These, as increasing families disclos'd
The tender ftate, I taught an equal sway.
Few were offences, properties, and laws.
Beneath the rural portal, palm-o'erspread,
The father-fenate met. There Juftice dealt,
With reason then and equity the fame,
Free as the common air her prompt decree;
Nor yet had ftain'd her fword with subjects' blood.
The fimpler arts were all their simpler wants
Had urg'd to light; but inftant, these fupply'd,
Another fet of fonder wants arose,
And other arts with them of finer aim,
Till, from refining want to want impell'd,
The Mind by thinking pufh'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 fpear; 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 bofom fir'd,
Lewd lazy Rapine broke primeval Peace,
And, hid in caves and idle forests drear,
From the lone pilgrim and the wandering fwain
Seiz'd what he durft not earn. Then brothers' blood
First, horrid, fmok'd on the polluted fkies.
Awful in juftice, then the burning youth,
Led by their tempered fires, on lawless men,
The laft worst monsters of the shaggy wood,
Turn'd the keen arrow and the fharpen'd fpear.
Then war grew glorious. Heroes then arofe
Who, fcorning coward felf, for others liv'd,
Toil'd for their cafe, and for their fafety bled. 40
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, fhe fwell'd
A nobler note, and bade the banquet burn.
For Greece My fons of Egypt I forfook,
A boastful race, that in the vain abyss
Of fabling ages lov'd to lofe their fource,
And with their river trac'd it from the skies.
While there my laws alone defpotic reign'd,
And kings as well as people proud obey'd;
I taught them fcience, virtue, wisdom, arts;
By poets, fages, legiflators fought,
The school of polish'd life and human-kind:
But when myfterious Superftition came,
And, with her Civil Sifter* leagu'd, involv'd
In ftudy'd darkness the defponding mind,
Then tyrant Power the righteous fcourge unloos'd;
For yielded reafon 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 deferv'd,
For one vile carcafs 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
"'Tis I that bid it flow."-But, undeceiv'd, [mine,
His frenzy foon the proud blasphemer felt;
Felt that, without My fertilizing power,
Suns loft their force, and Niles o'erflow'd in vain. 70
Nought could retard Me; nor the frugal ftate
Of rifing Perfia, 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 filent speak to fight,
Of arts prime fource and guardian! by fair stars,
Firft tempted out into the lonely deep,
To whom I firft difclos'd mechanic arts,
The winds to conquer, to fubdue the waves,
With all the peaceful power of ruling trade,
Earneft of Britain. Nor by these retain❜d,
Nor by the neighbouring land, whofe palmy shore
The filver Jordan laves: before Me lay
The promis'd Land of Arts, and urg'd my flight. 85
Hail, Nature's utmost boaft! unrivall'd Greece!
My faireft 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 Ægæan, temper'd kind :
Light airy foils; a country rich and gay,
Broke into hills, with balmy odours crown'd,
And, bright with purple harveft, joyous vales: 94
Mountains & ftreams whereverse spontaneous flow'd;
Whence deem'd by wondering men the feat of gods,
And still the mountains and the ftreams of fong.
All that boon Nature could luxuriant pour
Of high materials, and My restless arts
Frame into finifh'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, beat
By Adria's here, there by gaan waves,
To where the deep-adorning Cyclade Ifles
In fhining profpect rife, and on the shore
Of fartheft Crete refounds the Libyan main?
O'er all two rival cities rear'd the brow,
And balanc'd all. Spread on Eurotas' bank,
Amid a circle of foft-rifing hills,
The patient Sparta one; the fober, hard,
And man-fubduing city, which no shape
Of pain could conquer, or of pleasure charm.
Lycurges there built, on the folid base
Of equal life, fo well a tempered state,
Where mix'd each government in fuch just poife,
Each power fo checking and supporting 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 withered 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 Senfe and Wit, in frugal phrase
Confin'd, and prefs'd into laconic force.
There, too, by rooting thence still treacherous Self
The public and the private grew the fame:
The children of the nurfing Public all,
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
To feize the palm of empire, Athens rofe.
Where, with bright marbles big and future pomp,
Hymettus* spread, amid the scented sky,
His thymy treasures to the labouring bee,
And to botanic hand the ftores of health,
Wrapt in a foul-attenuating clime,
Between Iliffus + and Cephiffus glow'd
A mountain near Athens.
+ Two rivers, betwixt which Athens was fituated.
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