There huge Coloffes rofe, with trophies crown'd,
And Runic characters were grav'd around.
There fate Zamolxis with erected eyes,

And Odin here in mimic trances dies.

130

There on rude iron columns,, fmear'd with blood, 125
The horrid forms of Scythian heroes ftood,
Druids and Bards (their once loud harps unftrung)
And youths that died to be by Poets fung.
These and a thousand more of doubtful fame,
To whom old fables gave a lafting name,
In ranks adorn'd the Temple's outward face;
The wall in luftre and effect like glass,
Which o'er each object cafting various dyes,
Enlarges fome, and others multiplies:
Nor void of emblem was the mystic wall,
For thus romantic Fame increases all.

The Temple shakes, the founding gates unfold,.
Wide vaults appear, and roofs of fretted gold:

NOTES.

135

Architecture is agreeable to that part of the world. The learning of the northern nations lay more obfcure than that of the reft; Zamolxis was the difciple of Pythagoras, who taught the immortality of the foul to the Scythians. Odin, or Woden, was the great legislator and hero of the Goths. They tell us of him, that being fubject to fits, he perfuaded his followers, that during thofe trances he received infpirations, from whence he dictated his laws: he is faid to have been the inventor of the Runic characters.

VER. 127. Druids and Bards, etc.] Thefe were the priests and poets of those people, fo celebrated for their favage virtue. Thofe heroic barbarians accounted it a dishonour to die in their beds, and rushed on to certain death in the profpect of an after-life, and for the glory of a song from their bards in praise of their actions.

140

Rais'd on a thousand pillars, wreath'd around
With laurel-foliage, and with eagles crown'd:
Of bright transparent beryl were the walis,
The freezes gold, and gold the capitals:
As heav'n with ftars, the roof with jewels glows,
And ever-living lamps depend in rows.
Full in the paffage of each spacious gate,
The fage Hiftorians in white garments wait;
Grav'd o'er their feats the form of Time was found,

His fcythe revers'd, and both his pinions bound.
Within food Heroes, who thro' loud alarms
In bloody fields purfu'd renown in arms.

High on a throne with trophies charg'd, I view'd
The Youth that all things but himself subdu’d;
His feet on fceptres and tiaras trod,

143

150

And his horn'd head bely'd the Libyan God.
There Cæfar, grac'd with both Minervas, fhone; 155
Cæfar, the world's great master, and his own;

Unmov'd, fuperior still in ev'ry state,

And scarce detefted in his Country's fate.

But chief were thofe, who not for empire fought,
But with their toils their people's fafety bought: 160
High o'er the reft Epaminondas ftood;
Timoleon, glorious in his brother's blood;
Bold Scipio, faviour of the Roman state;
Great in his triumphs, in retirement great;

NOTES.

VIR. 152. The Youth that all things but bimself subdu'd;] Alexander the Great: the Tiara was the crown peculiar to the Afian Princes: his defire to be thought the son of Jupiter Ammon, cau. fed him to wear the horns of that God, and to represent the fame upon his coins; which was continued by feveral of his fucceffors.

VER. 162. Timoleon, glorious in his brother's blood ;] Timoleon. had faved the life of his brother Timophanes in the battle between -the Argives and Corinthians; but afterwards killed him when he affected the tyranny, preferring his duty to his country to all the obligations of bloud.

And wife Aurelius, in whofe well-taught mind
With boundless pow'r unbounded virtue join'd,
His own ftrict judge, and patron of mankind,
Much fuff'ring heroes next their honours claim,
Those of lefs noify, and lefs guilty fame,
Fair Virtue's filent train: fupreme of these
Here ever shines the godlike Socrates :
He whom ungrateful Athens could expell,

gets

At all times juft, but when he fign'd the Shell:
Here his abode the martyr'd Phocion claims,
With Agis, not the last of Spartan names:
Unconquer'd Cato fhews the wound he tore,
And Brutus his ill Genius meets no more.

But in the centre of the hallow'd choir,
Six pompous columns o'er the rest aspire;

NOTES.

