XCII.

Infinite passions, good and evil, blended,
That on this spot humanity assailed!-

Shades of the mighty Dead! who here contended
As on a stage, and triumphed, stood or failed,
As virtue, vice, or patriot-love prevailed ;--
Departed Ages that have passed, since those
Grey columns stood !-what fruits have ye entailed?
Where are ye?-where the Future shall repose,

In that dark grave of earth where all life's pageants

close.

XCIII.

And could ye, ardent Spirits! rise again
To play your parts upon our little scene,
No more would ye be demigods, but men ;
How humanised and softened had ye been
Now, when the man refined hath found within
Infinite feelings which themselves renew,

Arraying Life's most arid wastes with green;
When nobler ends than life man holds in view;

And when domestic home gives joys ye never knew!

XCIV.

A solitude within the Forum's heart!

Where Meditation may repose; alas,

What here can her profoundest thought impart?

That he who moralises, thus must pass

Like those beneath; but this chaotic mass

Who shall divide, or portion, or restore?

Thou, to whose eye yon withering blade of grass
Is mystery-cease their records to explore,

Death's secrets none may read till time shall be no

more.

XCV.

Yon arch-is't Jove's or Fortune's? on that sod

Was the stern war-denouncing Rostrum piled,

Where Tully stood like a descended God?

Where did the Roman sacrifice his child,

That flower whose virgin soul was undefiled!

Where stood spare Brutus when his friend he slew,

That glorious martyr of ambition wild?

Behold the arch of Titus ! 'tis the clew

Found for the mind's repose, which searches not anew.

XCVI.

Lo, the great record of the man who left

A greater-he who never lost a day!

Though worn that arch, its front, and tablet cleft,
Well read'st thou the great moral of decay,
How empires, as religions, pass away,
Replaced by others; until they, waxed old,
Fall—and, in falling, show their feet of clay:

Think уе that when his tale the Hebrew told

Of Slavery there, he deemed his sons should e'er be

hold

XCVII.

The hour when those mocked symbols of his faith
Would crown the shrines which now are desolate,
And live immortally above their death?

When Jove should yield to Jesus, and when Fate
Should be a word to raise the smile sedate;
And when the many gods should bow to ONE?
Lo-there the Victors on the vanquished wait!
The secrets of their faith revealed in stone,

For every tongue to scorn, to gibe, while passing on.

XCVIII.

The spurned-the crushed into the dust-have risen ; The slaves are conquerors, and the cross of wood Is reared o'er marble-what can truth imprison? On those proud columns once where heroes stood, Stand Martyrs; men who poured forth their own blood For that first cause of all they deemed divine; So Time rolls on !-all in their turn subdued, Yield, and bow down to one eternal shrine; Light Mutability-life's very name is thine!

XCIX.

Away vain musings! ended as began:
Aimless and hopeless, save to teach us more

To make our moment happy while we can:
And while my eyes are turned to thee, bright shore
Of Light! methinks, while I thy shrine adore,

Thou sheddest quiet from thine argent urn!

Till, like thy beams, my spirit, flowing o'er
With softness and affectionate hope, doth yearn

To make confession there, as if thou could'st return,

C.

Thou rolling Moon! my thoughts to me again:
Yet wert thou not hung there as well to be
A Lamp, as a confessional for men?

Where, in the quiet of the night, to thee,
Spirits should steal from mankind silently,

Το

pour

those secrets heard by God alone:

Oh, thou dost soften doubt to certainty! Who ever gazed on thee, nor felt his own Mysterious alliance with thy world unknown?

CI.

Yet it may be, thou, too, hast scenes to show
Like these Titanic heaps around me piled:
It may be, hidden that pure front below,
Thou show'st a Chaos horrible and wild;
Perchance, a den of passion more defiled

Than ours,

with no redeeming light from God!

Or, thou might'st be Creation's youngest child :

Thine atmosphere a heaven; and thy sod

The unpolluted cloud where Gods alone have trod!