!

"Sink in oblivion with the nameless crew!
"Vermin of state! to thy o'erflowing light
"That owe their being, yet betray thy cause."

361

366

Then, condescending kind, the heavenly Power Return'd" What here, suggested by the scene, " I flight unfold, record and fing at home, " In that blest isle where (so we spirits move) " With one quick effort of My will I am : "There Truth, unlicens'd, walks, and dares accost "Even kings themselves, the monarchs of the Free! "Fix'd on my rock, there an indulgent race "O'er Britons wield the sceptre of their choice; " And there, to finish what his fires began, "A Prince behold! for Me who burns fincere, "Even with a subject's zeal. He My great work 370 "Will, parent-like, sustain, and added give "The touch the Graces and the Muses owe: " For Britain's glory swells his panting breast, " And ancient arts he emulous revolves; "His pride to let the smiling heart abroad, "Thro' clouds of pomp, that but conceal the man: "To please his pleasure, bounty his delight, "And all the foul of Titus dwells in him."

375

Hail, glorious theme! But how, alas! shall verfe,
From the crude stores of mortal language drawn, 380
How, faint and tedious, fing what, piercing deep,
The goddess flash'd at once upon my foul ?
For, clear precision all, the tongue of gods

Is harmony itself; to every ear
Familiar, known like light to every eye.
Mean time disclosing ages, as she spoke,
In long succession pour'd their empires forth;
Scene after scene, the human drama spread,
And still th' embodied picture rose to fight.

385

Oh Thou! to whom the Muses owe their flame, Who bidd'st, beneath the Pole, Parnassus rife, 391 And Hippocrenè flow, with thy bold ease, The striking force, the lightning of thy thought, And thy strong phrafe, that rolls profound and clear, Oh! gracious Goddess! re-inspire my fong, While I, to nobler than poetic fame Afpiring, thy commands to Britons bear,

395

GREECE.

LIBERTY.

PART II.

The Contents.

LIBERTY traced from the Paftoral ages, and the first uniting of neighbouring families into civil government, to ver. 47. The several establishments of Liberty in Egypt, Persia, Phœnicia, Palestine, slightly touched upon, down to her great establishment in Greece, to ver. 91. Geographical description of Greece, to ver. 113. Sparta and Athens, the two principal states of Greece, defcribed, to ver. 164. Influence of Liberty over all the Grecian flates, with regard to their government, their politeness, their virtues, their arts and sciences. The vast superiority it gave them, in point of force and bravery, over the Perfians, exemplified by the action of Thermopyla, the battle of Marathon, and the retreat of the Ten Thoufand. Its full exertion, and moft beautiful effects, in Athens, to ver. 216. Liberty the fource of free philofophy. The various schools which took their rife from Socrates, to ver. 257. Enumeration of fine arts: Eloquence, Poetry, Mufic, Sculpture, Painting, and Architecture, the effects of Liberty in Greece, and brought to their utmost perfettion there, to ver. 381. Transition to the modern state of Greece, to ver. 411. Why Liberty declined, and was at last entirely loft, among the Greeks, to ver. 472. Concluding reflection.

THUS spoke the goddess of the fearless eye,

And at her voice, renew'd, the Vision rose.

First, in the dawn of time, with eastern swains, In woods, and tents, and cottages, I liv'd, While on from plain to plain they led their flocks, 5 In search of clearer spring and fresher field,

=

These, as increasing families disclos'd
The tender state, I taught an equal sway.
Few were offences, properties, and laws.
Beneath the rural portal, palm-o'erspread,
The father-fenate met. There Justice dealt,
With reason then and equity the fame,

10

15

Free as the common air her prompt decree;
Nor yet had ftain'd her sword with subjects' blood.
The simpler arts were all their simpler wants
Had urg'd to light; but instant, these supply'd,
Another set of fonder wants arose,
And other arts with them of finer aim,
Till, from refining want to want impell'd,
The Mind by thinking push'd her latent powers, 20
And life began to glow, and arts to shine.

At first, on brutes alone the ruftic war
Launch'd the rude spear; fwift as he glar'd along,
On the grim lion or the robber wolf!

For then young sportive Life was void of toil, 25
Demanding little and with little pleas'd;
But when to manhood grown, and endless joys,

Led on by equal toils the bosom fir'd,

Lewd lazy Rapine broke primeval Peace,

And, hid in caves and idle forests drear,

39

From the lone pilgrim and the wandering swain

Seiz'd what he durft not earn. Then brothers' blood

First, horrid, fmok'd on the polluted skies.

Awful in justice, then the burning youth,

3

35

Led by their tempered fires, on lawless men,
The last worst monsters of the shaggy wood,
Turn'd the keen arrow and the sharpen'd spear.
Then war grew glorious. Heroes then arofe
Who, scorning coward felf, for others liv'd,
Toil'd for their ease, and for their safety bled. 40
Weft with the living day to Greece I came:
Earth smil'd beneath My beam; the Muse before
Sonorous flew, that low, till then, in woods
Had tun'd the reed, and sigh'd the shepherd's pain;
But now, to fing heroic deeds, she swell'd
A nobler note, and bade the banquet burn.
For Greece My fons of Egypt I forsook,
A boastful race, that in the vain abyss
Of fabling ages lov'd to lose their fource,
And with their river trac'd it from the skies.

While there my laws alone despotic reign'd,
And kings as well as people proud obey'd;
I taught them science, virtue, wisdom, arts;
By poets, fages, legiflators fought,

45

50

55

The school of polish'd life and human-kind:
But when mysterious Superstition came,
And, with her Civil Sifter leagu'd, involv'd
In study'd darkness the desponding mind,
Then tyrant Power the righteous scourge unloos'd ;

For yielded reason speaks the foul a flave.

Instead of useful works, like Nature's great,

* Civil tyranny.

6.