170

175

VER. 172. He whom ungrateful Athens, etc.] Ariftides, who for his great integrity was diftinguished by the appellation of the Juft. When his countrymen would have banished him by the Oftracism, where it was the cuftom for every man to fign the name of the perfon he voted to exile in an Oyfter-thell; a peafant, who could not write, came to Ariftides to do it for him, who readily figned his

own name.

VER. 178. But in the centre of the ballow'd choir, etc.] In the midst of the temple, neareft the throne of Fame, are placed the greatest names in learning of all antiquity. Thefe are defcribed in fuch attitudes as exprefs their different characters: the columns on hich they are raifed are adorned with sculptures, taken from the moft ftriking fubjects of their works; which fculpture bears a refemblance, in its manner and character, to the manner and character of their writings.

IMITATIONS.

Vzn. 179. Six pompous columns, etc.]

From the dees many a pillere,

Of metal that fhone not full clere, etc.

Upon a pillere saw I ftonde

That was of lede and iron fine,

Him of the feet Saturnine,

The Ebraicke Jofephus the old, etc.

Around the shrine itself of Fame they stand,

Hold the chief honours, and the fane command.

180

High on the firft, the mighty Homer shone;
Eternal adamant compos'd his throne;

Father of verse! in holy fillets drest,

His filver beard wav'd gently o'er his breast;

185

Tho' blind, a boldness in his looks appears;

In years he feem'd, but not impair'd by years.
The wars of Troy were round the pillar feen:
Here fièrce Tydides wounds the Cyprian Queen;
Here Hector glorious from Patroclus' fall,
Here dragg'd in triumph round the Trojan wall.
Motion and life did ev'ry part infpire,
Bold was the work, and prov'd the mafter's fire;
A ftrong expreffion moft he feem'd t' affect,
And here and there disclos'd a brave neglect.

A golden column next in rank appear'd,
On which a shrine of pureft gold was rear'd;

IMITATIONS.

Upon an iron pillere strong,

That painted was all endlong,

With tigers' blood in every place,

The Tholofan that hight Stace,

That bare of Thebes up the name, etc.

VER. 182.]

Full wonder hye on a pillere

Of iron, he the great Omer,

And with him Dares and Titus, etc.

VER. 196, etc.]

There faw I ftand on a pillere

That was of tinned iron, cleere,
The Latin Poet Virgyle,

That hath bore up of a great while
The fame of pius Ænæas;

And next him on a pillere was
Of copper, Venus' clerke Ovide,
That hath fowen wondrous wide
The great God of Love's fame

190

195

Finish'd the whole, and labour'd ev'ry part,
With patient touches of unweary'd art:
The Mantuan there in fober triumph fate,
Compos'd his pofture, and his look fedate;
On Homer still he fix'd a rev'rend eye,
Great without pride, in modeft majesty.
In living sculpture on the fides were spread
The Latian wars, and haughty Turnus dead;
Eliza ftretch'd upon the fun'ral pyre,

Æneas bending with his aged fire:

200

205

210

Troy flam'd in burning gold, and o'er the throne
ARMS AND THE MAN in golden cyphers fhone.
Four fwans fuftain a car of filver bright,
With heads advanc'd, and pinions ftretch'd for flight:
Here, like fome furious prophet, Pindar rode,
And feem'd to labour with th' inspiring God.
Acrofs the harp a careless hand he flings,
And boldly finks into the founding ftrings.
The figur'd games of Greece the column grace,
Neptune and Jove furvey the rapid race.
The youths hang o'er their chariots as they run;
The fiery fteeds feem ftarting from the stone;

NOTES.

215

VER. 210. Four fwans, etc.] Pindar being feated in a chariot, alludes to the chariot-races he celebrated in the Grecian games. The swans are emblems of Poetry, their foaring posture intimates the fublimity and activity of his genius. Neptune prefided over the Ifthmian, and Jupiter over the Olympian games.

IMITATIONS.

Tho faw I on a pillere by
Of iron wrought fully fternly,
The great Poet Dan Lucan,
That on his fhoulders bore up then
As hye as that I might fee,
The fame of Julius and Pompee.

And next him on a pillere ftode
Of fulphure, like as he were wode,
Dan Claudian, fothe for to tell,
That bare up all the fame of hell, etc.