Heavy declines his head; yet dark beneath
The fuff'ring feature fullen vengeance low'rs,
Shame, indignation, unaccomplish'd rage,
And still the cheated eye expects his fall.
All conquest-flush'd, from prostrate Python, came
The Quiver'd God ‡. In graceful act he stands,
His arm extended with the flacken'd bow.
Light flows his easy robe, and fair displays
A manly-foften'd form. The bloom of Gods
Seems youthful o'er the beardless cheek to wave.
His features yet heroic ardor warms;
And sweet subsiding to a native smile,
Mixt with the joy elating conquest gives,
A fcatter'd frown exalts his matchlefs air.
On Flora mov'd; her full-proportion'd limbs
Rife thro' the mantle flutt'ring in the breeze.
The Queen of Love * arose, as from the deep
She sprung in all the melting pomp of charms.
Bashful she bends, her well-taught look afide
Turns in enchanting guise, where dubious mix
Vain confcious beauty, a diffembled sense
Of modest shame, and flipp'ry looks of love.
The gazer grows enamour'd, and the stone,
As if exulting in its conquest, smiles.
So turn'd each limb, so swell'd with soft'ning art,

That the deluded eye the marble doubts.

At last her utmost Masterpiece † she found,

+ The Apollo of Belvidere.

• The Venus of Medici.

160

165

170

475

180

185

† The groupe of Laocoon and his two fons, destroyed by two ferpents.

That Maro I fir'd; the miferable fire,
Wrapt with his fons in fate's severest grafp.
The ferpents, twisting round, their stringent folds

Inextricable tie. Such paffion here,
Such agonies, such bitterness of pain,
Seem so to tremble through the tortur'd stone,
That the touch'd heart engrosses all the view.
Almost unmark'd the best proportions pass,
That ever Greece beheld; and, seen alone,
On the rapt eye th' imperious paffions feize :
The father's double pangs, both for himself
And fons convuls'd; to Heav'n his rueful look,

190

195

Imploring aid, and half-accusing, caft;
His fell defpair with indignation mixt,
As the strong-curling monsters from his fide
His full-extended fury cannot tear.
More tender touch'd, with varied art, his fons
All the fost rage of younger paffions show.
In a boy's helpless fate one finks opprefs'd;
While, yet unpierc'd, the frighted other tries
His foot to steal out of the horrid twine.

She bore no more, but strait from Gothic ruft
Her chifel clear'd, and dust and fragments drove
Impetuous round *. Successive as it went
From fon to fon, with more enliv'ning touch,

See Æneid II. ver. 199-227.

200

205

2

* It is reported of Michael Angelo Buonaroti, the most celebra ted master of modern Sculpture, that he wrought with a kind of infpiration, or enthusiastical fury, which produced the effect hers mentioned.

From the brute rock it call'd the breathing form;
Till, in a legiflator's awful grace

Drest, Buonaroti bid a Mofes † rise,

And, looking love immenfe, a SAVIOUR-GOD.

i

OF These observant, PAINTING felt the fire
Burn inward. Then ecstatic she diffus'd
The canvass, feiz'd the pallet, with quick hand
The colours brew'd; and on the void expanfe

215

Her gay creation pour'd, her mimic world.
Poor was the manner of her eldest race,

220

Barren, and dry; just struggling from the taste,
That had for ages scar'd in cloysters dim

The superftitious herd: yet glorious then
Were deem'd their works; where undevelop'd lay

The future wonders that enrich'd mankind,
And a new light and grace o'er Europe caft.
Arts gradual gather streams. Enlarging This
To each his portion of her various gifts

225

The GODDESS dealt, to none indulging all;
No, not to Raphael. At kind distance still
Perfection stands, like Happiness, to tempt
Th' eternal chace. In elegant defign
Improving nature; in ideas fair,

Or great, extracted from the fine antique;
In attitude, expression, airs divine;

Her fons of Rome and Florence bore the prize.
To those of Venice she the magic art
Of colours melting into colours gave.

Esteemed the two finest pieces of modern Sculpture.

230

235

Theirs too it was by one embracing mass
Of light and shade, that fettles round the whole, 240

Or varies tremulous from part to part,

O'er all a binding harmony to throw,

To raise the picture, and repose the fight.

The Lombard school of fucceeding, mingled both.
Mean-time dread Fanes, and Palaces, around, 245
Rear'd the magnific front. Music again
Her universal language of the heart

Renew'd; and, rising from the plaintive vale,
To the full concert spread, and folemn quire.

Ev'n bigots smil'd; to their protection took ARTS not their own, and from them borrow'd pomp:

250

For in a Tyrant's garden these awhile

May bloom, tho' Freedom be their parent foil.

And now confest, with gently-growing gleam, The morning shone, and westward stream'd its light.. The MUSE awoke. Not fooner on the wing

250

Is the gay bird of dawn. Artless her voice,
Untaught and wild, yet warbling thro' the woods
Romantic lays. But as her northern course

She, with her tutor SCIENCE, in My train,
Ardent pursu'd, her strains more noble grew :
While Reason drew the plan, the Heart inform'd
The moral page, and Fancy lent it grace.

ROME and her circling deferts cast behind,
I pass'd not idle to my great sojourn.

$ The school of the Caracci.

260

265 On Arno's fertile plain †, where the rich vine Luxuriant o'er Etrurian mountains roves, Safe in the lap repos'd of private bliss, I small republics rais'd t. Thrice happy they! Had focial Freedom bound their Peace, and Arts, 270 Instead of ruling Pow'r, ne'er meant for them,

Employ'd their little cares, and fav'd their fate.

Beyond the rugged Apennines, that roll
Far thro' Italian bounds their wavy tops,
My path too I with public blessings strow'd:
Free states and cities, where the Lombard plain,

275

In spite of culture negligent and gross,

From her deep bosom pours unbidden joys,
And green o'er all the land a garden spreads.

281

The barren rocks themselves beneath My Foor, Relenting bloom'd on the Ligurian shore. Thick-fwarming people there s, like emmets, seiz'd Amid furrounding cliffs, the scatter'd spots, Which Nature left in her || destroying rage, Made their own fields, nor figh'd for other lands. 285 There, in white profpect, from the rocky hill Gradual defcending to the shelter'd shore,

‡ The river Arno runs through Florence.

+ The republics of Florence, Pifa, Lucca, and Sienna. They formerly have had very cruel wars together, but are now all peaceably subject to the Great Duke of Tuscany, except it be Lucca, which still maintains the form of a republic.

$ The Genoese territory is reckoned very populous, but the towns and villages for the most part lie hid among the Apenninerocks and mountains.

According to Dr. Burnet's system of the deluge.
VOL. II.