of the Ten Thousand. Its full exertion, and most | While there my laws alone defpotic reign'd, beautiful effects, in Athens, to ver. 216. Liber-And kings as well as people proud obey'd; ty the fource of free philofophy. The various fchools which took their rife from Socrates, to v. 257. Enumeration of fine arts: Eloquence, Poetry, Mulic, Sculpture, Painting, and Architecture, the effects of Liberty in Greece, & brought to their utmost perfection there, to ver. 381.Tranfition to the modern ftate of Greece, to ver. 411. Why Liberty declined, and was at laft entirely loft among the Greeks, to ver. 472. Concluding reflection.
HUS fpoke the goddefs of the fearless eye, And at her voice, renew'd, the Vifion rofe. Firft, in the dawn of time, with eastern fwains,
In woods, and tents, and cottages, I liv'd,
While on from plain to plain they led their flocks,
In fearch of clearer fpring, and fresher field.
Thefe, as increafing families difclos'd
The tender ftate, I taught an equal fway.
Few were offences, properties, and laws.
Beneath the rural pertal, palm-o'erfpread,
The father fenate met. There Juftice dealt,
With reafon then and equity the fame,
Free as the common air, her prompt decree;
Nor yet had fain'd her sword with fubjects blood.
The fimpler arts were all their fimpler wants
15
Had urg'd to light; but inftant, thefe fupply'd,
Another fet of fonder wants arofe,
And other arts with them of finer aim,
Till, from refining want to want impell'd,
The Mind by thinking pufh'd her latent powers,
And life began to glow, and arts to fhine,
At first, on brutes alone the ruftic war
Launch'd the rude fpear; fwift as he glar'd along,
On the grim lion or the robber wolf!
For then young fportive Life was void of toil, 25
Demanding little, and with little pleas'd;
But when to manhood grown, and endless joys,
Led on by equal toils, the bofom fir'd,
Lewd lazy Rapine broke primeval Peace,
And, hid in caves and idle forests drear,
From the lone pilgrim and the wandering fwain
Sciz'd what he durft not earn, Then brother's
First, horrid, fmouk'd on the polluted skies.
Awful in juftice, then the burning youth,
Led by their temper'd fires, on lawlefs men,
The last worst monsters of the fhaggy wood,
Turn'd the keen arrow and the sharpen'd fpear.
Then war grew glorious. Heroes then arofe,
Who, fcorning coward felf, for others liv'd,
Toil'd for their eafe, and for their safety bied.
Weft with the living day to Greece I came :
Earth fmild beneath my beam; the Mufe before
Sonorous flew, that low, till then, in woods
Had tun'd the reed, and figh'd the fheplierd's
pain;
But now, to fing heroic deeds, the fwell'd
A nobler note, and bade the banquet burn.
For Greece my fons of Egypt I forfook,
A boaftful race, that in the vain abyfs
Of fabling ages lov'd to lose their source,
And with their river trac'd it from the kics.
I taught them fcience, virtue, wifdom, arts;
By poets, fages, legiflators fought,
The fchool of polish'd life and human-kind :
But when myfterious Superftition came,
And, with her Civil Sifter leagu'd, involv'd
In ftudy'd darkness the defponding mind,
Then tyrant Power the righteous fcourge un-
lous'd;
60
For yielded reafon speaks the foul a flave.
Inftead of ufcful works, like Nature's great,
Enormous, cruel wonders crush'd the land,
For one vile carcals perifh'd countless lives.
And round a tyrant's tomb, who nene deferv'd,
Then the great Dragon, couch'd amid his floods,
Swell'd his fierce heart, and cry'd-" This flood
is mine,
'Tis I that bid it flow."-But, undeceiv'd,
His frenzy foon the proud blafphemer felt :
Felt that, without My fertilizing power,
Suns loft their force, and Niles o'erflow'd in vain.
