Now, ev'n now, my joys run high,
As on the mountain-turf I lie;
While the wanton Zephyr fings,
And in the vale perfumes his wings;
While the waters murmur deep;
While the fhepherd charms his sheep;
While the birds unbounded fly,
And with mufick 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 fearch the domes of care!
Grafs and flowers Quiet treads,
On the meads, and mountain-heads,
Along with Pleasure, clofe ally'd,
Ever by each other's fide:
And often, by the murmuring rill,
Hears the thrush, while all is still,
Within the groves of Grongar Hill.
"Afpice murorum moles, præruptaque faxa, "Obrutaque horrenti vefta theatra fitu: "Hæc funt Roma. Viden' velut ipfa cadávera tantæ "Urbis adhuc fpirent imperiofa minas ?”
NOUGH of Grongar, and the fhady dales
Of winding Towy, Merlin's fabled haunt
I fung inglorious. Now the love of arts,
And what in metal or in ftone remains
Of proud antiquity, through various realms
And various languages and ages fam'd,
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 Etrufcan hills,
To Latium's wide champain, forlorn and waste,
Where yellow Tiber his neglected wave
Mournfully rolls. Yet once again, my Muse,,
Yet once again, and foar a loftier flight;
Lo the refiftless theme, imperial Rome.
Fall'n, fall'n, a filent heap; her heroes all
Sunk in their urns; behold the pride of pomp,
The throne of nations fall'n; obscur'd in duft;
Ev'n yet majestical: the folemn fcene
Elates the foul, while now the rifing Sun
Flames on the ruins in the purer
Towering aloft, upon the glittering plain,.
Like broken rocks, a vaft circumference ;
Rent palaces, crush'd columns, rifled moles,
Fanes roll'd on fanes, and tombs on buried tombs.
Deep lies in duft the Theban obelifk
Immenfe along the wafte; minuter art,
Gliconian forms, or Phidian, fubtly fair,
O'erwhelming; as th' immenfe Leviathan.
The finny brood, when near Ierne's fhore
Out-ftretch'd, unwieldy, his ifland length appears
Above the foamy flood. Globofe and huge,
Grey-mouldering temples fwell, and wide o'ercaft
The folitary landfcape, 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
Aghaft the voice of time, difparting towers,
Tumbling all precipitate down-dash'd,
Rattling around, loud thundering to the Moon
While murmurs footh each aweful interval
Of over-falling waters; fhrouded 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.
*Fountains at Rome adorned with the ftatues of thofe rivers.
Yet here, adventurous in the facred fearch
Of ancient arts, the delicate of mind,
Curious and modeft, from all climes refort,
Grateful fociety! with thefe I raise
The toilfome step up the proud Palatin,
Through fpiry cyprefs groves, and towering pine,
Waving aloft o'er the big ruins brows,
On numerous arches rear'd: and frequent stopp'd,,
The funk ground ftartles me with dreadful chafm,
Breathing forth darkness from the vaft profound
Of ifles 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 cavern'd fewers, maffy, firm,
As the Sibylline grot befide the dead'
Lake of Avernus; fuch the fewers 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 inceffant time has roll'd around
A thousand winters o'er the changeful world,
And yet a thousand fince, 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 jafper, pleas'd I move along,
And vases bofs'd, and huge infcriptive 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
Ruftic and green and wide-embowering shades,
Shot from the crooked clefts of nodding towers.
A folemn wilderness! with error sweet,
I wind the lingering step, where-e'er the path
Mazy conducts me, which the vulgar foot
O'er fculptures maim'd has made; Anubis, Sphinx,
Idols of antique guife, and horned Pan,
Terrific, monftrous fhapes! prepofterous Gods,
Of Fear and Ignorance, by the fculptor's hand
Hewn into form, and worship'd; as ev'n now
Blindly they worship at their breathlefs mouths *
In varied appellations: men to thefe
(From deep to depth in darkening error fall'n)
At length afcrib'd th' Inapplicable Name.
How doth it please and fill the memory
With deeds of brave renown, while on each hand
Hiftoric urns and breathing ftatues rife,
And speaking bufts! Sweet Scipio, Marius stern,
Pompey fuperb, the fpirit-ftirring form
Of Cæfar raptur'd with the charm of rule
And boundless fame; impatient for exploits,
His eager eyes upcast, he foars in thought
tatues of the Pagan gods have been converted of faints.
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