Bent on that goodly Ilond his eager fight :
'Then forward ruhid, impatient to descry
What towns and castles there-in were || empiglt;
For towns him seem'd, and castles he did spy,
As to th' horizon round he stretch'd his roaming eye.
XIV.
Nor long way had they travell’d, ere they came
To a wide stream, that with tumultuous roar
Emongst rude rocks its winding course did frame.
Black was the wave and sordid, cover'd o’er
With angry foam, and stain'd with infants'
gore.
Thereto along th'unlovely margin stood
A birchen grove, that waving from the shore,
Aye cast upon the tide its falling bud,
And with its bitter juice empoison'd all the flood.
XV.
Right in the centre of the vale empight,
Not distånt far a forked mountain rose;
In outward form presenting to the fight
That fam'd Parnassian hill, on whose fair brows
The Nine Aonian Sisters wont repose;
Lift'ning to sweet Caftalia's founding stream,
Which through the plains of Cirrha murm'ring flows.
But This to That compar'd möte juftly seem
Ne fitting haunt for gods, ne worthy man's esteem.
Vol. IV.
B
XVI. For
XVI.
For this nor fuunded deep, nor spredden wide,
Nor high up-rais'd above the level plain,
By toiling art through tedious years applied,
From various parts compild with studious pain,
Was I erst up-thrown; if so it mote attain,
Like that poetick mountain, to be hight
The noble seat of Learning's goodly train.
Thereto, the more to captivate the fight,
It like a garden fair most curiously was 5 dight.
XVII.
In figur'd plots with leafy walls inclos’d,
By measure and by rule it was out-lay'd;
With symmetry so regular dispos’d,
That plot to plot still answer'd, shade to shade;
Each correspondent twain alike array'd
With like embellishments of plants and flow'rs,
Of ftatues, vases, spouting founts, that play'd
Through shells of Tritons their ascending show'rs,
And labyrinths involv'd and trelice-woven bow'rs.
XVIII.
There likewise mote be seen on every side
The yew obedient to the planter's will,
And Mapely box of all their branching pride
Ungently fhorne, and with preposterous skill
1. Er/7, formerly. | Hight, called, named. Dight, dreft.
To various beasts and birds of sundry quill
Transform’d, and human shapes of monstrous size;
Huge as that giant-race, who, hill on hill
High-heaping, fought with impious vain I emprize, Despight of thund'ring Jove, to scale the steepy skies.
XIX.
Alle other wonders of the sportive shears
Fair Nature mis-adorning there were found ;
Globes, spiral columns, pyramids and piers
With sprouting urns and budding statues crown'd;
And horizontal dials on the ground
In living box by cunning artists trac'd;
And gallies trim, on no long voyage bound,
But by their roots there ever anchor'd fast, | All were their bellying fails out-spread to every blast.
XX.
O'er all appear'd the mountain's forked brows
With terrasses on terrasses up-thrown;
And all along arrang'd in order'd rows,
And visto's broad, the velvet slopes adown
The ever-verdant trees of Daphne shone.
But aliens to the clime, and brought of old
From Latian plains, and Grecian Helicon,
They shrunk and languifh'd in a foreign mold,
By changeful summers starv'd, and pinch'd by winter's cold.
B 2
XXI. Amid
I Emprize, enterprize, attempt. || All, used frequently by the old English poets for all-though,
XXI. Amid this verdant grove with solemn state, On golden thrones of antique form reclind, In mimick majesty Nine Virgins sate, In features various, as unlike in mind : Alfe boasted they themselves of heav'nly kind, And to the sweet Parnafian Nymphs allied; Thence round their brows the Delphick bay they twind,
And matching with high names their apish pride,
O'er every learned school aye claim'd they to preside.
XXII:
In antique garbs, for modern they disdain'd,
By Greek and Roman artists || whilom made,
Of various woofs, and variously distain'd
With tints of ev'ry hue, were they array'd ;
And here and there ambitiously display'd
A purple shred of some rich robe, prepared
Erit by the Muses or th' Aonian Maid,
To deck great Tullius or the Mantuan Bard;
Which o'er each motley vest with uncouth splendor glared.
XXIII.
And well their outward vesture did express
The bent and habit of their inward mind,
Affecting Wisdom's antiquated dress,
And usages by Time cast far behind.
Thence,
Thence, to the charms of younger Science blind,
The customs, laws, the learning, arts and phrase
Of their own countries they with scorn declin'd;
Ne sacred Truth herself would they embrace,
Unwarranted, unknown in their fore-fathers' days.
XXIV.
Thus ever backward cafting their survey;
To Rome's old ruins and the
groves
forlorn Of elder Athens, which in prospect lay Stretch'd out beneath the mountain, would they turn Their busy search, and o'er the rubbish mourn. Then gathering up with superstitious care, Each little scrap, however foul or torn,
In grave harangues they boldly would declare, This Ennius, Varro; This the Stagyrite did wear.
XXV. Yet, under names of venerable sound, Wide o'er the world they stretch'd their aweful rod; Through all the provinces of Learning own'd For teachers of whate'er is wise and good. Alse from each region to their $ drad abode Came youths unnumber'd, crouding all to taste The streams of Science; which united flow'd
Adown the mount, from nine rich sources caft; And to the vale below in one rude torrent pass'd.
B 3
XXVI. O'er
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