Nought could retard me; nor the frugal state
Of rifing Perfia, fober in extreme,
Beyond the pitch of man, and thence revers'd
Into luxurious wafte: nor yet the ports
Of old Phoenicia, firft for letters fam'd
That paint the voice, and filent fpeak to fight,
Of arts prime fource and guardian! by fair stars,
Firft tempted out into the lonely deep,
To whom I first disclos'd mechanic arts,
The winds to conquer, to fubdue the waves,
With all the peaceful power of ruling trade;
Earnest of Britain. Nor by these retain'd,
Nor by the neighbouring land, whose palmy
thore
The filver Jordan laves: before Me lay
The promis'd Land of Arts, and urg'd my flight.
Hail, Nature's utmost boaft! unrival'd Grecce!
My faireft reign! where every power benign
Confpir'd to blow the flower of human-kind,
And lavish'd all that Genius can inspire,
Clear funny climates, by the breezy main,
lonian or gean, temper'd kind:
Light airy foils, a country rich and gay,
Broke into hills, with bajmy odours crown'd,
And, bright with purple harvests, joyous vales:
Mountains and treams where verfe fpontaneous
Whence deem'd by wondering men the feat of gods,
And till the mountains and the streams of song.
All that boon Nature could luxuriant pour
Of high materials, and My rettlels arts
Frame into finih'd life. How many states,
And cluítering towns, and monuments of fame,
And icenes of glorious deeds, in little bounds!
From the rough tract of bending mountains, beat
By Adria's here, there by gean waves,
To where the deep-adorning Cyclade ifles
In fhining profpect rife, and on the shore
Of farthest Crete refounds the Lybian main.
O'er all two rival cities rear'd the brow,
And balanc'd all. Spread on Eurota's bank,
3P 2
Amid a circle of foft-rifing hills,
110 | Felt every ardour burn; their great reward
The verdant wreath which founding Pifa gave
Hence flourish'd Greece, and hence a race of
The patient Sparta one; the fober, hard,
And man-fubduing city, which no shape
Of pain could conquer, or of pleasure charm.
Lycurgus there built, on the folid bafe
Of equal life, fo well a temper'd state,
Where mix'd each government in fuch just poife,
Each power fo checking and fupporting each,
That firm for ages, and unmov'd it stood,
The fort of Greece! without one giddy hour,
One shock of faction, or of party rage.
For, drain'd the springs of wealth, corruption
Lay wither'd at the root. Thrice happy land!
Had not neglected Art, with weedy Vice
Confounded, funk. But if Athenian arts
Lov'd not the foil, yet there the calm abode
Of Wifdom, Virtue, philofophic Eafe,
Of manly Senfe and Wit, in frugal phrafe
Confin'd, and prefs'd into laconic force.
Hence thro' the continent ten thousand Greeks Urg'd a retreat, whofe glory not the prime 125 Of victories can reach. Deferts in vain
There, too, by rooting thence fill treacherous
Self,
The public and the private grew the fame :
The children of the nurfing Public all,
And at its table fed; for that they toil'd,
For that they liv'd entire, and e'en for that
The tender mother urg'd her fon to die.
And mountains, in whose jaws deftruction grinn'd;
130 Hunger and toil, Armenian fnows and ftorms,
And circling myriads ftill of barbarous foes.
Greece in their view, and glory yet untouch'd,
Their fteady column pierc'd the fcattering herds
Which a whole empire pour'd, and held its way
Triumphant, by the fage exalted Chief
Fir'd and fustain'd. Oh! light and force of mind
Almost almighty, in fevere extremes !
The fea at laft from Colchian mountains feen, Kind hearted tranfport round their captains threw 140 The foldiers' fond embrace; o'erflow'd their eyes With tender floods, and loos'd the general voice To cries refounding loud-The fea! The fea!
Of fofter genius, but no lefs intent
To feize the palm of empire, Athens arofe;
Where, with bright marbles big and future pomp,
Hymettus fpread, amid the scented sky,
His thymy treasures to the labouring bee,
And to botanic hand the ftores of health.
Wrapt in a foul-attenuating clime,
Between Iliffus and Cephiffes glow'd
This hive of Science, hedding fweets divine,
Of active arts and animated arms.
There, paffionate for Me, an eafy-mov'd,
A quick, refin'd, a delicate, humane,
Enlighten'd people reign'd. Oft' on the brink
Of ruin, hurry'd by the charm of speech,
Inforcing hafty counsel immature,
Totter'd the rash Democracy, unpois'd,
And by the rage devour'd that ever tears
A populace unequal; part too rich,
And part or fierce with want or abject grown.
