Liberty traced from the pastoral ages, and the first uniting of neighbouring
families into civil government. The several establishments of Liberty, in
Egypt, Persia, Phoenicia, Palestine, slightly touched upon, down to her
great establishment in Greece. Geographical description of Greece.
Sparta and Athens, the two principal states of Greece, described. In-
fluence of Liberty over all the Grecian states, with regard to their
Government, their Politeness, their Virtues, their Arts and Sciences.
The vast superiority it gave them, in point of force and bravery, over
the Persians, exemplified by the action of Thermopylæ, the battle of
Marathon, and the Retreat of the Ten Thousand. Its full exertion and
most beautiful effects in Athens. Liberty the source of free philosophy.
The various schools which took their rise from Socrates. Enumera-
tion of Fine Arts: Eloquence, Poetry, Music, Sculpture, Painting, and
Architecture; the effects of Liberty in Greece, and brought to their
utmost perfection there. Transition to the modern state of Greece. Why
Liberty declined, and was at last entirely lost, among the Greeks. Con-
cluding Reflection.

THUS spoke the Goddess of the fearless eye,
And, at her voice, renew'd, the Vision rose :-

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"First, in the dawn of time, with eastern swains,

In woods, and tents, and cottages, I liv'd;
While on from plain to plain they led their flocks,
In search of clearer spring and fresher field.
These, as increasing families disclos'd
The tender state, I taught an equal sway.
Few were offences, properties, and laws.
Beneath the rural portal, palm-o'erspread,
The father-senate met. There Justice dealt,
With Reason then and Equity the same,

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Free as the common air, her prompt decree;
Nor yet had stain'd her sword with subject's blood.
The simpler arts were all their simple wants
Had urg'd to light. But instant, these supplied,
Another set of fonder wants arose,

And other arts with them of finer aim;
Till, from refining want to want impell'd,
The mind by thinking push'd her latent pow'rs,
And life began to glow, and arts to shine.

At first, on brutes alone the rustic war

Launch'd the rude spear; swift, as he glar'd along,
On the grim lion, or the robber wolf.

For then young sportive Life was void of toil,
Demanding little, and with little pleas'd:
But when to manhood grown, and endless joys,
Led on by equal toils, the bosom fir'd,
Lewd, lazy Rapine broke primeval peace,
And, hid in caves and idle forests drear,

Then brother's blood

From the lone pilgrim and the wand'ring swain,
Seiz'd what he durst not earn.
First, horrid, smok'd on the polluted skies.
Awful in justice, then the burning youth,
Led by their temper'd sires, on lawless men,
The last worst monsters of the shaggy wood,
Turn'd the keen arrow and the sharpen'd spear.
Then war grew glorious. Heroes then arose,
Who, scorning coward self, for others liv'd,
Toil'd for their ease, and for their safety bled.
West with the living day to Greece I came :
Earth smil'd beneath my beam: the Muse before
Sonorous flew, that low till then in woods

Had tun'd the reed, and sigh'd the shepherd's pain;
But now, to sing heroic deeds, she swell'd
A nobler note, and bade the banquet burn.

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"For Greece my sons of Egypt I forsook:
A boastful race, that in the vain abyss
Of fabling ages lov'd to lose their source,
And, with their river, trac'd it from the skies.
While there my laws alone despotic reign'd,
And king, as well as people, proud obey'd,
I taught them science, virtue, wisdom, arts;
By poets, sages, legislators sought ;

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60.

The school of polish'd life and human-kind.
But when mysterious Superstition came,
And, with her Civil Sister1 leagu'd, involv'd
In studied darkness the desponding mind,
Then tyrant Power the righteous scourge unloos'd:
For yielded reason speaks the soul a slave.
Instead of useful works, like Nature's, great,
Enormous, cruel wonders crush'd the land;
And round a tyrant's tomb, 2 who none deserv'd,
For one vile carcass perish'd countless lives.
Then the great Dragon, couch'd amid his floods,
Swell'd his fiercc heart, and cried-This flood is mine,
'Tis I that bid it flow.' But, undeceiv'd,

His frenzy soon the proud blasphemer felt;
Felt that, without my fertilizing pow'r,

Suns lost their force, and Niles o'erflow'd in vain.
Naught could retard me: nor the frugal state

Of rising Persia, sober in extreme,

Beyond the pitch of man, and thence revers'd
Into luxurious waste: nor yet the ports
Of old Phoenicia, first for letters fam'd,
That paint the voice, and silent speak to sight,
Of arts prime source and guardian; by fair stars
First tempted out into the lonely deep;

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'Tyrant's tomb:' the pyramids. —

1 Civil Sister:' civil tyranny. 2
-
'Dragon:' the tyrants of Egypt; see Ezekiel xriz.

To whom I first disclos'd mechanic arts,
The winds to conquer, to subdue the waves,
With all the peaceful power of ruling trade;
Earnest of Britain. Nor by these retain'd;
Nor by the neighbouring land, whose palmy shore
The silver Jordan laves. Before me lay

The promis'd land of Arts, and urg'd my flight.

Hail, Nature's utmost boast! unrivall'd Greece !
My fairest reign! where every pow'r benign
Conspir'd to blow the flower of human-kind,
And lavish'd all that genius can inspire-
Clear sunny climates, by the breezy main,
Iönian or Ægean, temper'd kind;

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Light, airy soils; a country rich and gay;
Broke into hills with balmy odours crown'd,
And, bright with purple harvest, joyous vales:
Mountains and streams, where verse spontaneous flow'd
Whence deem'd by wond'ring men the seat of gods,
And still the mountains and the streams of song:
All that boon Nature could luxuriant pour
Of high materials, and my restless arts
Frame into finish'd life. How many states,
And clust'ring towns, and monuments of fame,
And scenes of glorious deeds, in little bounds!
From the rough tract of bending mountains, beat
By Adria's here, there by Egean, waves;
To where the deep-adorning Cyclade Isles
In shining prospect rise, and on the shore

Of farthest Crete resounds the Lybian Main.

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O'er all two rival cities rear'd the brow,
And balanc'd all. Spread on Eurotas' bank,
Amid a circle of soft-rising hills,

The patient Sparta one: the sober, hard,
And man-subduing city; which no shape

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Of pain could conquer, nor of pleasure charm.
Lycurgus there built, on the solid base

Of equal life, so well a temper'd state,
Where mix'd each government in such just poise,
Each power so checking and supporting each,
That firm for ages and unmov'd it stood,
The fort of Greece, without one giddy hour,
One shock of faction or of party-rage.

For, drain'd the springs of wealth, Corruption there
Lay wither'd at the root. Thrice happy land!
Had not neglected Art, with weedy Vice
Confounded, sunk. But if Athenian arts
Lov'd not the soil; yet there the calm abode
Of wisdom, virtue, philosophic ease,

Of manly sense and wit, in frugal phrase
Confin'd, and press'd into Laconic force.
There too, by rooting thence still treacherous self,
The Public and the Private grew the same;
The children of the nursing Public all,
And at its table fed, for that they toil'd,
For that they liv'd entire, and ev'n for that
The tender mother urg'd her son to die.
"Of softer genius, but not less intent
To seize the palm of empire, Athens rose:
Where, with bright marbles big and future pomp,
Hymettus spread, amid the scented sky,

His thymy treasures to the labouring bee,
And to botanic hand the stores of health;
Wrapt in a soul-attenuating clime,
Between Ilissus and Cephissus glow'd

This hive of science, shedding sweets divine,
Of active arts, and animated arms.
There, passionate for me, an easy-mov'd,
A quick, refin'd, a delicate, humane,

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