If Sculpture fail'd, in her unequal ftrife With base Barbarity, to fhield his life,

Fondly she made immortal as his name

The stern attractions of his manly frame.

Wrought with her kindeft care, his image rofe

In endless triumph o'er his abject foes;
And Athens gloried with delight to gaze,
Age after
age in her declining days,

On him, her fav'rite fon, whose fiery breath,
Difpelling dread of danger and of death,
Made, by the thunder of his warning voice,
The path of honour be his country's choice.
True to his word, as quicken'd by a spell,
She march'd in that precarious path, and fell;

Yet in her fall the nobleft tribute paid

To that bright mind, by whose bold counsel fway'd,
She gain'd, uncheck'd by imminent distress,

Virtue's prime purpose, to deserve success *.

70

80

* See NOTE III.

90

Juftly, O Sculpture! would thy fondest skill
The wish for glory of that friend fulfil,

Whofe fervid foul, with bright ambition fraught,
By matchlefs Eloquence fublimely taught
The land, that gloried in his birth, to claim
Pre-eminence in all the paths of fame.

His heart, for ever in a patriot glow,
Exulted, in its civic zeal, to show

How from thy honour'd hand his native state
Receiv'd a gift magnificently great :

From him we learn that the Bosphoric shore
Of fignal Art this bright memorial bore.
Athens, a female of coloffal height,

In fculptur'd beauty charm'd the public fight
Of equal ftature, and benignly grand,
Two focial cities ftood on either hand-

Byzantium and Perinthus, each display'd

A fifter's heart by grateful pleasure sway'd;
As each was seen a friendly arm to bend,
Fondly to crown their tutelary friend.

100

Such honours, Athens, were affign'd to thee,
Aid of the weak, and guardian of the free!
While thy Demofthenes could rule the tide
Of civic fortune and of public pride.
Beneath his aufpices fo Sculpture rose,
The sweet remembrancer of baffled foes,
Call'd by confederated states to shew
From lib'ral union what fair bleffings flow;
The brilliant leffon her bold work display'd,
And Gratitude and Glory blefs'd her aid *.

Nor was it thine, enchanting Art! alone
With public virtue to infpirit ftone,
Diffufing, by the praise thy forms exprefs'd,

Heroic ardour through a people's breast :

:

'Twas thine, for loftier minds above the croud,

With gifts of rare pre-eminence endow'd,

To counteract the ills that base mankind

To envied Genius have too oft affign'd.

IIO

I 20

* See NOTE IV.

S