EPISTLE II.

THOU firft and fimpleft of the Arts, that rose
To cheer the world, and lighten human woes I
Friend of the mourner! Guardian of the tomb!

May I, chafte Sculpture! without blame, presume,
Rude in thy laws, thy glory to relate,

To trace, through chequer'd years, thy changeful fate;

And praise thee, forming with a potent hand

Thy new dominion in my native land?

While zeal thus bids the breath of incense roll

From that pure censer, a benignant soul,

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And, with the fond fincerity of youth,
Would blazon merit in the tints of truth,
Enlivening Friendship shall thofe aids fupply,
That injur'd health and troubled years deny :
Her hallow'd fire, like Infpiration's beam,
May raise the poet to his honour'd theme.

As death-like clay, dear Flaxman! to fulfil
The kind beheft of thy creative skill,
Lives at thy touch, and, with affection warm,
Of changeful beauty wears each varying form ;
So languid thought, that, lifeless and disjoin'd,
Floats a dark chaos of the cumber'd mind,

At Friendship's bidding in new shapes may shine,
With each attractive charm of juft defign;
And gain from her, as an immortal dower,
The vivid grace of that inspiring power:

In lucid order teach my verse to rise,

Dear as a magic glafs to Sculpture's eyes,

Where thy pleas'd goddess may with pride survey

Her ancient honours, and her future sway!

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What eye may hope to pierce the distant gloom
Where, in their cradle fhadowy as the tomb,

Breathing, scarce breathing the dark air of ftrife,
The infant Arts first struggled into life?

There are who, led by Fancy's airy clue,
In Scythian wilds the birth of Sculpture view,
And image to themselves her youthful hand,
Prompted by dark Devotion's fond command,
To form, of yielding stone or ductile clay,
An early symbol of Almighty fway;

The bull's ftern front, to which rude myriads kneel,

The favourite idol of benighted zeal *.

Others a fofter origin affign

To the young beauties of this art benign—
To Love, infpiring the Corinthian maid
Fondly to fix her fleeping lover's shade;
And her kind fire's congenial skill they trace

The new attraction of a modell'd face †.

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The king, whose power, by intellect refin'd,
Enthron'd each science in his ample mind,

Tells, in his hallow'd page, how Sculpture rose,
To foothe the anguish of parental woes;

How first a father, in affliction's storm,

Of his dead darling wrought the mimic form,
Impaffion'd Nature's laudable relief,

Till impious worship grew from tender grief *.
No fingle region of the fpacious earth
Can take exclufive pride in Sculpture's birth.
Wherever God, with bounty unconfin'd,

Gave man, his image, a creative mind,

Its lovely children, Arts mimetic, fprung,

And spoke, through different lands, in every tongue.

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Though keen research, elate with Learning's pride,

From vain conjecture would in vain decide

How Sculpture firft, in early twilight's hour,

Made the first effay of her infant power;

See NOTE III.

Though clouds of fabulous tradition hide

Her fam'd Prometheus, her primæval pride *
Still can the eyes of Fancy and of Truth
Behold her fhining in attractive youth,

By Love, by Grief, by Piety carefs'd,

Alternate nurfling of each hallow'd breast;

Rear'd, by their care, to work as each inspires,

And fondly miniftring to their defires.

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Where first imperial Pride, with wealth her dower,

Spoke in a voice of vivifying power,

And, charm'd in Afia with her new domain,
Summon'd the Arts as vaffals of her train,

Sculpture, perchance, ennobled by her fway,
Gave her firft wonders to the eye of day.
If, credulously fond, the Mufe may speak,
Nor doubt the bold description of a Greek,
Her favourite Art's primæval skill was seen
To form the femblance of that Syrian queen,

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See NOTE IV.