Solon, at last, their mild reftorer, rofe,
Allay'd the tempeft, to the calm of laws
Reduc'd the fettling whole, and, with the weight
Which the two Senates to the public lent,
As with an anchor, fix'd the driving state.
In Attic bounds hence heroes, fages, wits, 205
Shone thick as flars the Milky Way of Greece !
And tho' gay Wit and pleafing Grace was theirs,
All the foft Modes of Elegance and Eafe,
Yet was not Courage leís, the patient touch
Of toiling Art, and Disquisition deep.
My fpirit pours a vigour thro' the foul,
150 Th unfetter'd thought with energy infpires,
Invincible in arts, in the bright field'
Of nobler Science, as in that of Arms.
Athenians thus not lefs intrepid burst
The bonds of tyrant darkness, than they fpurn'd
The Perfian chains; while thro' the city, full
of mirthful quarrel and of witty war,
inceffent ftruggled tafte refining taste,
And friendly free difcuffion, calling forth
From the fair jewel Truth its latent ray.
16c0'er all fhone out the great Athenian Sage,
And Father of Philofophy; the fun
Nor was My forming care to thefe confin'd;
For emulation thro' the V hole I pour'd,
Noble contention! who fhould moft excel
In government well pois'd, adjusted beft
To public weal; in countries cultur'd high;
In ornamented towns, where Order reigns,
Free focial life, and polish'd manners fair;
In excrcife and arms; arms only drawn
For common Greece, to quell the Persian pride;
In moral fcience, and in graceful arts.
Hence, as for glory peacefully they firove,
The prize grew greater, and the prize of all. 170
By conteft brighten'd, hence the radiant youth
Four'd every beana; by generous pride inflam'd,
Exalting, blending in a perfect whole,
Thy workmen left e'en Nature's felf behind.
From those far different, whofe prolifie hand
Peoples a nation, they for years on years,
By the cool touches of judicious toil,
Their rapid genius curbing, pour'd it all
Thro' the live features of one breathing ftone.
240 There, beaming full, it thone, expreffing gods;
Jove's awful brow, Apollo's air divine,
The fierce atrocious frown of finew'd Mars, 305
Or the fly graces, of the Cyprian Queen.
Minutely perfect all! each dimple funk,
And every mufcle fwell'd, as Nature taught.
In treffes, braided gay, the marble wav'd,
Flow'd in loofe robes, or thin tranfparent veils ;
Sprung into motion, foften'd into flesh,
Was fir'd to paffion, or refin'd to foul.
Or grace mankind, and what he taught he was.
Compounded high, tho' plain, his doctrine broke
In different Schools. The hold poetic phrase 235
Of figur'd Plato, Xenophon's pure ftrain,
Like the clear brook that fteals along the vale,
Diffecting truth, the Stagyrite's keen eye,
Th' exalted Stoic pride, the Cynic fneer,
The flow-confenting Academic doubt;
And, joining blifs to virtue, the glad ease
Of Epicurus, feldom understood."
They, ever candid, reafon fill oppos'd
To reafon, and, fince virtue was their aim,
Each by fure practife try'd to prove his way
The heft. Then flood untouch'd the folid bafe
Of Liberty, the liberty of mind;
For fyftems yet, and foul-enflaving creeds,
Slept with the monsters of fucceeding times.
From priefly darkness fprung the enlightening
Of fire, and fword, and rage, and horrid names.
O Greece! thou fapient nurse of finer Arts!
Which to bright Science blooming Fancy bore,
Be this thy praife, that thou, and thou a one,
In these haft led the way, in thefe excell'd, 255
Crown'd with the laurel of affenting Time.
In thy full language, fpeaking mightier things,
Like a clear torrent clofe, or elfe diffus'd
Abroad majestic stream, and rolling on
Thro' all the winding harmony of found,
In it the power of Eloquence, at large,
Breath'd the perfuafive or pathetic foul,
Still'd by degrees the democratic storm,
Or bade it threatning rife, and tyrants fhook,
Flufh'd at the head of their victorious troops.
