Near, and more near, the swimming radiance roll'd;
Along the mountains stream the lingering fires,
Sublime the groves of Ida blaze with gold,

And all the Heaven resounds with louder lyres.
The trumpet breathed a note: and all in air,
The glories vanish'd from the dazzled eye;
And three ethereal forms, divinely fair,

Down the steep glade were seen advancing nigh.
The flowering glade fell level where they moved;
O'er-arching high the clustering roses hung,
And gales from Heaven on balmy pinion roved,
And hill and dale with gratulation rung.

The first with slow and stately step drew near,
Fix'd was her lofty eye, erect her mien :
Sublime in grace, in majesty severe,

She look'd and moved a goddess and a queen.

Her robe along the gale profusely stream'd,

Light lean'd the sceptre on her bending arm; And round her brow a starry circlet gleam'd, Heightening the pride of each commanding charın. Milder the next came on with artless grace,

And on a javelin's quivering length reclined:
T'exalt her mien she bade no splendour blaze,

Nor pomp of vesture fluctuate on the wind.
Serene, though awful, on her brow the light
Of heavenly wisdom shone: nor roved her eyes,
Save to the shadowy cliff's majestic height,

Or the blue concave of th' involving skies.
Keen were her eyes to search the inmost soul:
Yet Virtue triumph'd in their beams benign,
And impious Pride oft felt their dread control,
When in fierce lightning flash'd the wrath divine.

This is agreeable to the theology of Homer, who often represents
Pallas as the executioner of divine vengeance.

With awe and wonder gazed th' adoring swain;

His kindling cheeks great Virtue's power confess'd, But soon 'twas o'er, for Virtue prompts in vain,

When Pleasure's influence numbs the nerveless breast.

And now advanced the queen of melting joy,
Smiling supreme in unresisted charms:
Ah, then, what transports fired the trembling boy!
How throbb'd his sickening frame with fierce alarms!

Her eyes in liquid light luxurious swim,

[limb,

And languish with unutterable love. Heaven's warm bloom glows along each bright'ning Where fluttering bland the veil's thin mantlings rove.

Quick, blushing as abash'd, she half withdrew :

One hand a bough of flowering myrtle waved, One graceful spread, where, scarce conceal'd from view, Soft through the parting robe her bosom heaved, 'Offspring of Jove supreme! beloved of Heav'n! Attend.' Thus spoke the empress of the skies. For know, to thee, high-fated prince, 'tis given Through the bright realms of Fame sublime to rise,

'Beyond man's boldest hope; if nor the wiles

Of Pallas triumph o'er th' ennobling thought;

Nor Pleasure lure with artificial smiles

To quaff the poison of her luscious draught.

When Juno's charms the prize of beauty claim,
Shall aught on Earth, shall aught in Heav'n contend?

Whom Juno calls to high triumphant fame,

Shall he to meaner sway inglorious bend?

"Yet lingering comfortless in lonesome wild, Where Echo sleeps 'mid cavern'd vales profound, The pride of Troy, Dominion's darling child,

Pines while the slow hour stalks its sullen round.

• Hear thou, of Heav'n unconscious! From the blaze
Of glory, stream'd from Jove's eternal throne,
Thy soul, O mortal, caught th' inspiring rays
That to a god exalt Earth's raptured son.

• Hence the bold wish, on boundless pinion borne,
That fires, alarms, impels the maddening soul;
The hero's eye, hence, kindling into scorn,
Blasts the proud menace, and defies control.

But, unimproved, Heav'n's noblest boons are vain,
No sun with plenty crowns th' uncultured vale:
Where green lakes languish on the silent plain,
Death rides the billows of the western gale.
'Deep in yon mountain's womb, where the dark cave
Howls to the torrent's everlasting roar,

Docs the rich gem its flashy radiance wave?

Or flames with steady ray th' imperial ore?

• Toil deck'd with glittering domes yon champaign wide,
And wakes yon grove embosom'd iawns to joy,
And rends the rough ore from the mountain's side,
Spangling with starry pomp the thrones of Troy.
· Fly these soft scenes. Even now with playful art,
Love wreathes the flowery ways with fatal snare.
And nurse th' ethereal fire that warms thy heart,
That fire ethereal lives but by thy care.

• Lo, hovering near on dark and dampy wing,
Sloth with stern patience waits the hour assign'd,
From her chill plume the deadly dews to fling,
That quench Heav'n's beam, and freeze the cheer
less mind.

• Vain, then, th' enlivening sound of Fame's alarms,
For Hope's exulting impulse prompts no more:
Vain even the joys that lure to Pleasure's arms,
The throb of transport is for ever o'er

́O who shall then to Fancy's darkening eyes
Recal th' Elysian dreams of joy and light!
Dim through the gloom the formless visions rise,
Snatch'd instantaneous down the gulf of night.
'Thou, who securely lull'd in youth's warm ray
Mark'st not the desolations wrought by Time,
Be roused or perish. Ardent for its prey

Speeds the fell hour that ravages thy prime.

• And, 'midst the horrors shrined of midnight storm, The fiend Oblivion eyes thee from afar, Black with intolerable frowns her form,

Beckoning th' embattled whirlwinds into war.

Fanes, bulwarks, mountains, worlds, their tempest

whelms :

Yet glory braves unmoved th' impetuous sweep. Fly then, ere, hurl'd from life's delightful reaims, Thou sink t' Oblivion's dark and boundless deep.

Fly, then, where Glory points the path sublime, See her crown dazzling with eternal light! 'Tis Juno prompts thy daring steps to climb, And girds thy bounding heart with matchless might

Warm in the raptures of divine desire,

Burst the soft chain that curbs th' aspiring mind: And fly, where Victory, borne on wings of fire, Waves her red banner to the rattling wind.

• Ascend the car. Indulge the pride of arms, Where clarions roll their kindling strains on high Where the eye maddens to the dread alarms,

And the long shout tumultuous rends the sky.

• Plunged in the uproar of the thundering field
I see thy lofty arm the tempest guide:
Fate scatters lightning from thy meteor shield,

And Ruin spreads around the sanguine tide

M

• Go, urge the terrors of thy headlong car

On prostrate Pride, and Grandeur's spoils o'erthrown, While all amazed even heroes shrink afar,

And hosts embattled vanish at thy frown.

• When glory crowns thy godlike toils, and all
The triumph's lengthening pomp exalts thy soul,
When lowly at thy feet the mighty fall,

And tyrants tremble at thy stern control;

• When conquering millions hail thy sovereign might,
And tribes unknown dread acclamation join;
How wilt thou spurn the forms of low delight!
For all the ecstasies of Heav'n are thine:

For thine the joys, that fear no length of days, Whose wide effulgence scorns all mortal bound: Fame's trump in thunder shall announce thy praise, Nor bursting worlds her clarion's blast confound.”

The goddess ceased, not dubious of the prize :
Elate she mark'd his wild and rolling eye,
Mark'd his lip quiver, and his bosom rise,

And his warm cheek suffused with crimson die.

But Pallas now drew near. Sublime, serene,
In conscious dignity, she view'd the swain:
Then, love and pity softening all her mien,

Thus breathed with accents mild the solemn strain.

Let those, whose arts to fatal paths betray, The soul with passion's gloom tempestuous blind, And snatch from Reason's ken th' auspicious ray Truth darts from Heaven to guide th' exploring mind.

• But Wisdom loves the calm and serious hour, When Heaven's pure emanation beams confess'd: Rage, ecstasy, alike disclaim her power,

She wooes each gentler impulse of the breast.