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;, 35
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 firft behind.
Nor was the work impair'd by storms alone,
But felt th' approaches of too warm a sun ;
For Fame, impatient of extreams, decays
Not more by Envy than excefs of Praise.
Yet part no injuries of heav'n could feel,
Like crystal faithful to the graving steel:

They weren almoft 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 last.

VER. 4'. Nor was the work impair'd, &c.]
Tho'
gan I in myne harte caft,

That they were molte away for heate,
And not away with formes 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,

40

45

The

کریں

The rock's high fummit, in the temple's fhade,
Nor heat could melt, nor beating storm invade.
There names infcrib'd unnumber'd ages past
From time's first birth, with time itself fhall laft;
These ever new, nor fubject to decays,
Spread, and grow brighter with the length of days.
So Zembla's rocks (the beauteous work of froft)
Rife white in air, and glitter o'er the coaft;
Pale funs, unfelt, at diftance roll away,
And on th' impaffive ice the lightnings play;
Eternal fnows the growing mafs fupply,

'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 ftands; 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 wife what it made;
It was conferved with the fhade
(All the writing that I fe)
Of the cafile that floode on high,
And food eke in fo cold a place,
That beate might it not deface.

B 4

50

55

60

Four

Four faces had the dome, and ev'ry face
Of various ftructure, 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 ftone.

Weftward, a fumptuous frontispiece appear'd,
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 stooping with his toil,
Refts on his club, and holds th' Hefperian spoil.

VER. 65. Four faces had the dome, &c.] The Temple is defcrib'd to be fquare, 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 architecture: the Doric order was peculiarly facred to Heroes and Worthies. Those whofe ftatues 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 pofition of the famous ftatue of Farnefe.

Here

Here Orpheus fings; trees moving to the found
Start from their roots, and form a shade around:
Amphion there the loud creating lyre

Strikes, and behold a fudden Thebes afpire!
Cytheron's echoes aufwer to his call,'
And half the mountain rolls into a wall:

There might you see the length'ning fpires afcend,
The domes fwell up, the widening arches bend,*
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.

85

90

There Ninus 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 Chaldeans robe'd in white appear'd,
And Brachmans, deep in defart woods rever'd.
These stop'd the moon, and call'd th' unbody'd fhades
To midnight banquets in the glimmering glades;

ICO

VER. 96. And the great Founder of the Perfian Name.] Cyrus was the beginner of the Perfian, as Ninus was of the Affyrian Monarchy. The Magi and Chaldeans (the chief of whom was Zoroafter) employ'd their ftudies upon magic and aftrology, which was in a manner almost all the learning of the antient Afian people. We have scarce any account of a moral philofopher except Confucius, the great law-giver of the Chinese, who liv'd about two thousand years ago.

Made

Made vifionary fabricks round them rise,
And airy fpectres fkim before their eyes;
Of Talismans and Sigils knew the pow'r,
And careful watch'd the Planetary hour.
Superior, and alone, Confucius flood,
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 meafu r'd earth, defcrib'd the starry fpheres,
And trac'd the long records of lunar years.
High on his car Sefoftris ftruck my view,
Whom fcepter'd flaves in golden harness drew:
His hands a bow and pointed javelin hold;
His giant limbs are arm'd in fcales of gold.
Between the ftatues Obelisks were plac'd,
And the learn'd walls with Hieroglyphics grac'd.

105

110

115

VER. 110. Egypt's Priefs, &c.] The learning of the old Egyptian Priefts confifted for the most part in geometry and aftronomy: They alfo preferv'd the Hiitory of their nation. Their greatest Hero upon record is Sefoftris, whofe actions and conquefts may be feen at large in Diodorus, &c. He is faid to have caus'd the Kings he vanquish'd to draw him in his Chariot. The pollure of his itatue, in thefe veríes, is correfpondent to the defcription which Herodotus gives of one of them remaining in his own time.

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