But for mild acts, that purer aims evince,
Shall memory prize thy name, excelling prince !
Thy fofter merit, that commands my praise,
Was thy fond care with regal grace to raise
Statues to youthful virtue, in its prime
Unseasonably crush'd by envious Time:
Thy gift imperial to a noble chief
(The filial ftatue) footh'd a father's grief.
With the true temper of a fovereign mind,
Tenderly juft, magnificently kind *.
Thee, too, with sovereigns not unjustly plac'd
For bright magnificence and liberal taste,
Whofe hand well-judging Fortune deign'd to use,
O'er Grecian fcenes new luftre to diffuse;
Smiling to fee, from Wealth's myfterious springs,
Her private favourite furpaffing kings-
Thee, rich Herodes! Honour has enroll'd
For elegance of mind that match'd thy gold :
Exhausted quarries form thy graceful piles;
Thy Venus prais'd thee with victorious fmiles *
Lo, with new joy, peculiarly their own,
The Arts furrounding the Cæfarean throne!
See their prime patron that firm throne ascend,
Talent's enlighten'd judge, and Sculpture's friend!
His spirit, active as the boundless air,
Pervades each province of imperial Care;
While fated Conqueft keeps his banner furl'd,
And peace and beauty re-adorn the world.
Accomplish'd Adrian! doom'd to double fame,
Uniting brightest praise and darkest blame !
To noble heights the monarch's merit ran,
But injur❜d Nature execrates the man.
Had he, with various bright endowments blest,
The higher fway of that sweet power confess'd,
How might fair Sculpture, in her triumphs chafte,
Unblushing, glory in her fovereign's taste !
Wielding himself her implements of skill,
He joy'd the cities of the earth to fill
With all the splendor that endears the day
Of cherish'd talents and pacific sway;
Aiming, by lib'ral patronage, to crown
Athens, Art's fav'rite feat, with new renown!
In her confummated Olympian fane
He taught fublime magnificence to reign.
Where, in rich fcenes, beneath unclouded skies,
He bids his own Italian villa rise,
Th' imperial structures with such charms increase,
They form a fair epitome of Greece.
There all her temples, theatres, and towers,
Fabrics for ftudious and for active hours,
All that made Attica the eye's delight,
In fweet reflection re-inchant the fight.
O Defolation! thou haft ne'er defac'd
More graceful precincts of imperial Taste!
But, with a ravage by no charms controll'd
O'er the proud fpot thy ruthless flood has roll'd:
Still from thy vortex, by the tide of Time,
Its buried treasures rife, to deck fome distant clime. 550
As o'er this faireft scene of fcenes auguft
Whose pride has moulder'd into shapeless dust,
My fancy mus'd, a vifion of the night
Brought it in recent fplendor to my fight.
Its fhrines, its ftatues, its Lyceum caught
My wond'ring eye, and fix'd my roving thought:
Beneath the shadow of a laurel bough,
With all the cares of empire on his brow,
I faw the mafter of the villa rove
In fhades that seem'd the academic grove:
Sudden a form, array'd in softest light,
Benignly fimple, temperately bright,
Yet more than mortal, in the quiet vale,
Appear'd the penfive emperor to hail.
Sculpture's infignia, and her graceful mein,
Announc'd of finer Arts the modeft queen.
Troubled, yet mild in gesture and in tone,
She made the troubles of her spirit known :
"O thou," fhe faid, "that in thy fovereign plan "Art often more, and often lefs than man!
"Whom, as my juft, though strange emotions rise,
"I love, admire, and pity, and despise!
"While to vain heights thy blind ambition towers,
"Thou haft ennobled and debas'd my powers
"As far as fame and infamy can stretch,
"To deck the world, and deify a wretch!
"I come th' Almighty Spirit to obey,
"For Arts are heralds of his purer day –
"I come, with visions of portentous aim,
"To mortify thy frantic rage of fame!
"As a prophetic parent, taught to trace
"The future troubles of a fated race,
"'Tis mine to fhew how ruin fhall be hurl'd
"On the vain grandeur of thy Roman world.
"Mark how my vifionary scenes reveal
"The deftin'd havoc that our works must feel!"
She spoke, and fuddenly before her grew The semblance of a city large and new,
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