In it the Mufe, her fury never quench'd,
By mean unyielding phrafe, or jarring sound,
Her unconfin'd divinity difplay'd,
And, ftill harmonious, form'd it to her will,
Or foft deprefs'd it to the fhepherd's moan,
Or rais'd it fwelling to the tongue of gods.
Heoric Song was thine, the fountain bard,
Whence cach poetic fream derives it course.
Thine the dread Moral Scene, thy chief delight!
Where idly Fancy durft not mix her voice,
When realon spoke auguft; the fervent heart
Or plain'd or form'd, and in the impaflion'd man,
Concealing art with art, the poet funk.
This potent fchool of manners, but when left
To loofe neglect, a land corrupting plague,
Was not unworthy deem'd of public care,
And boundless coft, by thee, whole every fon,
E'en laft mechanic, the true tafte poffefs d
Of what had flavour to the nourifh'd foul.
The fwet enforcer of the poet's Brain,
Thine was the meaning Mufic of the heart;
Not the vain thrill that, void of paffion, runs,
In giddy mazes, tickling idle ears,
But that deep-fearching voice, and artful hand,
To which refpondent shakes the varied foul.
Thy fair ideas, thy delightful forms,
By Love imagin'd, by the Graces touch'd,
The boaft of well pleas'd Nature! Sculpture
feiz'd,
And bad them ever fmile in Parian ftone.
Seking Beauty's choice, and that again
Nor lefs thy pencil, with creative touch,
Shed mimic life, when all thy brightest dames
Affembled, Zeuxis in his Helen mix'd.
And when Appelles, who peculiar knew
To give a grace that more than mortal smil'd,
The foul of Beauty! call'd the Queen of Love
Fresh from the billows, blushing orient charms,
E'en fuch enchantment then thy pencil pour',
That cruel-thoughted War th' impatient torch
Dash'd to the ground, and, rather than destroy
The patriot picture, let the city 'scape.
First elder Sculpture taught her fifter Art
Correct defign, where great ideas fhone,
And in the fecret trace expreffion spoke :
Taught her the graceful attitude, the turn,
And beauteous airs of head; the native act,
Or bold or eafy, and caft free behind,
The fwelling mantle's well-adjusted flow.
Then the bright Mufe, their eldest Sifter, came,
And bade her follow where the fed the way!
Bade earth, and fea, and air, in colours rife,
And copious action on the canvas glow;
Gave her gay Fable, fpread Invention's store,
Enlarg'd her view, taught composition high,
And juft arrangement, circling round one point,
That ftarts to fight, binds and commands the
On the feath'd oak the ragged lightning fell;
In closing shades, and where the current ftrays,
With Peace and Love, and Innocence, around,
Pip'd the lone fhepherd to his feeding flock;
Round happy parents fmil'd their younger felves,
And friends convers'd, by death divided long.
To public virtues thus the failing Arts, 365
Unblemish'd handmaids! ferv'd; the Craces they
To drefs this faireft Venus. Thus rever'd,
And plac'd beyond the reach of fordid care,
The high awarders of immortal fame,
Alone for glory thy great mafters Arove;
Courted by kings, and by contending ftates
Affum'd the boafted honour of their birth.
In Architecture, too, thy rank fupreme! That art where most magnificent appears The little builder Man; by thee refin'd, And, fmiling high, to full perfection brought. Such thy fure rules, that Goths of every age, Who fcorn'd their aid, have only loaded earth With labour'd heavy monuments of fhame Not thofe gay domes that o'er thy fplendid thore Shot, all proportion up. Firft unadorn'd And nobly plain, the manly Doric rofe; Th' lonic then, with decent matron grace, Her airy pillar heav'd; luxuriant laft, The rich Corinthian spread her wanton wreath; The whole fo meafur'd true, fo leffen'd off 386 By fine proportion, that the marble pile, Form'd to repel the ftill or formy wafte Of rolling ages, light as fabrics look'd That from the magic wand aerial rife.
And what the land thy darling thus of old?
Sunk! the refum'd; deep in the kindred gloom
Of fuperftition and of Slavery funk!
No glory now can touch their hearts, benumb'd
Byloofe dejected floth and fervile fear;
No fcience pierce the darkness of their minds;
No nobler art the quick ambitious foul-
Of imitation in their breaft awake.
