Yet wide was spread their fame in ages past,
And Poets once had promis'd they should last.
Some fresh engrav'd appear'd of Wits renown'd;
I look'd again, nor could their trace be found.
Critics I faw, that other names deface,
And fix their own, with labour, in their place:
Their own, like others, foon their place refign'd,
Or difappear'd, and left the first behind.
Nor was the work impair'd by storms alone,
But felt th' approaches of too warm a fun;
For Fame, impatient of extreams, decays
Not more by Envy than excess of Praise.
Yet part no injuries of heav'n could feel,
Like crystal faithful to the graving steel:
They weren almost off-thawen so,
That of the letters one or two
Were molte away of every name,
So urfamous was woxe her fame;
But men faid, what may ever laft.
VER. 41. Nor was the work impair'd, &c.]
Thơ gan I in myne barte caft,
That they were molte away for beate,
And not away with stormes beate.
VER. 45. Yet part no injuries, &c.]
For on that other fide I fey
Of that hill which northward ley,
How it was written full of names
Of folke, that had afore great fames,
The rock's high summit, in the temple's shade,
Nor heat could melt, nor beating storm invade.
There names infcrib'd unnumber'd ages paft
From time's first birth, with time itself shall last; 50
These ever new, nor subject to decays,
Spread, and grow brighter with the length of days.
So Zembla's rocks (the beauteous work of froft)
Rise white in air, and glitter o'er the coaft;
Pale funs, unfelt, at distance roll away,
And on th' impaffive ice the lightnings play;
Eternal snows the growing mass supply,
'Till the bright mountains prop th' incumbent sky:
As Atlas fix'd, each hoary pile appears,
The gather'd winter of a thousand years.
On this foundation Fame's high temple stands; Stupendous pile! not rear'd by mortal hands. Whate'er proud Rome, or artful Greece beheld, Or elder Babylon, its frame excell'd.
Of old time, and yet they were
As fresh, as men had written hem there
The felf day, or that houre
That I on hem gan to poure :
But well I wiste what it made;
It was conferved with the shade
(All the writing that I fye)
Of the cafile that stoode on high,
And ftood eke in fo cold a place,
That heate might it not deface.
Four faces had the dome, and ev'ry face
Of various structure, but of equal grace:
Four brazen gates, on columns lifted high,
Salute the different quarters of the sky.
Here fabled Chiefs in darker ages born,.
Or Worthies old, whom arms or arts adorn,
Who cities rais'd, or tam'd a monstrous race;
The walls in venerable order grace :
Heroes in animated marble frown,
And Legiflators seem to think in stone.
Westward, a sumptuous frontispiece appear'd,
On Doric pillars of white marble rear'd,
Crown'd with an architrave of antique mold,
And sculpture rising on the roughen'd gold.
In shaggy spoils here Theseus was beheld,
And Perfeus dreadful with Minerva's shield :
There great Alcides stooping with his toil,
Rests on his club, and holds th' Hesperian spoil.
VER. 65. Four faces had the dome, &c.] The Temple is defcrib'd to be square, the four fronts with open gates facing the different quarters of the world, as an intimation that all nations of the earth may alike be receiv'd into it. The western front is of Grecian architeture : the Doric order was peculiarly sacred to Heroes and Worthies. Those whose statues are after mention'd, were the first names of old Greece in arms and arts.
VER. 81. There great Alcides, &c.] This figure of Hercules is drawn with an eye to the position of the famous statue of Farnese.
Here Orpheus sings; trees moving to the sound
Start from their roots, and form a shade around:
Amphion there the loud creating lyre
Strikes, and behold a sudden Thebes aspire!
Cytharon's echoes answer to his call,
And half the mountain rolls into a wall:
There might you see the length'ning spires ascend,
The domes swell up, the widening arches bend, 90
The growing tow'rs like exhalations rise,
And the huge columns heave into the skies.
The Eastern front was glorious to behold, With diamond flaming, and Barbaric gold. There Ninus shone, who spread th' Affyrian fame, 95 And the great founder of the Perftan name: There in long robes the royal Magi stand, Grave Zoroafter waves the circling wand, The fage Chaldæans robe'd in white appear'd, And Brachmans, deep in desart woods rever'd. These stop'd the moon, and call'd th' unbody'd shades To midnight banquets in the glimmering glades;
VER. 96. And the great Founder of the Persian Name.] Cyrus was the beginner of the Persian, as Ninus was of the Affyrian Monarchy. The Magi and Chaldeans (the chief of whom was Zoroaster) employ'd their studies upon magic and astrology, which was in a manner almost all the learning of the antient Afian people. We have scarce any account of a moral philosopher except Confucius, the great law-giver of the Chinese, who liv'd about two thousand years ago.
Made vifionary fabricks round them rise,
And airy spectres skim before their eyes;
Of Talismans and Sigils knew the pow'r,
And careful watch'd the Planetary hour.
Superior, and alone, Confucius stood,
Who taught that useful fcience, to be good.
But on the fouth, a long, majestic race
Of Egypt's Priests the gilded niches grace,
Who measu r'd earth, defcrib'd the starry spheres,
And trac'd the long records of lunar years.
High on his car Sefoftris struck my view,
Whom scepter'd slaves in golden harness drew:
His hands a bow and pointed javelin hold;
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.
VER. 110. Ægypt's Priests, &c.] The learning of the old Ægyptian Priests confifted for the most part in geometry and astronomy: They also preserv'd the Hi1tory of their nation. Their greatest Hero upon record is Sesoftris, whose actions and conquests may be seen at large in Diodorus, &c. He is faid to have caus'd the Kings he vanquish'd to draw him in his Chariot. The polture of his itatue, in these verses, is correspondent to the defcription which Herodotus gives of one of them remaining in his own time.
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