Serene, and self-sufficient, like a god,
In whom Corruption could not lodge one charm, While he his honeft roots to gold preferr'd;
While truly rich, and by his Sabine field
The man maintain'd, the Roman's splendour all
Was in the public wealth and glory plac'd;
Or ready, a rough fwain, to guide the plough,
Or elfe, the purple o'er his shoulder thrown,
In long majestic flow, to rule the state
With Wifdom's pureft eye; or, clad in fteel,
To drive the fteady battle on the foe.
Hence every paffion, even the proudeft, ftoop'd
To common-good: Camillus! thy revenge;
Thy glory, Fabius! All fubmiffive, hence
Confuls, Dictators, ftill refign'd their rule,
The very moment that the laws ordain'd.
Tho' Conqueft o'er them clapp'd her eagle-wings,
Her laurels wreath'd, and yok'd her fnowy steeds
To the triumphal car, foon as expir'd
The latest hour of fway, taught to submit
(A harder lesson that than to command),
Into the private Roman funk the chief.
If Rome was ferv'd, and glorious, careless they 159 By whom their country's fame they deem'd their And above envy, in a rival's train
Sung the loud Iös by themselves deferv'd:
Hence matchlefs courage on Cremera's bank
Hence fell the Fabii: hence the Decii dy'd;
And Curtius plung'd into the flaming gulf:
Hence Regulus the wavering Fathers firm'd,
By dreadful counsel never given before;
For Roman honour fued, and his own doom:
Hence he fuftain'd to dare a death prepar'd
By Punic rage on earth his manly look
Relentless fix'd, he from a laft embrace,
By chains polluted, put his wife aside,
His little children climbing for a kiss;
Then dumb thro' rows of weeping wondering friends,
A new illuftrious exile! prefs'd along.
Nor lefs impatient did he pierce the crowds
Oppofing his return, than if, efcap'd
From long litigious fuits, he glad forfook
The noify town a while, and city cloud,
To breathe Venafrian or Tarentine air.
Need I thefe high particulars recount?
The meanest bofom felt a thirst for fame,
Flight their worft death, and shame their only fear. Life had no charms, nor any terrors fate,
When Rome and Glory call'd. But, in one view,
Mark the rare boaft of thefe unequall'd times: *86
Ages revolv'd unfully'd by a crime;
Aftrea reign'd, and scarcely needed laws
To bind a race elated with the pride
Of virtue, and difdaining to defcend
To meanness, mutual violence, and wrongs.
While war around them rag'd, in happy Rome
Volume II.
All peaceful fmil'd, all fave the paffing clouds
That often hang on Freedom's jealous brow,
And fair unblemish'd centuries elaps'd,
When not a Roman bled but in the field.
Their virtue fuch, that an unbalanc'd state,
Still between Noble and Plebeian toss'd,
As flow'd the wave of fluctuating power,
Wasthence kept firm, and with triumphant prow 200
Rode out the storms. Oft' tho' the native feuds,
That from the firft their conftitution fhook
(A latent ruin, growing as it grew),
Stood on the threatening point of Civil war
Ready to rush, yet could the lenient voice
Of Wisdom, foothing the tumultuous foul,
Thofe fons of Virtue calm. Their generous hearts,
Unpetrify'd by Self, fo naked lay
And fenfible to truth, that o'er the rage
Of giddy Faction, by Oppreffion fwell'd,
Prevail'd a simple fable, and at once
To peace recover'd the divided state.
But if their often-cheated hopes refus'd
The foothing touch, still in the love of Rome
The dread Dictator found a fure refource.
Was the affaulted? was her glory stain❜d?
One common quarrel wide-inflam'd the whole.
Foes in the Forum in the field were friends,
By focial danger bound; each fond for each,
And for their dearest country all, to die.
Thus up the hill of Empire flow they toil'd, Till, the bold fummit gain'd, the Thoufand States Of proud Italia blended into one;
Then o'er the nations they refiftless rufh'd,
And touch'd the limits of the failing world.
Let Fancy's eye the diftant lines unite.
See that which borders wild the western main,
Where ftorms at large refound, and tides immense;
From Caledonia's dim cerulean coast,
And moist Hibernia, to where Atlas, lodg'd 230
Amid the restlefs clouds and leaning heaven,
Hangs o'er the deep that borrows thence its name.
Mark that oppos'd, where firft the fpringing Morn
Her roses sheds, and shakes around her dews;
From the dire deferts by the Cafpian lav'd, 235
To where the Tigris and Euphrates, join'd,
Impetuous tear the Babylonian plain,
And bleft Arabia aromatic breathes.
See that dividing far the watry North,
Parent of floods! from the majestic Rhine,
Drunk by Batavian meads, to where, seven-mouth'd,
In Euxine waves the flashing Danube roars;
To where the frozen Tanais scarcely ftirs
The dead Meotic pool, or the long Rha*
In the black Scythian + fea his torrent throws.
Laft that beneath the burning zone behold;
See where it runs, from the deep-loaded plains
The ancient name of the Volga,
Of Mauritania to the Libyan fands,,
Where Ammon lifts amid the torrid wafte
A verdant ifle, with fhade and fountain fresh, 250
And farther to the full Egyptian shore,
To where the Nile from Ethiopian clouds,
His never-drain'd ethereal urn, descends.
In this vaft space what various tongues and states!
What bounding rocks,and mountains, floods,and feas!
What purple tyrants quell'd, and nations freed! 256
O'er Greece defcended chief, with stealth divine,
The Roman bounty in a flood of day,
As at her Ifthmian games, a fading pomp!
Her full affembled youth innumerous swarm'd. 260 On a tribunal rais'd Flaminius fate;
A victor he, from the deep phalanx pierc'd
Of iron-coated Macedon, and back
*
tyrant to his bounds repell'd.
In the high thoughtless gaiety of game,
While sport alone their unambitious hearts
Poffefs'd, the fudden trumpet, founding hoarfe,
fade filence o'er the bright affembly reign,
Then thus a herald:" To the ftates of Greece
The Roman people, unconfin'd, restore
Their countries, cities, liberties, and laws;
Taxes remit, and garrisons withdraw."
The crowd, aftonish'd half, and half inform'd, Star'd dubious round; fome question'd, fome exclaim'd (Like one who, dreaming, between hope and fear 275
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