Four brazen gates, on columns lifted high,
Salute the diff'rent quarters of the sky.

Here fabled Chiefs in darker ages born,

Or Worthies old, whom arms or arts adorn, 70 Who cities rais'd, or tam'd a monstrous race; The walls in venerable order grace:

Heroes in animated marble frown,

And Legiflators seem to think in stone.

Weftward, a fumptuous frontispiece appear'd, 75 On Doric pillars of white marble rear'd, Crown'd with an architrave of antique mold, And sculpture rifing on the roughen'd gold, In fhaggy spoils here Thefeus was beheld, And Perfeus dreadful with Minerva's fhield: There great Alcides stooping with his toil,

Rests on his club, and holds th' Hefperian spoil. Here Orpheus fings; trees moving to the found

80

Start from their roots, and form a fhade around:

Amphion there the loud creating lyre

Strikes, and behold a fudden Thebes afpire!

Heroes and Worthies.

NOTES.

85

Those whofe ftatues are after mentioned, were the first names of old Greece in arms and arts. P.

VER. 81. There great Alcides etc.] This figure of Hercules is drawn with an eye to the pofition of the famous ftatue of Farnefe. P.

Cythæron's echoes anfwer to his call,

And half the mountain rolls into a wall:

There might you see the length'ning fpires afcend,
The domes fwell up, the wid'ning arches bend, 90
The growing tow'rs, like exhalations rise,

And the huge columns heave into the skies.
The Eastern front was glorious to behold,

With di'mond flaming, and Barbaric gold.
There Ninus fhone, who fpread th' Affyrian fame, 95
And the great founder of the Perfian name:
There in long robes the royal Magi stand,
Grave Zoroafter waves the circling wand,
The fage Chaldæans rob'd in white appear'd,
And Brachmans, deep in defert woods rever'd. 100
These stop'd the moon, and call'd th'unbody'd fhades
To midnight banquets in the glimm❜ring glades;
Made vifionary fabricks round them rise,

And airy spectres skim before their eyes;

NOTES.

VER. 96. And the great founder of the Perfian name :] Cyrus was the beginning of the Perfian, as Ninus was of the Affyrian Monarchy. The Magi and Chaldæans (the chief of whom was Zoroafter) employed their ftudies upon magic and aftrology, which was in a manner almost all the learning of the ancient Afian people. We have scarce any account of a moral philofopher except Confucius, the great law-giver of the Chinese, who lived about two thousand years ago, P.

105

I10

Of Talismans and Sigils knew the pow'r,
And careful watch'd the Planetary hour.
Superior, and alone, Confucius ftood,
Who taught that useful fcience, to be good.
But on the South, a long majestic race
Of Ægypt's Priests the gilded niches grace,
Who measur'd earth, describ'd the starry spheres,
And trac'd the long records of lunar years.
High on his car Sefoftris ftruck my view,
Whom scepter'd slaves in golden harness drew :
His hands a bow and pointed javelin hold ; 115
His giant limbs are arm'd in scales of gold.
Between the statues Obelisks were plac'd,
And the learn'd walls with Hieroglyphics grac'd.
Of Gothic ftructure was the Northern fide,
O'erwrought with ornaments of barb'rous pride. 120

NOTES.

VER. 110. Egypt's priefs etc.] The learning of the old Egyptian Priests confifted for the moft part in geometry and aftronomy: they also preserved the Hiftory of their nation. Their greateft Hero upon record is Sefoftris, whofe actions and conquefts may be feen at large in Diodorus, etc. He is faid to have caufed the Kings he vanquished to draw him in his Chariot. The posture of his statue, in these verses, is correspondent to the description which Herodotus gives of one of them remaining in his own time. P.

VER. 119. Of Gothic ftructure was the Northern fide,] The Architecture is agreeable to that part of the world. The learn

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.

There on rude iron columns, fmear'd with blood,
The horrid forms of Scythian heroes stood,
126
Druids and Bards (their once loud harps unstrung)
And youths that dy'd to be by Poets fung.

These and a thousand more of doubtful fame,
To whom old fables gave a lasting name,
In ranks adorn'd the Temple's outward face;
The wall in luftre and effect like Glass,

NOTES.

130

ing 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 legiflator and hero of the Goths. They tell us of him, that being subject to fits, he perfuaded his followers, that during thofe trances he received inspirations, from whence he dictated his laws: he is faid to have been the inventor of the Runic characters. P.

VER. 127. Druids and Bards etc] These were the priests and poets of those people, fo celebrated for their favage virtue. Those heroic barbarians accounted it a dishonour to die in their beds, and rushed on to certain death in the profpect of an afterlife, and for the glory of a fong from their bards in praise of the r actions. P.

IMITATIONS.
VER. 132. The wall in luftre etc.]
It fhone lighter than a glass,
And made well more than it was,
As kind thing of Fame is.

Which o'er each object cafting various dyes,
Enlarges fome, and others multiplies:

Nor void of emblem was the mystic wall, 135
For thus romantic Fame increases all.

The Temple shakes, the founding gates unfold, Wide vaults appear, and roofs of fretted gold: Rais'd on a thousand pillars, wreath'd around With laurel-foliage, and with eagles crown'd: 140 Of bright, tranfparent beryl were the walls, The freezes gold, and gold the capitals :

As heav'n with ftars, the roof with jewels glows, And ever-living lamps depend in rows.

145

Full in the paffage of each fpacious gate,
The fage Hiftorians in white garments wait;
Grav'd o'er their feats the form of Time was found,
His scythe revers'd, and both his pinions bound.
Within stood 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;

NOTES.

150

VER. 152. The Youth that all things but himself fubdu'd; ] Alexander the Great: the Tiara was the crown peculiar to the Afian Princes his defire to be thought the fon of Jupiter Ammon, caused him to wear the horns of that God, and to reprefent the fame upon his coins; which was continued by several of his fucceffors. P.