But one vast whirlpool of oblivious night Abforb'd together, in fair Fame's despite, Men who there rofe the paths of fame to fill, Her hofts of valour, and her tribes of skill; All, who might hope to gain, or hope to give, The noble lot, through many an age to live, Save a few reliques fondly kept, to deck The cabinet of Tafte, from Glory's wreck. There fhines, not deftitute of martial grace, Her brave Halefus, of Argolic race * There every brazen, every marble frame, Mute, mournful fhadows of Etruria's fame,
Yet feen declaring, on their country's part,
She might have vied with Attica in art,
Had she not fallen, in her early bloom,
The stripp'd and mangled flave of barbarous Rome. 100
Yes, thou imperial spoiler! I abhor
Thy ceaseless paffion for oppreffive war,
Thy rage for rapine, and the pride malign In the vast plunder of the world to shine.
Woe to the land, abjuring Arts refin’d, That ask the patient hand, the polish'd mind; And vaunting only with tyrannic fway To make furrounding provinces their prey : — Rapacious arrogance, for outrage strong, May boast a cruel triumph, loud and long; At laft the coarse gigantic glutton dies, O'ergorg'd, and finking from his bloated fize: So funk the spoiler Rome, who from her birth Drew execration from the bleeding earth.
Too fierce for Arts, that claim a milder soul, Their works the blindly prais'd, or bafely. stole *. Faft bound or filenc'd in her iron spell,
Her ill-ftarr'd neighbour firft, Etruria fell. Far, as her force increas'd, her rapine spread;
Beneath her grasp the sweet Sicilia bled;
Greece, wifely conscious that fine arts require Such penfive energy, fuch mental fire,
As Honour asks, in every polish'd age,
To form the martial chief, or moral fage,
Cherish'd her artifts with maternal pride,
And bright Distinction their rich power supplied. Her sculptors bask'd in national esteem,
As the young eagle in the folar beam, Rever'd as men, whose faculties fublime
Secur'd their country's fame from envious Time; Who doubly foil'd the darkness of the grave, And fhar'd the immortality they gave *.
How different the Roman sculptor's fate, Who follow'd, in a tame and abject state, An art, not rais'd to glory or to grace, Deem'd the poor trade of a dependent race. The chiffel to a fervile hand confign'd,
Shews but the weakness of a fervile mind.
Hence liberal Sculpture rais'd no Roman name High in her annals of ingenious fame ;
And hence the Goddess, with a scornful smile, Spurns the distinction of her Roman style *. With just disdain, that to abhorrence swell'd, She the base arrogance of Rome beheld; Saw Roman robbers, of heroic fize,
Not merely seize, as bold Ambition's prize, Her dearest wealth in defolated Greece;
But, as prefumption will with spoils increase, From her Greek ftatue its just name efface, And fix a lying title in its place.
So ruffian Pride, that Fortune deigns to crown, Would, with a fwindler's fraud, ufurp renown.
While dauntless Truth, undazzled by the blaze
Of Rome's fierce power in her defpotic days, Upbraids that Emprefs, with reproof severe, For follies and for crimes, in Sculpture's sphere:
While Scorn condemns her rapine and her fraud, With equal warmth let Juftice ftill applaud One proof of noble spirit that prevail'd
E'en in this very sphere, where most she fail'd. Yes, it was spirit fuited to fuch worth
As well might claim pre-eminence on earth, Which in the walls he labour'd to o'erthrow, Honour'd the ftatue of her fierceft foe.
Such brave regard, the foldier's brightest crown, Rome nobly paid to Hannibal's renown :
And more fublime of foul she ne'er appear'd
Than when she grac'd the chief whom once the fear'd.
True Valour thus his genuine temper fhews,
Just to the talents of accomplish'd foes *.
Bright Excellence! 'tis thine, in evil days
To joy in Enmity's extorted praise :
So Grecian Art, her parent ftate undone, From Roman pride reluctant homage won.
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