ROM M E:

Being the THIRD PART of

LIBERTY,

A

POEM.

S this Part contains a defcription of the establishment

with a view

of the Grecian colonies fettled in the futhern parts of

Italy, which with Sicily conftituted the Great Greece of

the Ancients. With thefe colonies the Spirit of LIBERTY,

and of Republics, Spreads over Italy; to Ver. 32.

Tranfition to PYTHAGORAS and his philofopby, which

be taught thro' thofe free flates and cities; to Ver. 71.

Amidst the many Small Republics in Italy, ROME the

deftined feat of LIBERTY. Her establishment there dated

from the expulfion of the Tarquins. How differing from

that in GREECE; to Ver. 88. Reference to a view of

the ROMAN REPUBLIC given in the First Part of this

Poem: to mark its Rife and Fall the peculiar purport of

This. During its firft ages, the gre teft force of Li-

BERTY, and Virtue, exerted; to Ver. 103. The

Source whence derived the Heroic Virtues of the Ro-

MANS. Enumeration of thefe Virtues. Thence their

fecurity at home; their glory, fuccefs, and empire,
abroad; to Ver. 226. Bunds of the Roman empi e
geographically defcribed; to Ver. 257. The faces of
GREECE reftored to LIBERTY, by TITUS QUINTUS
FLAMINIUS, the highest infance of public generofity and
beneficence; to Ver. 328. The lofs of LIBERTY in
ROME. Its caufes, progrefs, and completion in the death
of BRUTUS; to Ver. 485. ROME unier the emperors;
to Ver. 513.
From ROME the GODDESS of LIBERTY
goes among the NORTHERN NATIONS; where, by
infufing into them her Spirit and general princi, les, SHE
lays the ground-work of her future establishments; Jends
them in vengeance on the Roman empire, now to ally en-
flaved; and then, with Arts and Sciences in her train,
quits earth during the dark ages; to Ver. 550. The
celestial regions, to which LIBERTY retired, not projer
to be opened to the view of mortals.

(69)

LIBERTY.

PART III.

H

TERE melting mix'd with air th' ideal forms, That painted still whate'er the GODDESS fung. Then I, impatient." From extinguish'd GREECE, "To what new region ftream'd the Human Day?" She foftly fighing, as when Zehir leaves, Refign'd to Boreas, the declining year,

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Refum'd. Indignant, these * last scenes I fled;
And long ere then, Leucadia's cloudy cliff,
And the Ceraunian hills behind me thrown,
All LATIUM ftood arous'd. Ages before,
Great mother of republics! GREECE had pour'd,
Swarm after swarm, her ardent youth around.
On Afia, Afric, Sicly, they ftoop'd,
But chief on fair HESPERIA's winding shore;

* The last struggles of Liberty in GREECE.

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Where,

Where, from Lacinium to Etrurian vales,
They roll'd increafing colonies along,
And lent materials for my ROMAN REIGN.
With them my Spirit spread; and numerous states,
And cities rose, on Grecian models form'd;
As its parental policy, and arts,

Each had imbib'd. Befides, to eath affign'd
A Guardian Genius, o'er the public weal,
Kept an unclofing eye; try'd to sustain,
Or more fublime, the foul infus'd by ME:
And strong the battle rose, with various wave,
Against the Tyrant Demons of the land.
Thus they their little wars and triumphs knew ;
Their flows of fortune, and receding times,
But almost all below the proud regard
Of story vow'd to ROME, on deeds intent
That Truth beyond the flight of Fable bore.

NOT fo the +SAMIAN SAGE; to him belongs
The brightest witness of recording Fame.
For these free states his native § isle forfook,
And a vain tyrant's tranfitory smile,

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He fought Crotona's pure falubrious air,
And thro' Great Greece his gentle wisdom taught;

* A promontory in Calabria.

PYTHAGORAS.

Samos, over which then reigned the tyrant POLYCRATES. The fouthern parts of Italy and Sicily, fo called because of the Grecian colonies there fettled.

Wisdom that calm'd for * liftening years the mind,
Nor ever heard amid the storm of zeal.
His mental eye first launch'd into the deeps
Of boundless æther; where unnumber'd orbs,
Myriads on myriads, thro' the pathless sky
Unerring roll, and wind their steady way.
There he the full confenting choir beheld;
There firft difcern'd the fecret band of love
The kind attraction, that to central funs
Binds eircling earths, and world with world unites.
Inftru&ted thence, he great ideas form'd
Of the whole-moving, all-informing GoD,
The Sun of beings! beaming unconfin'd
Light, life, and love, and ever-active power:
Whom nought can image, and who best approves
The filent worship of the moral heart,
That joys in bounteous heaven, and spreads the joy.
Nor fcorn'd the foaring fage to stoop to life,
And bound his reason to the sphere of Man.
He gave the four yet + reigning virtues name;
Infpir'd the study of the finer arts,
That civilize mankind, and laws devis'd
Where with enlighten'd justice mercy mix'd.
He even, into his tender fyftem, took
Whatever shares the brotherhood of life :
He taught that life's indiffoluble flame,
From brute to man, and man to brute again,

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* His scholars were enjoined filence for five years,
The four cardinal virtues,

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60

For