Great was what thou didst abolish; but greater what thou hast erected High on the ruins of Fraud, shatter'd for aye by thy blow.
Firm in the Faith didst thou stand, with a Prophet's serenest assurance,
Then when thy plummet explor'd deepest abysses of Time.
Then the primeval Reality sprang into day at thy bidding;
Rome the majestic arose, sepulchred long among lies.
Not without awe we beheld her antique regulation of freedom,
Ev'n in the cradle sublime, breathing of glory to come;
All to thine eye was reveal'd, every fragment for thee had its place-mark,
Each misinterpreted sign spake to thine augury clear.
Piercing indeed was thy wit, but combin'd with a heavenlier treasure:
Pure was thy love of mankind: Niebuhr! thy heart was of gold.
True to thy land and thy time, yet with brotherly sympathy scanning
Hoary Humanity's page, welfare and woe of the Past;
Loving thy glance, when it fell on the beauty, the freedom, of Hellas;
Loving thy labour of life, vow'd to the grandeur of Rome :
Yet was there leisure and love for the Orient's holy remoteness:
Never of Muses divine dull was the echo for Thee;
Nor didst thou coldly survey the resurgence of mystical Egypt,
When the unhoped for light flash'd on her Pyramid Tomb.
Thither my venture is bound: but do Thou be the star of my guidance,
Father! As upward I gaze, strengthen the eye and the heart.