Westward, a sumptuous frontispiece appear'd,
On Doric pillars of white marble rear'd,
Crown'd with an architrave of antique mould,
And sculpture rising on the roughen'd gold.
In shaggy spoils here Theseus was beheld,
And Perseus dreadful with Minerva's shield:
There great Alcides stopping with his toil,8
Rests on his club, and holds th' Hesperian spoil.
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 beholds a sudden Thebes aspire!
Cythæron's echoes answer to his call,

And half the mountain rolls into a wall:

There might you see the lengthening spires ascend,
The domes swell up, the widening arches bend,
The growing towers, 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 the Assyrian fame,
And the great founder of the Persian name:

There in long robes the royal Magi stand,

Grave Zoroaster waves the circling wand,

The sage Chaldeans robed in white appear'd,

And Brachmans, deep in desert woods revered,

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These stopp'd the moon, and call'd th' unbodied shades

To midnight banquets in the glimm'ring glades;

Made visionary fabrics round them rise,

And airy spectres skim before their eyes;
Of talismans and sigils knew the power,
And careful watch'd the planetary hour.
Superior, and alone, Confucius stood,

Who taught that useful science-to be good.

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8 This figure of Hercules is drawn with an eye to the position of the famous statue of Farnese.

9 Cyrus was the beginning of the Persian, as Ninus was of the Assyrian monarchy. The Magi and Chaldeans (the chief of whom was Zoroaster) employed their studies upon magic and astrology, which was in a manner almost all the learning of the ancient Asian people. We have scarce any account of a moral philosopher, except Confucius, the great lawgiver of the Chinese, who lived about two thousand years ago.

But on the South, a long majestic race
Of Egypt's priests the gilded niches grace,10
Who measured earth, described the starry spheres,
And traced the long records of lunar years.
High on his car Sesostris struck my view,
Whom sceptred 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 placed,
And the learn'd walls with hieroglyphics graced.
Of Gothic structure was the Northern side,11
O'erwrought with ornaments of barbarous pride.
There huge Colosses rose, with trophies crown'd,
And Runic characters were graved around.
There sat Zamolxis with erected eyes,

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And Odin here in mimic trances dies.

There on rude iron columns, smear'd with blood,
The horrid forms of Scythian heroes stood,

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Druids and bards (their once loud harps unstrung),12

And youths that died to be by poets sung.
These and a thousand more of doubtful fame,
To whom old fables gave a lasting name,

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10 The learning of the old Egyptian priests consisted for the most part in geometry and astronomy. They also preserved the history of their nation." Their greatest hero upon record is Sesostris, whose actions and conquests may be seen at large in Diodorus, &c. He is said to have caused the kings he vanquished to draw him in his chariot. The posture of his statue, in these verses, is correspondent to the description which Herodotus gives of one of them remaining in his own time.

11 The architecture is agreeable to that part of the world. The learning of the northern nations lay more obscure than that of the rest. Zamolxis was the disciple of Pythagoras, who taught the immortality of the soul to the Scythians. Odin, or Woden, was the great legislator and hero of the Goths. They tell us of him, that, being subject to fits, he persuaded his followers that during those trances he received inspirations, from whence he dictated his laws. He is said to have been the inventor of the Runic character.

12 These were the priests and poets of those people, so celebrated for their savage virtue. These heroic barbarians accounted it a dishonour to die in their beds, and rushed on to certain death in the prospect of an after life, and for the glory of a song from their bards in praise of their actions.

In ranks adorn'd the temple's outward face;
The wall in lustre and effect like glass,13
Which o'er each object casting various dyes,
Enlarges some, and others multiplies:
Nor void of emblem was the mystic wall,
For thus romantic Fame increases all.

The temple shakes, the sounding gates unfold,
Wide vaults appear, and roofs of fretted gold:
Rais'd on a thousand pillars, wreath'd around
With laurel foliage, and with eagles crown'd:
Of bright, transparent beryl were the walls,
The friezes gold, and gold the capitals:

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As heaven with stars, the roof with jewels glows,

And ever-living lamps depend in rows.

Full in the passage of each spacious gate,

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The sage historians in white garments wait;

Graved o'er their seats the form of Time was found,

His scythe reversed, and both his pinions bound.
Within stood heroes, who through loud alarms
In bloody fields pursued renown in arms.

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High on a throne, with trophies charged, I view'd

The youth that all things but himself subdued ;14
His feet on sceptres and tiaras trod,
And his horn'd head belied the Libyan god.

There Cæsar, graced with both Minervas shone;
Cæsar, the world's great master, and his own;
Unmoved, superior still in every state,

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And scarce detested in his country's fate.

But chief were those, who not for empire sought,

But with their toils their people's safety brought:
High o'er the rest Epaminondas stood;
Timoleon, glorious in his brother's blood; 15

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13 "It shone lighter than a glass,

And made well more than it was,

As kind of thing Fame is."

14 Alexander the Great. The tiara was the crown peculiar to the Asian princes. His desire to be thought the son of Jupiter Ammon caused him to wear the horns of that god, and to represent the same upon his coins; which was continued by several of his successors.

15 Timoleon had saved the life of his brother Timophanes, in the battle between the Argives and Corinthians; but afterwards killed him when he

Bold Scipio, saviour of the Roman state,
Great in his triumphs, in retirement great;

And wise Aurelius, in whose well-taught mind
With boundless, power unbounded virtue join'd,
His own strict judge, and patron of mankind.
Much-suffering heroes next their honours claim,
Those of less noisy, and less guilty fame,

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affected the tyranny, preferring his duty to his country to all the obligations of blood.

Fair Virtue's silent train: supreme of these
Here ever shines the godlike Socrates:

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He whom ungrateful Athens could expel,16
At all times just, but when he sign'd the shell:
Here his abode the martyr'd Phocion claims,
With Agis, not the last of Spartan names:

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BRUTUS.

Unconquer'd Cato shows the wound he tore,
And Brutus his ill genius meets no more.

16 Aristides, who, for his great integrity, was distinguished by the appellation of "the Just." When his countrymen would have banished him by the