of Property: O nobly hail'd of old
By thy majestick daughters, Judah fair,
And Tyrus and Sidonia, lovely nymphs,
And Libya bright, and all-enchanting Greece,
Whofe num'rous towns and ifles, and peopled feas,
Rejoic'd around her lyre; th' heroic note
(Smit with fublime delight) Aufonia caught,
And plan'd imperial Rome. Thy hand benign
Rear'd up her tow'ry battlements in strength;
Bent her wide bridges o'er the fwelling stream
Of Tuscan Tiber; thine thofe folemn domes
Devoted to the voice of humbler pray'r ;
And thine those piles undeck'd, capacious, vaft,"
In days of dearth where tender Charity
Difpens'd her timely fuccours to the poor.
Thine too those musically-falling founts
To flake the clammy lip; adown they fall,
Mufical ever; while from yon blue hills
Dim in the clouds, the radiant aqueducts
Turn their innumerable arches o'er
The spacious defert, bright'ning in the fun,
Proud and more proud in their auguft approach:
High o'er irriguous vales and woods and towns,
Glide the foft whispering waters in the wind,
And here united pour their filver ftreams
Among the figur'd rocks, in murm'ring falls,
Mufical ever. These thy beauteous works:
And what befide felicity could tell
Of human benefit: more late the rest;
At various times their turrets chanc'd to rife,
When impious tyranny vouchsaf'd to smile.
Behold by Tiber's flood, where modern Rome & Couches beneath the ruins: there of old
With arms and trophies gleam'd the field of Mars:
There to their daily sports the noble youth
Rufh'd emulous; to fling the pointed lance;
To vault the fteed; or with the kindling wheel
In dusty whirlwinds fweep the trembling goal;
Or wrestling, cope with adverfe fwelling breafts,
Strong grappling arms, close heads and distant feet;,
Or clash the lifted gauntlets: there they form'd
Their ardent virtues: in the boffy piles,
The proud triumphal arches; all their wars,
Their conquefts, honours, in the sculptures live.
And fee from ev'ry gate those ancient roads,
With tombs high verg'd, the folemn paths of Fame:
Deserve they not regard? O'er whose broad flints
Such crowds have roll'd, so many storms of war;
So many pomps; fo many wond'ring realms :
Modern Rome ftands chiefly on the old Campus Martius.
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