Are spread, where'er the moist earth drinks the day, And leave a work so fair all blighted and accursed? VIII. Oh, no! a thousand cheerful omens give And in the abyss of brightness dares to span In God's magnificent works his will shall scan- IX. Sit at the feet of history-through the night And show the earlier ages, where her sight When, from the genial cradle of our race, Went forth the tribes of men, their pleasant lot To choose, where palm-groves cooled their dwelling-place, Or freshening rivers ran; and there forgot The truth of heaven, and kneeled to gods that heard them not. X. Then waited not the murderer for the night, But smote his brother down in the bright day, And he who felt the wrong, and had the might, His own avenger, girt himself to slay; Beside the path the unburied carcass lay; The shepherd, by the fountains of the glen, Fled, while the robber swept his flock away, And slew his babes. The sick, untended then, Languished in the damp shade, and died afar from men. XI. But misery brought in love-in passion's strife The weak, against the sons of spoil and wrong, The timid rested. To the reverent throng, Grave and time-wrinkled men, with locks all white, Gave laws, and judged their strifes, and taught the way of right; XII. Till bolder spirits seized the rule, and nailed A boundless sea of blood, and the wild air The kingly circlet rise, amid the gloom, O'er the dark wave, and straight are swallowed in its womb XIII. Those ages have no memory-but they left On the waste sands, and statues fallen and cleft, Vast ruins, where the mountain's ribs of stone In the dark earth, where never breath has blown XIV. And tombs of monarchs to the clouds up-piled- Pierced by long toil and hollowed to a fane ;— Like the night-heaven, when clouds are black with rain. All was the work of slaves to swell a despot's pride. XV. And Virtue cannot dwell with slaves, nor reign O'er those who cower to take a tyrant's yoke; She left the down-trod nations in disdain, And flew to Greece, when Liberty awoke, New-born, amid those glorious vales, and broke Sceptre and chain with her fair youthful hands: As rocks are shivered in the thunder-stroke. And lo! in full-grown strength, an empire stands Of leagued and rival states, the wonder of the lands. XVI. Oh, Greece! thy flourishing cities were a spoil From thine abominations; after times, That yet shall read thy tale, will tremble at thy crimes. XVII. Yet there was that within thee which has saved Thy glory, and redeemed thy blotted name; On fame's unmouldering pillar, puts to shame Our chiller virtue; the high art to tame And mingles with the light that beams from God's own throne XVIII. And Rome-thy sterner, younger sister, she Yet her degenerate children sold the crown Of earth's wide kingdoms to a line of slaves; Guilt reigned, and wo with guilt, and plagues came down, Till the north broke its floodgates, and the waves Whelmed the degraded race, and weltered o'er their graves. XIX. Vainly that ray of brightness from above, The light of hope, the leading star of love, In that stern war of forms, a mockery and a name. |