For then young sportive life was void of toil,
Demanding little, and with little pleas'd :
But when to manhood grown, and endless joys,
Led on by equal toils, the bofom fir'd;
Lewd lazy rapine broke primaeval peace,
And, hid in caves and idle forests drear,
From the lone pilgrim and the wand'ring fwain,
Seiz'd what he durft not earn. Then brother's blood
First, horrid, smoak'd on the polluted skies.
Awful in justice then the burning youth,
Led by their temper'd fires, on lawless men,
The last worst monsters of the fhaggy wood,
Turn'd the keen arrow, and the sharpen'd spear.
Then war grew glorious. Héroes then arofe;
Who fcorning coward self, for others liv'd,
Toil'd for their ease, and for their safety bled.
Weft with the living day to GREECE -I came :
Earth fmil'd beneath my beam: the Muse before
Sonorous flew, that low till then in woods
Had tun'd the reed, and figh'd the fhepherd's pain;
But now to fing heroic deeds, the fwell'd
A nobler note, and bade the banquet burn.
For GREECE my fons of EGYET I forfook;
A boastful race, that in the vain abyss -
Offabling ages lov'd to lofe their fource,
And with their river trac'd it from the fkies.
While there my laws alone defpotic reign'd,
And King as well as People, proud obey'a,
I taught them science, virtue, wisdom, arts;
By poets, fages, legiflators fought;
The school of polish'd life, and human kind.
But when mysterious Superftition came,
And, with her* Civil Sifter league'd, involv'd
Civil Tyranny.
In study'd darkness the desponding mind!
Then Tyrant Power the righteous fcourge unloos'd ::
For yielded reason speaks the foul a slave.
Inftead of useful works, like Nature's great,
Enormous, cruel wonders crush'd the land:
And round a tyrant's † tomb, who none deserv❜d,
For one vile carcase perish'd countless lives.
Then the great + Dragon, couch'd amid his floods, 65. Swell'd his fierce heart, and cry'd-"This flood is mine, ""Tis I that bid it flow."-But, undeceiv'd,
His phrenzy foon the proud blafphemer felt;
Felt that without my fertilizing power
Suns loft their force, and Niles o'erflowed in vain. 70,
Nought could retard me: nor the frugal state
Of rifing PERSIA, fober in extreme
Beyond the pitch of Man, and thence revers'd
Into luxurious wafte; nor yet the ports
Of old PHOENICIA; firft for letters fam'd,
That paint the voice, and silent speak to fight.
Of arts prime fource and guardian! by fair ftars
First tempted out into the lonely deep;
To whom I first difclos'd mechanic arts,
The winds to conquer, to fubdue the waves,
With all the peaceful power of ruling trade
Earnest of BRITAIN. Nor by these retain'd;
Nor by the neighbouring land, whose palmy shore
The filver Jordan laves. Before me lay
The promis'd LAND OF ARTS, and urg'd my flight.
Hail Nature's utmost boast! unrival'd GREECE !
My fairest reign! where every power benign
Confpir'd to blow the flower of human kind,
And lavish'd all that genius can inspire:
Clear funny climates, by the breezy main,
Ionian or Egaan, temper'd kind:
Bight, airy foils. A country rich and gay;
Broke into hills with balmy odours crown'd,
And, bright with purple harvest, joyous vales.
Mountains, and streams, where verse spontaneous flow'd ;
Whence deem'd by wondering men the seat of Gods,
And still the mountains and the streams of Song;
All that boon Nature could luxuriant pour
Of high materials, and My restless ARTS
Frame into finish'd life. How many states,
And clustering towns, and monuments of fame,
And scenes of glorious deeds, in little bounds;
From the rough tract of bending mountains, beas-
By Adria's here, there by gaan waves;
To where the deep-adorning Cyclade Isles
In fhining prospect rise, and on the shore
Of fartheft Crete refounds the Lybian Main!
O'er All two rival cities rear'd the brow,
And balanc'd All. Spread on Eurota's bank,
Amid a circle of foft-rifing hills,
The patient SPARTA One: the fober, hard,
And man-fubduing city; which no fhape
Of Pain could conquer, nor of Pleasure charm.
LYCURGUS there built on the folid base
Of equal life fo well a temper'd state;
Where mix'd each government in fuch just poise,
Each power fo checking, and fupporting each;
That firm for ages, and unmov'd, it stood,
The fort of GREECE, without one giddy hour,
One shock of faction, or of party-rage.
For, drain'd the fprings of wealth, Corruption there
Lay wither'd at the root. Thrice happy land!
Had not neglected art, with weedy vice
Confounded, funk. But if Athenian arts
Lov'd not the foil; yet there the calm abode
Of wisdom, virtue, philofophic ease,
Of manly sense and wit, in frugal phrafe,
Confin'd and press'd into Laconic force.
There too, by rooting thence ftill treacherous self,
The Public and the Private grew the fame.
The children of the nurfing Public All,
To seize the palm of empire, ATHENS rofe,
And at its table fed, for, that they toil'd,
For that they liv'd entire, and even for that
The tender mother urg'd her fon to die.
Of fofter genius, but not lefs intent
Where, with bright marbles big and future pomp,
* Hymettus spread, amid the fcented sky, His thymy treasures to the labouring bee,
And to botanic hand the stores of health.
Wrapt in a foul-attenuating clime,
Between + Iliffus and Gephilus glow'd
This hive of science, fhedding.fweets divine.
Of active arts, and animated arms.
There, paffionate for ME, an easy-mov'd,
A quick, refin'd, a delicate, humane,
Enlighten'd people reign'd. Oft on the brink
Of ruin, hurried by the charm of speech,
Enforcing hafty counsel immature,
Totter'd the rafh Democracy; unpois'd,
And by the rage devour'd, that ever tears
A populace unequal; part too'rich,
And part or fierce with want or abject grown.
SOLON, at last, their mild Restorer, role:
* A mountain near Athens.
Two rivers betwixt which Athens was fituated.
Allay'd the tempeft; to the calm of laws
*Reduc'd the fettling Whole; and, with the weight
Which the * two Senates to the Public lent,
As with an anchor fix'd the driving state.
Nor was my forming care to these confin'd.
For Emulation thro' the Whole I pour'd,
Noble contention! who should most excel
In government well-pois'd, adjusted best
To public weal; in countries cultur'd high;
In ornamented towns, where order reigns,
Free focial life, and polish'd manners fair;
In exercise, and arms, arms only drawn
For common GREECE, to quell the Perfian pride:
In moral science, and in graceful arts.
Hence, as for glory peacefully they strove,
The prize grew greater, and the prize of all.`
By contest brighten'd, hence the radiant youth
'Pour'd every beam; by generous pride inflam'd,
Felt every ardor burn; their great reward
The verdant wreath, which founding Pifat gave,
Hence flourish'd GREECE; and hence a race of men,
As Gods by conscious future times ador'd;
In whom each virtue wore a fmiling air,
Each science fhed o'er life a friendly light,
Each art was nature. SPARTAN valour hence,
At the + fam'd Pafs, firm as an ifthmus stood;
* The Areopagus, or fupreme court of judicature, which *SOLON reformed and improved: and the Council of Fear Hundred, by him inftituted. In this council all affairs of state were deliberated, before they came to be voted in the affembly of the people.
Or Olympia, the city where the Olympic games were lebrated.
↑ The traits of Thermopylae.
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