Bent on that goodly

lond his eager fight:

'Then forward rufh'd, impatient to descry

What towns and castles there-in were || empight;
For towns him feem'd, and caftles he did spy,
As to th' horizon round he stretch'd his roaming eye.
XIV.

gore.

Nor long way had they travell'd, ere they came
To a wide ftream, that with tumultuous roar
Emongst rude rocks its winding courfe did frame.
Black was the wave and fordid, cover'd o'er
With angry foam, and ftain'd with infants'
Thereto along th' unlovely margin stood
A birchen grove, that waving from the shore,
Aye caft upon the tide its falling bud,
And with its bitter juice empoifon'd all the flood.
XV.

Right in the centre of the vale empight,
Not diftant far a forked mountain rose;

In outward form presenting to the fight

That fam'd Parnassian hill, on whofe fair brows
The Nine Aonian Sifters 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 mote juftly seem

Ne fitting haunt for gods, ne worthy man's esteem.

VOL. IV.

‡ Lond, land.

B

XVI. For

Empight, placed.

XVI.

For this nor founded deep, nor fpredden wide,
Nor high up-rais'd above the level plain,
By toiling art through tedious years applied,
From various parts compil'd with ftudious pain,
Was erft up-thrown; if so it mote attain,
Like that poetick mountain, to be || hight
The noble feat of Learning's goodly train.
Thereto, the more to captivate the fight,
It like a garden fair most curiously was § dight.
XVII.

In figur'd plots with leafy walls inclos'd,
By measure and by rule it was out-lay'd;
With fymmetry fo regular difpos'd,

That plot to plot still answer'd, fhade to fhade;
Each correfpondent twain alike array'd
With like embellishments of plants and flow'rs,
Of statues, vafes, fpouting founts, that play'd
Through fhells of Tritons their afcending show'rs,
And labyrinths involv'd and trelice-woven bow'rs.
XVIII.

There likewife mote be seen on every fide

The yew
And fhapely box of all their branching pride
Ungently fhorne, and with prepofterous skill

obedient to the planter's will,

To

Er, formerly. || Hight, called, named. § Dight, dreft.

To various beafts and birds of fundry quill
Transform'd, and human shapes of monftrous fize;
Huge as that giant-race, who, hill on hill
High-heaping, fought with impious vain ‡ emprize,
Despight of thund'ring Jove, to scale the steepy skies.
XIX.

Alfe other wonders of the fportive shears
Fair Nature mif-adorning there were found;
Globes, fpiral 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-fpread to every blast.
XX.

O'er all appear'd the mountain's forked brows
With terraffes on terraffes up-thrown;

And all along arrang'd in order'd rows,
And vifto's broad, the velvet flopes 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 languish'd in a foreign mold,

By changeful fummers ftarv'd, and pinch'd by winter's cold.
XXI. Amid

B 2

Emprize, enterprize, attempt.

All, ufed frequently by the old English poets for all-though.

XXI.

Amid this verdant grove with folemn state,
On golden thrones of antique form reclin'd,
In mimick majefty Nine Virgins fate,

In features various, as unlike in mind:

Alfe boafted they themselves of heav'nly kind,
And to the sweet Parnaffian Nymphs allied;

Thence round their brows the Delphick bay they twin'd,
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
Erft by the Mufes or th' Aonian Maid,

To deck great Tullius or the Mantuan Bard;

Which o'er each motley veft with uncouth fplendor glared. XXIII.

And well their outward vefture did exprefs

The bent and habit of their inward mind,
Affecting Wisdom's antiquated drefs,
And ufages by Time cast far behind.

Whilom, formerly.

Thence,

Thence, to the charms of younger Science blind, The customs, laws, the learning, arts and phrafe Of their own countries they with fcorn declin'd; Ne facred Truth herself would they embrace, Unwarranted, unknown in their fore-fathers' days. XXIV.

Thus ever backward cafting their furvey;

To Rome's old ruins and the groves

forlorn

Of elder Athens, which in profpect lay

Stretch'd out beneath the mountain, would they turn

Their busy search, and o'er the rubbish mourn.

Then gathering up with fuperftitious 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 found,

Wide o'er the world they ftretch'd their aweful rod;
Through all the provinces of Learning own'd

For teachers of whate'er is wife and good.
Alfe from each region to their ‡ drad abode
Came youths unnumber'd, crouding all to taste
The fireams of Science; which united flow'd
Adown the mount, from nine rich fources caft;
And to the vale below in one rude torrent pass'ḍ.

B 3

XXVI. O'er

Drad, dreadful.