}

:

Now, ev’n now, my joys run high,
As on the mountain-turf I lie;
While the wanton Zephyr sings,
And in the vale perfumes his wings;
While the waters murwur deep ;
While the shepherd charms his theep i
While the birds unbounded fly,
And with músick fill the sky,
Now, ev’n now, my joys run high.

Be full, ye courts; be great who will;
Search for Peace with all

your

skill
Open wide the lofty door,
Seek her on the marble floor,
In vain you search, she is not there;
In vain ye search the domes of care!
Grass and flowers Quiet treads,
On the meads, and mountain-heads,
Along with Pleasure, close ally'd,
Ever by each other's side :
And often, by the murmuring rill,
Hears the thrush, while all is still,
Within the groves of Grongar Hill.

}

THE Τ Η Ε.

RU I NS OF

OF R O M E.

Aspice murorum moles, præruptaque faxa,

“ Obrutaque horrenti vesta theatra fitu : “ Hæc sunt Roma. Viden' velut ipfa cadávera tantz “ Urbis adhuc fpirent imperiosa minas ?"**

JANUS VITALIS.

Of
Of winding Towy, Merlin's fabled haunt
I sung inglorious. Now the love of arts,
And what in metal or in stone remains
Of proud antiquity, through various realms
And various languages and ages famd,
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 Etruscan hills;
To Latium's wide champain, forlorn and wastė,
Where yellow Tiber his neglected wave
Mournfully rolls. Yet once again, my Muse,,
Yet once again, and soar a loftier flight;
Lo the resistless theme, imperial Rome.

Fall'n, fall’n, a silent heap; her heroes all
Sunk in their urns; behold the pride of pomp,
The throne of nations fall'n; obscurd in dust;
Ev'n yet majestical : the folemn scene
Elates the foul, while now the rising Sun

Flames

B 4

Flames on the ruins in the

purer

air
Towering aloft, upon the glittering plain,
Like broken rocks, a vast circumference;
Rent palaces, cruth'd columns, rifled moles,
Fanes, roll'd on fanes, and tombs on buried tombs.

Deep lies in dust the Theban obelisk
Immense along the waste; minuter art,
Gliconian forms, or Phidian, subtly fair,
O’erwhelming; as th' immense Leviathan,
The finny brood, when near Ierne's fhore
Out-stretch'd, unwieldy, his island length appears
Above the foamy flood. Globose and huge,
Grey-mouldering temples (well, and wide o'ercast
The solitary landscape, hills and woods,
And boundless wilds; while the vine-mantled brows
The pendent goats unveil, regardless they
Of hourly peril, though the clifted domes
Tremble to every wind. The pilgrim oft
At dead of night, ’mid his oraison hears
Aghast the voice of time, disparting towers,
Tumbling all precipitate down-dath'd,
Rattling around, loud thundering to the Moon;
While murmurs footh each aweful interval
of over-falling waters; throuded 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.

Yes * Fountains at Rome adorned with the statues of those rivers.

Yet here, adventurous in the sacred search Of ancient arts, the delicate of mind, Curious and modest, from all climes resort, Grateful fociety! with these I raise The toilsome step up the proud Palatin, Through spiry cypress groves, and towering pine, Waving aloft o'er the big ruins brows, On numerous arches rear’d: and frequent stopp d,, The funk ground startles me with dreadful chasm, Breathing forth darkness from the vast profound Of isles 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 cayern'd fewers, 'massy, firm, As the Sibylline grot. beside the dead Lake of Avernus; such the sewers huge, Whither the great Tarquinian genius dooms Each wave impure; and proud with added rains, Hark how the mighty billows lash their vaults, And thunder ; how they heave their rocks in vain! Though now incessant time has roll'& around A thousand winters o'er tlie changefül world, And yet a thousand since, 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 crystal founts, That weave their glittering waves with tuneful lapse, Among the fleeky pebbles, agate clear, Cerulean ophite, and the flowery vein Of orient jasper, pleas'd I move along,

And

And vases boss'd, and huge inscriptive stones,
And intermingling vines ; and figur'd nymphs,
Flora's and Chloe's of delicious mould,
Chearing the darkness; and deep empty tombs,
And dells, and mouldering fhrines, with old decay.
Rustic and green and wide-embowering shades,
Shot from the crooked clefts of nodding towers.
A solemn wilderness !: with error sweet,
I wind the lingering step, where-e'er the path
Mazy conducts me, which the vulgar foot
O'er sculptures maim'd has made; Anubis, Sphinx,
Idols of antique guise, and horned Pan,
Terrific, monstrous shapes ! preposterous Gods,
Of Fear and Ignorance, by the sculptor's hand
Hewn into form, and worship’d; as ev’n now
Blindly they worship at their breathless mouths *
In varied appellations: men to these
(From deep to depth in darkening error fall’n)
At length ascrib'd th' Inapplicable Name.

How doth it please and fill the memory
With deeds of brave renown, while on each hand
Historic urns and breathing statues rise,
And speaking busts ! Sweet Scipio, Marius stern,
Pompey superb, the spirit-stirring form
Of Cæsar raptur’d with the charm of rule
And boundless fame; impatient for exploits,
His eager eyes upcast, he foars in thought

Above * Several statues of the Pagan gods have been converted into images of saints.