Four brazen gates, on columns lifted high,
Salute the diff'rent quarters of the sky.

Here fabled Chiefs in darker ages born,

Or Worthies old, whom arms or arts adorn, 70.
Who cities rais'd, or tam'd a monftrous race;
The walls in venerable order grace:

Heroes in animated marble frown,

And Legiflators seem to think in ftone.
Westward,a fumptuous frontispiece appear'd, 75
On Doric pillars of white marble rear'd,
Crown'd with an architrave of antique mold,
And sculpture rifing on the roughen'd gold.
In fhaggy spoils here Thefeus was beheld,
And Perfeus dreadful with Minerva's fhield:
There great Alcides ftooping with his toil,
Rests on his club, and holds th' Hefperian spoil.
Here Orpheus fings; trees moving to the found
Start from their roots, and form a fhade around:
Amphion there the loud creating lyre

Strikes, and beholds a fudden Thebes afpire!

NOTES.

80

85

Heroes and Worthies. Thofe whofe ftatues are after mentioned, were the first names of old Greece in arms and arts. P.. VER. 81. There great Alcides, etc.] This figure of Hercules is drawn with an eye to the pofition of the famous ftatue of Farnefe. P.

Cythæron's echoes anfwer to his call,

And half the mountain rolls into a wall:

There might you fee the length'ning fpires afcend, The domes fwell up, the wid'ning arches bend, 90 The growing tow'rs, like exhalations rife,

And the huge columns heave into the fkies.

The Eaftern front was glorious to behold,

With di'mond flaming, and Barbaric gold.
ThereNinus fhone, who fpread th' Affyrian fame,95
And the great founder of the Perfian name:
There in long robes the royal Magi ftand,
Grave Zoroafter waves the circling wand,
The fage Chaldæans rob'd in white appear'd,
And Brachmans, deep in defert woods rever'd. roo
Thefe ftop'd the moon, and call'd th'unbody'd fhades
To midnight banquets in the glimm'ring glades;
Made vifionary fabricks round them rise,
And airy spectres skim before their eyes;

NOTES.

VER. 96. And the great founder of the Perfian name :] Cyrus was the beginning of the Perfian, as Ninus was of the Affyrian Monarchy. The Magi and Chaldæans (the chief of whom was Zoroafter) employed their ftudies upon magic and aftrology, which was in a manner almost all the learning of the ancient Afian people. We have scarce any account of a moral philofopher except Confucius, the great law-giver of the Chinese, who lived about two thoufand years ago. "P.

Of Talismans and Sigils knew the pow'r, 105
And careful watch'd the Planetary hour.
Superior and alone, Confucius ftood,

Who taught that useful science, to be good..
But on the South, a long majestic race
Of Egypt's Priefts the gilded niches grace, 110
Who meafur'd earth, describ'd the starry spheres,
And trac'd the long records of lunar years.
High on his car Sefoftris ftruck my view,
Whom scepter'd slaves in golden harness drew:
His hands a bow and pointed jav❜lin hold; 115
His giant limbs are arm'd in scales of gold.
Between the statues Obelisks were plac'd,
And the learn'd walls with Hieroglyphics grac'd.
Of Gothic ftructure was the Northern fide,
O'erwrought with ornaments of barb'rous pride.120

NOTES.

VER. 110. Egypt's priests, etc.] The learning of the old Ægyptian Priefts confifted for the most part in geometry and aftronomy: they alfo preferved the Hiftory of their nation. Their greatest Hero upon record is Sefoftris, whose actions and conquefts may be feen at large in Diodorus, etc. He is faid to have caused the Kings he vanquished to draw him in his Chariot. The posture of his ftatue, in these verses, is correspondent to the description which Herodotus gives of one of them remaining in his own time. P.

VER. 119. Of Gothic ftructure was the Northern fide,] The Architecture is agreeable to that part of the world. The learn

There huge Coloffes rofe, with trophies crown'd,
And Runic characters were grav'd around.
There fate Zamolxis with erected eyes,

And Odin here in mimic trances dies.

There on rude iron columns, fmear'd with blood,
The horrid forms of Scythian heroes stood, 126
Druids and Bards (their once loud harps unftrung)
And youths that died to be by Poets fung.

These and a thousand more of doubtful fame,
To whom old fables gave a lafting name,
In ranks adorn'd the Temple's outward face;
The wall in luftre and effect like glass,

NOTES.

130

ing of the northern nations lay more obfcure than that of the reit; Zamolxis was the difciple of Pythagoras, who taught the immortality of the foul to the Scythians. Odin, or Woden, was the great legiflator and hero of the Goths. They tell us of him, that being fubject to fits, he perfuaded his followers, that during thofe trances he received infpirations, from whence he dictated his laws: he is said to have been the inventor of the Runic characters. P.

VER. 127. Druids and Bards, etc.] Thefe were the priests and poets of those people, so celebrated for their savage virtue. Those heroic barbarians accounted it a dishonour to die in their beds, and rushed on to certain death in the prospect of an afterlife, and for the glory of a fong from their bards in praise of their actions. P.

IMITATIONS.

VER. 132. The wall in luftre, etc.]
It fhone lighter than a glass,
And made well more than it was,
As kind thing of Fame is.

Which o'er each object cafting various dyes,
Enlarges fome and others multiplies:

Nor void of emblem was the mystic wall, 135
For thus romantic Fame increases all.

The Temple shakes, the founding gates unfold, Wide vaults appear, and roofs of fretted gold: Rais'd on a thousand pillars, wreath'd around With laurel-foliage, and with eagles crown'd: 149 Of bright, tranfparent beryl were the walls, The freezes gold, and gold the capitals: As heav'n with ftars, the roof with jewels glows, And ever-living lamps depend in rows. Full in the paffage of each fpacious gate,

145

The fage Hiftorians in white garments wait;
Grav'do'er their feats the form of Time was found,
His scythe revers'd, and both his pinions bound.
Within ftood Heroes, who thro' loud alarms
In bloody fields purfu'd renown in arms.
High on a throne with trophies charg'd, I view'd
The youth that all things but himself subdu'd;

NOTES.

150

VER. 152. The youth that all things but himself fubdu'd ;] Alexander the Great: the Tiara was the crown peculiar to the Afian Princes his defire to be thought the fon of Jupiter Ammon, caused him to wear the horns of that God, and to represent the fame upon his coins; which was continued by several of his fucceffors. P.