See where God's altar, nurfing murder, stands, But chief let Rome, the mighty city! fpeak 200 205 210 Of mifery, whose melancholy walls See the rank vine o'er fubterranean roofs, 215 Inexorably firm, just, gen'rous, brave, Elate with glory, an heroic foul 220 Known to the vulgar breast: behold them now A thin despairing number, all-fubdu'd, By vice unman'd and a licentious rule, In guile ingenious, and in murder brave. 225 Such in one land, beneath the fame fair clime, 235 Ev'n with thy labour'd Pomp, for whose vain show Deluded thousands starve; all age-begrim'd, Torn, robb'd and scatter'd in uanumber'd facks, 230 And by the tempest of two thousand years Continual shaken, let my Ruins vie. These roads that yet the Roman hand affert, Beyond the weak repair of modern toil; These fractur'd arches, that the chiding stream No more delighted hear; these rich remains Of marbles now unknown, where shines imbib'd Each parent ray; these massy columns, hew'd From Afric's farthest shore; one granite all, These obelisks high-tow'ring to the sky, Mysterious mark'd with dark Egyptian lore; These endless wonders that this facred way Illumine, still, and confecrate to fame; These fountains, vases, urns, and statues, charg'd With the fine stores of art-compleating Greece. Mine is, besides, thy ev'ry later boaft : Thy † BUONAROTIS, thy PALLADIOS mine; * And mine the fair designs, which RAPHAEL'S foul What would you fay, ye conquerors of earth! Ye Romans! could you raise the laurel'd head; Via Sacra. 240 245 252 + M. ANGELO BUONAROTI, PALLADIO, and RAPHAEL D'URBINO; the three great modern mafters in sculpture, archi tecture, and painting.. 255 260 Could you the country fee, by feas of blood, 264 Soon bursting into fong: while thro' the groves 270 In many a tortur'd stream, you mus'd along? * Tufculum is reckoned to have stood at a place now called Gretta Ferrata, a convent of monks. † The bay of Mola (anciently Formic) into which HOMER Near Formie CICERO brings ULYSSES, and his companions. had a villa. Your Formian shore? Once the delight of earth, 279 By black Vesuvius thund'ring o'er the coast, A native foe; a foreign, tears without. 285 290 295 300 • Naples then under the Auftrian government. + The coast of Baia, which was formerly adorned with the works mentioned in the following lines; and where amidst many magnificent ruins, those of a temple erected to Venus are still to be feen. An almost total desolation fits, A dreary stillness, sadd'ning o'er the coast; *Where, when soft suns and tepid winters rose, 305 A genial strife. Her youthful form, robust, Whose stately cities in the dark abrupt Swallow'd at once, or vile in rubbish laid, 310 A nest for ferpents; from the red abyss A reedy pool; and all to Guma's point, The fea recov'ring his ufurp'd domain, And pour'd triumphant o'er the bury'd dome. 315 Hence, BRITAIN, learn; my best-establish'd, last, And more than GREECE, OF ROME, iny steady reign; The land where, King and People equal bound By guardian laws, my fullest blessings flow; 320 Of human-kind; what, when depriv'd of ME, Whose fun-enliven'd ether wakes the foul To higher pow'rs; in spite of happy foils, All along this coast, the ancient Romans had their winter re Treats; and several populous cities tood. VoL. II. D |