Bent on that goodly lond his eager fight:
Then forward rufh'd, impatient to defcry
What towns and castles therein were empight;
For towns him feem'd, and castles he did spy,
And to th' horizon round he stretch'd his roaming eye.
XIV.
Nor long way had they travell'd, ere they came
To a wide stream, that with tumultuous roar
Emongst rude rocks its winding course did frame.
Black was the wave and fordid, cover'd o'er
With angry foam, and stain'd with infants gore.
Thereto along th' unlovely margin stood
A birchen grove that, waving from the fhore,
Aye caft upon the tide its falling bud,
And with its bitter juice empoison'd all the flood,
XV.
Right in the centre of the vale empight,
Not diftant far a forked mountain rose ;
In outward form prefenting to the fight
That fam'd Parnaffian hill, on whose fair brows
The Nine Aonian Sifters wont repofe,
Lift'ning to fweet Caftalia's founding ftream,
Which through the plains of Cirrha murm'ring flows. But This to That compar'd mote juftly feem
Ne fitting haunt for gods, ne worthy man's esteem,
For this nor founded deep, nor fpredden wide,
Nor high up-rais'd above the level plain,
By toiling art through tedious years applied,
From various parts compil'd with studious pain,
Was ferft up-thrown; if fo it mote attain,
Like that poetic mountain, to be 8 hight
The noble feat of Learning's goodly train.
Thereto, the more to captivate the fight,
It like a garden fair most curiously wash dight.
XVII.
In figur'd plots with leafy walls inclos'd,
By measure and by rule it was out-lay'd;
With fymmetry fo regular difpos'd,
That plot to plot ftill answer'd, shade to fhade;
Each correfpondent twain alike array'd
With like embellishments of plants and flow'rs,
Of statues, vases, fpouting founts, that play'd
Through fhells of Tritons their ascending show'rs,
And labyrinths involv'd and trelice-woven bow'rs.
XVIII.
There likewife mote be seen on every fide
The yew obedient to the planter's will,
And shapely box of all their branching pride
Ungently fhone, and with prepofterous skill
f Erft, formerly. g Hight, called, named. h Dight, dreft.
To various beasts and birds of fundry quill
Transform'd, and human shapes of monstrous fize;
Huge as that giant-race, who, hill on hill
High-heaping, fought with impious vain i emprize,
Despite of thund'ring Jove, to scale the steepy skies.
Alfe other wonders of the sportive shears
Fair Nature mif-adorning there were found;
Globes, spiral columns, pyramids and piers
With spouting urns and budding statues crown'd;
And horizontal dials on the ground
In living box by cunning artists trac'd;
And gallies trim, on no long voyage bound,
But by their roots there ever anchor'd fast;
* All were their bellying fails out-spread to every blast.
XX.
O'er all appear'd the mountain's forked brows.
With terraffes on terraffes up-thrown;
And all along arrang'd in order'd rows,
And vistoes broad, the velvet flopes adown
The ever verdant trees of Daphne shone.
But aliens to the clime, and brought of old
From Latian plains, and Grecian Helicon,
They shrunk and languish'd in a foreign mold,
By changeful fummers starv'd, and pinch'd by winter's cold.
i Emprize, enterprize, attempt.
* All, ufed frequently by the old English poets for although.
Amid this verdant grove with folemn state,
On golden thrones of antique form reclin'd,
In mimic majefty Nine Virgins fate,
In features various, as unlike in mind :
Alfe boasted they themfelves of heav'nly kind,
And to the sweet Parnaffian Nymphs allied;
Thence round their brows the Delphic bay they twin'd,
And, matching with high names their apish pride,
O'er every learned school aye claim'd they to prefide.
XXII.
In antique garbs, for modern they disdain'd,
By Greek and Roman artists whilom made,
Of various woofs, and variously distain'd,
With tints of every hue, were they array'd;
And here and there ambitiously display'd
A purple fhred of fome rich robe, prepared
Erft by the Mufes or th' Aonian Maid,
To deck great Tullius or the Mantuan Bard;
Which o'er each motley vest with uncouth splendor glared.
XXXIII.
And well their outward vefture did exprefs
The bent and habit of their inward mind,
Affecting Wildom's antiquated dress,
And ufages by Time cast far behind.
Thence, to the charms of younger Science blind, The customs, laws, the learning, arts, and phrafe, Of their own countries they with scorn declin'd; Ne facred Truth herself would they embrace, Unwarranted, unknown in their fore-fathers' days. XXIV.
Thus ever backward cafting their furvey;
To Rome's old ruins and the groves
Of elder Athens, which in profpect lay
Stretch'd out beneath the mountain, would they turn Their busy fearch, and o'er the rubbish mourn.
Then gathering up, with fuperftitious care,
Each little fcrap, however foul or torn,
In grave harangues they boldly would declare, This Ennius, Varro; This the Stagyrite did wear. XXV.
Yet, under names of venerable found,
While o'er the world they stretch'd their aweful rod;
Through all the provinces of Learning own'd
For teachers of whate'er is wife and good.
Alfe from each region to their " drad abode
Came youth unnumber'd, crowding all to tafte
The freams of Science; which united flow'd
Adown the mount, from nine rich fources caft;
And to the vale below in one rude torrent pass'd.
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