The laurel bough, and sate in silence down, Fix'd, wrapp'd in solemn musing, full before The sun, who now from all his radiant orb
Drove the gray clouds, and pour'd his genial light Upon the breast of Solon. Solon rais'd
Aloft the leafy rod, and thus began :
"Ye beauteous offspring of Olympian Jove And Memory divine, Pierian maids,
Hear me, propitious. In the morn of life, When hope shone bright and all the prospect smil'd, To your sequester'd mansion oft my steps Were turn'd, O Muses, and within your gate My offerings paid. Ye taught me then with strains Of flowing harmony to soften war's
Dire voice, or in fair colours, that might charm The public eye, to clothe the form austere my feeble age
Of civil counsel. Now
Neglected, and supplanted of the hope
On which it lean'd, yet sinks not, but to you,
your mild wisdom flies, refuge belov'd Of solitude and silence. Ye can teach The visions of my bed whate'er the gods In the rude ages of the world inspir'd, Or the first heroes acted; ye can make The morning light more gladsome to my sense Than ever it appear'd to active youth Pursuing careless pleasure; ye can give To this long leisure, these unheeded hours, A labour as sublime as when the sons Of Athens throng'd and speechless round me stood
To hear pronounc'd for all their future deeds
The bounds of right and wrong. Celestial powers!
I feel that ye are near me: and behold
To meet your energy divine, I bring
A high and sacred theme; not less than those Which to the eternal custody of Fame Your lips intrusted, when of old ye deign'd With Orpheus or with Homer to frequent The groves of Hamus or the Chian shore. "Ye know, harmonious maids, (for what of all My various life was e'er from you estrang'd?) Oft hath my solitary song to you
Reveal'd that duteous pride which turn'd my steps To willing exile; earnest to withdraw From envy and the disappointed thirst
Of lucre, lest the bold familiar strife, Which in the eye of Athens they upheld. Against her legislator, should impair
With trivial doubt the reverence of his laws. To Egypt, therefore, through the Ægean isles, My course I steer'd, and by the banks of Nile Dwelt in Canopus. Thence the hallow'd domes Of Saïs, and the rites to Isis paid,
I sought, and in ber temple's silent courts, Through many changing moons, attentive heard The venerable Sonchis, while his tongue At morn or midnight the deep story told Of her who represents whate'er has been, Or is, or shall be; whose mysterious veil No mortal hand hath ever yet remov'd.
By him exhorted, southward to the walls Of On I pass'd, the city of the sun, The ever-youthful god. 'Twas there, amid His priests and sages, who the livelong night Watch the dread movements of the starry sphere, Or who in wondrous fables half disclose
The secrets of the elements, 'twas there That great Psenophis taught my raptur'd ears The fame of old Atlantis, of her chiefs,
And her pure laws, the first which earth obey'd. Deep in my bosom sunk the noble tale; And often, while I listen'd, did my mind Foretell with what delight her own free lyre Should sometime for an Attic audience raise Anew that lofty scene, and from their tombs Call forth those ancient demigods to speak Of Justice and the hidden Providence
That walks among mankind. But yet meantime The mystic pomp of Ammon's gloomy sons Became less pleasing. With contempt I gaz'd On that tame garb and those unvarying paths To which the double yoke of king and priest Had cramp'd the sullen race. At last, with hymns Invoking our own Pallas and the gods
Of cheerful Greece, a glad farewell I gave To Egypt, and before the southern wind Spread my full sails. What climes I then survey'd, What fortunes I encounter'd in the realm
Of Croesus or upon the Cyprian shore,
The Muse, who prompts my bosom, doth not now
Ten times the sun returning from the south Had strew'd with flowers the verdant earth,and fill'd The groves with music, pleas'd I then beheld The term of those long errors drawing nigh. 'Nor yet,' I said, 'will I sit down within The walls of Athens, till my feet have trod The Cretan soil, have pierc'd those reverend haunts Whence Law and Civil Concord issued forth As from their ancient home, and still to Greece Their wisest, loftiest discipline proclaim.' Straight where Amnisus, mart of wealthy ships, Appears beneath fam'd Cnossus and her towers, Like the fair handmaid of a stately queen, I check'd my prow, and thence with eager steps The city of Minos enter'd. O ye gods, Who taught the leaders of the simpler time By written words to curb the untoward will Of mortals, how within that generous isle Have ye the triumphs of your power display'd Munificent! Those splendid merchants, lords Of traffic and the sea, with what delight
I saw them at their public meal, like sons Of the same household, join the plainer sort Whose wealth was only freedom! whence to these Vile envy, and to those fantastic pride,
Alike was strange; but noble concord still Cherish'd the strength untam'd, the rustic faith, Of their first fathers. Then the growing race, How pleasing to behold them in their schools,
Their sports, their labours, ever plac'd within, O shade of Minos! thy controlling eye. Here was a docile band in tuneful tones
Thy laws pronouncing, or with lofty hymns Praising the bounteous gods, or, to preserve Their country's heroes from oblivious night, Resounding what the Muse inspir'd of old; There, on the verge of manhood, others met, In heavy armour through the heats of noon To march, the rugged mountain's height to climb With measur'd swiftness, from the hard-bent bow To send resistless arrows to their mark, Or for the fame of prowess to contend, Now wrestling, now with fists and staves oppos'd, Now with the biting falchion, and the fence Of brazen shields; while still the warbling flute Presided o'er the combat, breathing strains Grave, solemn, soft; and changing headlong spite To thoughtful resolution cool and clear.
Such I beheld those islanders renown'd, So tutor❜d from their birth to meet in war Each bold invader, and in peace to guard That living flame of reverence for their laws Which nor the storms of fortune, nor the flood Of foreign wealth diffus'd o'er all the land, Could quench or slacken. First of human names In every Cretan's heart was Minos still; And holiest far, of what the sun surveys Thro' his whole course, were those primeval seats Which with religious footsteps he had taught
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