E'en to fupply the necdful arts of life
Mechanic toil denies the hopeless hand :
Scarce any trace remaining, venlige grey,
Or nodding column, on the defart shore,
To point where Corinth or where Athens stood.
A faithlefs land of violence and death!
Where commerce parleys, dubious, on the fhore;
And his wild impulfe curious fearch restrains,
Afraid to trust th' inhofpitable clime.
Neglected Nature fails; in fordid want
Sunk, and debas'd, their beauty beams no more.
The fun himself feems angry, to regard,
Of light unworthy, the degen'rate race,
And fires them oft' with peftilential rays;
While earth, blue poifon teaming on the skies,
Indignant shakes them from her troubled fides.
But as from man to man, Fate's first decree,
Impartial Death the tide of riches rolls,
So ftates must die, and Liberty go round.
Fierce was the ftand ere Virtue, Valour, Arcs,
And the Soul fir'd by Me, (that often fung
With thoughts of better times and old renown,
From hydra-tyrants try'd to clear the land,)
Lay quite extinct in Greece, their works effac'd,
And grofs o'er all unfeeling Bondage fpread.
Sooner I mov'd My much reluctant flight,
Pois'd on the doubtful wing, when Greece with
Greece,
Embroil'd in foul contention, fought no more
For common glory and for common weal, 430
But, falfe to freedom, fought to quell the free ;
Broke the firm hond of peace, and facred love,
That lent the whole irrefragable force,
And, as around the partial trophy blush'd,
Prepare the way for total overthrow.
Then to the Perfian power, whofe pride they
When Xerxes pour'd his millions o'er the land,
Sparta by turns, and Athens, vilely fu'd;
Su'd to be venal parricides, to fpill
Their country's braveft blood, and on themselves
To turn their matchlefs mercenary arms.
Peaceful in Sufa, then, fat the Great King,
And by the trick of treaties, the still waite
Of fly corruption and barbaric gold,
Effected what his steel could ne'er perform. 4
Profufe he gave them the luxurious draught,
Inflaming all the land; unbalanc'd wide
Their tottering ftates; their wild affemblies rul'd,
As the winds turn'd at every blast the feas,
And by their lifted orators, whofe breath
Still with a factious ftorm infefted Greece,
Rous'd them to Civil war, or dafh'd them down
To fordid peace-Peace! that, when Sparta fhook
Aftonish'd Artaxerxes on his throne,
Gave up, fair-spread o'er Afia's funny shore, 455
Their kindred cities to perpetual chains.
What could fo base, fo infamous a thought
Refpiring Athens rear again her walls,
In Spartan hearts infpire? Jealous, they faw
And the pale fury fir'd them once again
To crufh this rival city to the duft.
For now no more the noble focial foul
Of Liberty My families combin'd,
But by fhort views and felfish paffions broke,
Dire as when friends are rankled into foes, 465
They mix'd fevere, and wag'd eternal war;
Nor felt they, furious, their exhausted force;
Nor, with falfe glory, difcord, madness blind,
Saw how the blackning ftorm from Thracia came.
Long years roll'd on, by many a battle flain'd,
The blush and boaft of Fame! where courage, art,
And military glory, fhone fupreme:
But let detefting ages from the scene
Of Greece, felf-mangled, turn the fickening eye.
At laft, when bleeding from a thousand wounds
She felt her fpirits fail, and in the dust
Her latest heroes, Nicias, Conon, lay,
Agefilaus, and the Theban Friends,
The Macedonian Vulture mark'd his time,
By the dire fcent of Cheronæa lur'd,
And, fierce defcending, feiz'd his hapless prey.
Thus tame fubmitted to the victor's yoke Greece! once the gay, the turbulent, the bold, For every Grace, and Mufc, and Science, born; With
485 the dark ages; to ver. 550. The celeftial regions, to which Liberty retired, not proper to be opened to the view of mortals.
With arts of war, of government, elate;
To tyrants dreadful, dreadful to the best;
Whom I Myfelf could fcarcely rule; and thus
The Perfian fetters, that inthrall'd the mind,
Were turn'd to formal and apparent chains.
