Goddess! awake, arise! alas, my fears!
Can powers immortal feel the force of years?
Not thus of old, with ensigns wide unfurl'd,
She rode triumphant o'er the vanquish'd world;
Fierce nations own'd her unresisted might,
And all was ignorance, and all was night.

25

30

Oh! sacred age! Oh! times for ever lost!
(The schoolman's glory, and the churchman's boast.)
For ever gone-yet still to fancy new,
Her rapid wings the transient scene pursue,
And bring the buried ages back to view.
High on her car, behold the grandam ride
Like old Sesostris with barbaric pride;

a team of harness'd monarchs bend

35

Against my sway her pious hand stretch'd out,
And fenc'd with double fogs her idiot rout.'
Henry and Minerva.

And so in the Dunciad, b. i. ver. 80 :

"All these, and more, the cloud-compelling queen
Beholds thro' fogs that magnify the scene.'

V. 25.

66

Awake, arise, or be for ever fallen !"
Milt. P. L. i. 330. Luke.

V. 37. "Sesostris-like, such charioteers as these
May drive six harness'd monarchs if they please."
Young. Love of Fame, Sat. v.

High on his car, Sesostris struck my view,
Whom sceptred slaves in golden harness drew."
Pope. T. of Fame. Luke.

And so S. Philips. Blenheim, v. 16:

"As curst Sesostris, proud Egyptian king,
That monarchs harness'd to his chariot yok'd."

[See Mason's Memoirs, vol. iii. p. 99; and Musæ Etonenses, vol. ii. p. 152.]

ESSAY I.

Πόταγ ̓, ὦ 'γαθέ· τὰν γὰρ ἀοιδὰν
Οὔτι πα εἰς Αἴδαν γε τὸν ἐκλελάθοντα φυλαξεῖς.

Theocritus, Id. I. 63.

As sickly plants betray a niggard earth,
Whose barren bosom starves her generous birth,
Nor genial warmth, nor genial juice retains,
Their roots to feed, and fill their verdant veins :
And as in climes, where winter holds his reign, 5
The soil, though fertile, will not teem in vain,
Forbids her gems to swell, her shades to rise,
Nor trusts her blossoms to the churlish skies:

Var. V. 2. Barren] Flinty. MS.

In a note to his Roman History, Gibbon says: "Instead of compiling tables of chronology and natural history, why did not Mr. Gray apply the powers of his genius to finish the philosophic poem of which he has left such an exquisite specimen ?" Vol. iii. p. 248. 4to.-Would it not have been more philosophical in Gibbon to have lamented the situation in which Gray was placed; which was not only not favourable to the cultivation of poetry, but which naturally directed his thoughts to those learned inquiries, that formed the amusement or business of all around him?

10

So draw mankind in vain the vital airs,
Unform'd, unfriended, by those kindly cares,
That health and vigour to the soul impart, [heart:
Spread the young thought, and warm the opening
So fond instruction on the growing powers
Of nature idly lavishes her stores,
If equal justice with unclouded face
Smile not indulgent on the rising race,
And scatter with a free, though frugal hand,
Light golden showers of plenty o'er the land:
But tyranny has fix'd her empire there,

15

To check their tender hopes with chilling fear, 20 And blast the blooming promise of the year.

This spacious animated scene survey,

From where the rolling orb, that gives the day,
His sable sons with nearer course surrounds
To either pole, and life's remotest bounds,
How rude so e'er th' exterior form we find,
Howe'er opinion tinge the varied mind,
Alike to all, the kind, impartial heav'n

Var. V. 19. But tyranny has] Gloomy sway have. мs.
V. 21. Blooming] Vernal. мs.

V. 9.

V. 14. "

25

Vitales auras carpis," Virg. Æn. i. 387. Luke. And lavish nature laughs and throws her stores around," Dryden. Virgil, vii. 76. Luke. V. 21. "Destroy the promise of the youthful year," Pope. Vert. and Pomona, 108. V. 36. "On mutual wants, build mutual happiness." Pope. Ep. iii. 112.

Luke.

V. 47. "Bellica nubes," Claudiani Laus Seren. 196.

Luke. V. 48. So Claudian calls it, Bell. Getico, 641, Cimbrica tempestas." Pope. Hom. Od. 5, 303, “And next a

30

The sparks of truth and happiness has giv❜n:
With sense to feel, with memory to retain,
They follow pleasure, and they fly from pain;
Their judgment mends the plan their fancy draws,
The event presages, and explores the cause;
The soft returns of gratitude they know,

By fraud elude, by force repel the foe;
While mutual wishes, mutual woes endear
The social smile, the sympathetic tear.

Say, then, through ages by what fate confin'd To different climes seem different souls assign'd? Here measur'd laws and philosophic ease

35

40

45

Fix, and improve the polish'd arts of peace;
There industry and gain their vigils keep,
Command the winds, and tame th' unwilling deep:
Here force and hardy deeds of blood prevail;
There languid pleasure sighs in every gale.
Oft o'er the trembling nations from afar
Has Scythia breath'd the living cloud of war;
And, where the deluge burst, with sweepy sway
Their arms, their kings, their gods were roll'd away.
As oft have issued, host impelling host,

50

wedge to drive with sweepy sway." See note on Bard, v. 75.

V. 50. So Thomson. Liberty, iv. 803:

Hence many a people, fierce with freedom, rush'd

From the rude iron regions of the North

To Libyan deserts, swarm protruding swarm.”

And Winter, 840:

"Drove martial horde on horde, with dreadful sweep Resistless rushing o'er the enfeebled South."

V. 51. So Pope. Dunciad, iii. 89:

"The North by myriads pours her mighty sons."

The blue-eyed myriads from the Baltic coast.
The prostrate south to the destroyer yields
Her boasted titles, and her golden fields:
With grim delight the brood of winter view
A brighter day, and heav'ns of azure hue;
Scent the new fragrance of the breathing rose,
And quaff the pendent vintage as it grows.
Proud of the yoke, and pliant to the rod,
Why yet does Asia dread a monarch's nod,
While European freedom still withstands

55

60

65

Th' encroaching tide that drowns her lessening
And sees far off, with an indignant groan, [lands;
Her native plains, and empires once her own?
Can opener skies and suns of fiercer flame
O'erpower the fire, that animates our frame;
As lamps, that shed at eve a cheerful ray,
Fade and expire beneath the eye of day?
Need we the influence of the northern star
To string our nerves and steel our hearts to war?
And, where the face of nature laughs around,

Var. V. 55. Heav'ns] Skies. мS.
V. 56. Scent] Catch. Ms.

70

"The fair complexion of the blue-eyed warriors of Germany formed a singular contrast with the swarthy or olive hue, which is derived from the neighbourhood of the torrid zone.' Gibbon. Rom. Hist. iii. 337. Ausonius gives them this distinguished feature: Oculos cærula, flava comas,' Bissula. 17. P. 341. ed. Tollii. Carula quis stupuit Germani lumina," Juv. Sat. xiii. 164.

"De

V. 54. "" Mirantur nemora et rorantes Sole racemos." Statius. v. Plin. Nat. H. 1. xiii. c. ii. 1.

V. 56. Milton. Arcades. 32, " And ye, ye breathing roses of the wood."

Luke.