Unlefs Corruption firft deject the pride
And guardian vigour of the Free-born foul,
The crude attempts of Violence are vain ;
For firm within, and while at heart untouch'd,
Ne'er yet by Force was Freedom overconie.
But foon as Independence ftoops the head,
To vice enflav'd, and vice created wants,
Then to fome foul corrupting hand, whose waste
Thefe heighten'd wants with fatal bounty feeds,
From man to man the flackening ruin runs,
Till the whole State, unnerv'd, in flavery finks.
TERE melting mix'd with air th' ideal forms,
H That painted fill whate'er the goddes
Then I, impatient,-" From extinguifh'd Greece.
"To what new region ftream'd the Human Day?"
She, foftly fighing, as when Zephyr leaves, 5
Refign'd to Boreas, the declining year,
Refum'd,-Indignant, thefe laft fcenes I fled,
And long ere then Leucadia's cloudy cliff,
And the Ceraunian 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, Africa, Sicily, they stoop'd.
But chief on fair Hefperia's winding fhore,
Where from Lacinium to Etrurian vales
They roll'd increafing colonies along,
And lent materials for My Roman reign.
With them my fpirit fpread, and numerous ftates
And cities rofe, on Grecian models form'd,
As its parental policy and arts
Each had imbib'd. Belides, to each affign'd,
A Guardian genius o'er the public weal,
Kept an unclofing eye; try'd to fuftain,
O more, fublime the foul infus'd by Mey
And strong the battle rofe, with various wave,
Against the tyrant demons of the land. 26
Thus they their little wars and triumphs knew,
Their flows of fortune, and receding times,
But almost all below the proud regard
Of ftory vow'd to Rome, on deeds intent,
That truth beyond the flight of fable bore.
AS this part contains a defcription of the cftablishment of Liberty in Rome, it begins with a view of the Grecian colonies fettled in the fonthern parts of Italy, which, with Sicily, conftituted the Great Greece of the Ancients. With thefe colonies the fpirit of Liberty and of Republics fpreads over Italy, to ver. 32. TranfiNot fo the Samian Sage; to him belongs tion to Pythagoras and his philofophy, which he The brightest witness of recording fame. taught through thefe free ftates and cities, to ver. For these free flates his native ifle forfook, 71. Amid the many fmall republics in Italy, And a vain tyrant's tranfitory fmile, Rome the defined feat of Liberty. Her efta- He fought Crotona's pure falubrious air, blishment there dated from the expulfion of the And thro' Great Greece his gentle wisdom taught; Tarquins How differing from that in Greece, Wildon that calm'd for liftening years the mind, to ver. 88. Reference to a view of the Roman Nor ever heard amid the form of zeal. Republic given in the First Part of this Poem:His mental eye first launch'd into the deeps to mark its rise and fall the peculiar purport of Of boundless æther, where unnumber'd orbs, This. During its first ages, the greatest force of Myriads on myriads, thro' the pathless sky Liberty and virtue exerted, to ver. 103. The Unerring roll, and wind their fteady way. fource whence derived the heroic virtues of the There he the full confenting choir beheld, Romans. Enumeration of these virtues. Thence There firft difcern'd the fecret bands of love, 45 their fecurity at home; their glory, fuccefs, and The kind attraction that to central funs empire, abroad, to ver. 226. Bounds of the Binds circling earths, and world with world Roman Empire geographically defcribed, to ver. unites. 257. The states of Greece reftored to liberty by Titus Quintus Flaminius, the highest inftance of public generofity and beneficence, to ver. 328. The lofs of Liberty in Rome. Its caufes, progrefs, 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 fpirit and general principles, the Jays the ground-work of her future eftablishments; fends them in vengeance on the Roman Empire, now totally endlaved; and then, with Arts and Sciences in her train, quits earth during!
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 acting power;
Whom naught can image, and who beit approves
The filent worship of the moral heart,
That joys in bounteous Heaven, and fpreads the
joy.
Nor scorn'd the foaring fage to stoop to life, 55
And bound his reafon to the fphere of Man.
He gave the four yet reigning virtues name :
Infpir'd the ftudy of the finer arts,
That civilize mankind, and laws devis'd,
|