CXXVI. Our life is a false nature-'tis not in The harmony of things,-this hard decree, This boundless upas, this all-blasting tree, Whose root is earth, whose leaves and branches be The skies which rain their plagues on men like dewDisease, death, bondage-all the woes we seeAnd worse, the woes we see not-which throb through The immedicable soul, with heart-aches ever new. CXXVII. Yet let us ponder boldly-'tis a base (1) Our right of thought-our last and only place Is chain'd and tortured-cabin'd, cribb'd, confined, CXXXI. Amidst this wreck, where thou hast made a shrine And temple more divinely desolate, Among thy mightier offerings here are mine, Hear me not; but if calmly I have borne worn This iron in my soul in vain-shall they not mourn? CXXXII. And thou, who never yet of human wrong Had it but been from hands less dear-in this The beam pours in, for time and skill will couch the Dost thou not hear my heart?-Awake! thou shalt, (1) At all events," says the author of the Academical Questions, "I trust, whatever may be the fate of my own speculations, that philosophy will regain that estimation which it ought to possess. The free and philosophic spirit of our nation has been the theme of admiration to the world. This was the proud distinction of Englishmen, and the luminous source of all their glory. Shall we then forget the manly and dignified sentiments of our ancestors, to prate in the language of the mother or the nurse about our good old prejudices? This is not the way to defend the canse of truth. It was not thus that our fathers maintained and must. CXXXIII. It is not that I may not have incurr'd The vengeance, which shall yet be sought and found, But let that pass-I sleep, but thou shalt yet awake. CXXXIV. And if my voice break forth, 't is not that now I shrink from what is suffer'd: let him speak Who hath beheld decline upon my brow, Or seen my mind's convulsion leave it weak; But in this page a record will I seek. Not in the air shall these my words disperse, Though I be ashes; a far hour shall wreak The deep prophetic fullness of this verse, And pile on human heads the mountain of my curse! CXXXV. That curse shall be forgiveness.--Have I not- Have I not suffer'd things to be forgiven? As rots into the souls of those whom I survey. it in the brilliant periods of our history. Prejudice may be trusted to guard the outworks for a short space of time, while reason slumbers in the citadel; but if the latter sink. into a lethargy, the former will quickly erect a standard for herself. Philosophy, wisdom, and liberty support each other: he who will not reason is a bigot; he who cannot, is a fool and he who dares not, is a slave."-Preface, p. 14. 15, vol. i. 1805. (2) See Historical Notes, at the end of this Canto, No. XXVIII.-L. E. CXXXVI. From mighty wrongs to petty perfidy, Have I not seen what human things could do? From the loud roar of foaming calumny To the small whisper of the as paltry few, And subtler venom of the reptile crew, The Janus glance of whose significant eye, Learning to lie with silence, would seem true, And without utterance, save the shrug or sigh, Deal round to happy fools its speechless obloquy. (1) CXXXVII. But I have lived, and have not lived in vain: My mind may lose its force, my blood its fire, And my frame perish even in conquering pain; But there is that within me which shall tire Torture and Time, and breathe when I expire; Something unearthly, which they deem not of, Like the remember'd tone of a mute lyre, Shall on their soften'd spirits sink, and move In hearts all rocky now the late remorse of love. CXXXVIII. The seal is set.--Now welcome, thou dread power! Nameless, yet thus omnipotent, which here Walk'st in the shadow of the midnight hour With a deep awe, yet all distinct from fear; Thy haunts are ever where the dead walls rear Their ivy mantles, and the solemn scene Derives from thee a sense so deep and clear, That we become a part of what has been, And grow unto the spot, all-seeing but unseen. CXXXIX. And here the buzz of eager nations ran, I see before me the Gladiator lie: (1) The following stanza was written as the 136th, but afterwards suppressed : "If to forgive be heaping coals of fire As God hath spoken-on the heads of foes, Than, o'er the Titans crush'd, Olympus rose, Or Athos soars, or blazing Etna glows: True they who stung were creeping things, but what Who sucks the slumberer's blood?-The eagle ?-No: the bat." -P. E. (2) Whether the wonderful statue which suggested this image be a laquearian gladiator, which, in spite of Winkelmann's criticism, has been stoutly maintained; or whether it be a Greek herald, as that great antiquary positively asserted; or whether it is to be thought a Spartan or bar By the Abate Bracci, Dissertazione sopra un Clipeo Votivo, etc. Preface, p. 7, who accounts for the cord round the neck, but not for the horn, which it does not appear the gladiators themselves ever used. Note [A] Storia delle Arti, tom. ii. p 208. + Either Polifontes, herald of Laius, killed by OEdipus; or Cepreas, herald of Euritheus, killed by the Athenians when he endeavoured to barian shield-bearer, according to the opinion of his Italian editor; it must assuredly seem a copy of that masterpiece of Ctesilaus which represented a "wounded man dying, who perfectly expressed what there remained of life in him." Montfaucon ++ and Maffei SS thought it the identical statue; but that statue was of bronze. The Gladiator was once in the Villa Ludovizi, and was bought by Clement XII. The right arm is an entire restoration of Michael Angelo. (3.4) See Historical Notes, at the end of this Canto, Nos. XXIX. XXX.-L. E. (5) Suetonius informs us that Julius Cæsar was particudrag the Heraclidæ from the altar of mercy, and in whose honour they instituted annual games, continued till the time of Hadrian; or Anthemocritus, the Athenian herald, killed by the Megarenses, who never recovered the impiety. See Storia delle Arti, etc. tom. ii. pag. 203, 204, 203, 206, 207, lib. ix. cap. ii. § Storia, etc., tom. ii. p. 207. Note [A.] "Vulneratum deficientem fecit in quo possit intelligi quantum restat animæ." Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. xxxiv. cap. 8. ++Antiq. tom. iii. par. 2. tab. 135. $$ Race. Stat. tab. 61. Mus. Capitol. tom. ii. p. 184. edit. 1788. CXLV. "While stands the Coliseum, Rome shall stand; (1) "When falls the Coliseum, Rome shall fall; [land "And when Rome falls--the world." From our own Thus spake the pilgrims o'er this mighty wall In Saxon times, which we are wont to call Ancient; and these three mortal things are still On their foundations, and unalter'd all; Kome and her ruin past redemption's skill, The world, the same wide den-of thieves, or what ye will. CXLVI. Simple, erect, severe, austere, sublime Shrine of all saints and temple of all gods, But here youth offers to old age the food, Great Nature's Nile, whose deep stream rises higher From Jove to Jesus-spared and blest by time; (2) Drink, drink and live, old man! Heaven's realm holds Looking tranquillity, while falls or nods Arch, empire, each thing round thee, and man plods His way through thorns to ashes-glorious dome! Shalt thou not last? Time's scythe and tyrants' rods Shiver upon thee-sanctuary and home Of art and piety-Pantheon!—pride of Rome! CXLVII. Relic of nobler days, and noblest arts! Despoil'd yet perfect, with thy circle spreads A holiness appealing to all heartsTo art a model; and to him who treads Rome for the sake of ages, Glory sheds Her light through thy sole aperture; to those Who worship, here are altars for their beads; And they who feel for genius may repose Their eyes on honour'd forms, whose busts around them close. (3) CXLVIII. There is a dungeon, in whose dim drear light (4) The blood is nectar:-but what doth she there, With her unmantled neck, and bosom white and bare? CXLIX. Full swells the deep pure fountain of young life; Where on the heart and from the heart we took Our first and sweetest nurture, when the wife, Blest into mother, in the innocent look, larly gratified by that decree of the senate which enabled him to wear a wreath of laurel on all occasions. He was anxious, not to show that he was conqueror of the world, Let to hide that he was bald. A stranger at Rome would hardly have guessed the motive, nor should we without the help of the historian. This is quoted in the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, as a proof that the Coliseum was entire, when seen by the Anglo-Saxon pilgrims at the end of the seventh, or the beginning of the eighth, century. A notice on the Coliseum may be seen in the Historical Illustrations, p. 263. 2) Though plundered of all its brass, except the ring which was necessary to preserve the aperture above; though *xposed to repeated fires; though sometimes flooded by the river, and always open to the rain, no monument of equal antiquity is so well preserved as this rotunda. It passed with little alteration from the Pagan into the present wor ip; and so convenient were its niches for the Christian altar, that Michael Angelo, ever studious of ancient beauty, atroduced their design as a model in the Catholic church." -Forsyth's Italy, p. 137.-2d edit. no such tide. CLI. The starry fable of the milky way Has not thy story's purity; it is A constellation of a sweeter ray, And sacred Nature triumphs more in this Reverse of her decree, than in the abyss Where sparkle distant worlds :-Oh, holiest nurse! No drop of that clear stream its way shall miss To thy sire's heart, replenishing its source With life, as our freed souls rejoin the universe. CLII. Turn to the Mole which Hadrian rear'd on high, (5) Whose travell'd fantasy from the far Nile's To build for giants, and for his vain earth, CLIII. But lo! the dome-the vast and wondrous dome,(6) To which Diana's marvel was a cellChrist's mighty shrine above his martyr's tomb! I have beheld the Ephesian's miracleIts columns strew the wilderness, and dwell The hyæna and the jackall in their shade; I have beheld Sophia's bright roofs swell Their glittering mass i' the sun, and have survey'd Its sanctuary, the while the usurping Moslem pray'd; (3) The Pantheon has been made a receptacle for the busts of modern great, or, at least, distinguished, men. The flood of light which once fell through the large orb above on the whole circle of divinities, now shines on a numerous assemblage of mortals, some one or two of whom have been almost deified by the veneration of their countrymen. For a notice of the Pantheon, see Historical Illustrations, p. 287. (4) There is a dungeon, in whose dim drear light What do I gaze on?" etc. This and the three next stanzas allude to the story of the Roman daughter, which is recalled to the traveller by the site, or pretended site, of that adventure, now shown at the church of St. Nicholas in Carcere. The difficulties attending the full belief of the tale are stated in Historical Illustrations, p. 295. (5) The Castle of St. Angelo.-See Historical Illustrations. (6) This and the next six stanzas have a reference to the church of St. Peter. For a measurement of the comparative length of this basilica, and the other great churches of CLIV. But thou, of temples old, or altars new, Power, Glory, Strength, and Beauty, all are aisled In this eternal ark of worship undefiled. CLV. Enter: its grandeur overwhelms thee not; (1) And why? it is not lessen'd; but thy mind, Expanded by the genius of the spot, Has grown colossal, and can only find A fit abode wherein appear enshrined Thy hopes of immortality; and thou Shalt one day, if found worthy, so defined, See thy God face to face, as thou dost now His Holy of Holies, nor be blasted by his brow. CLVI. Thou movest-but increasing with the advance, Like climbing some great Alp, which still doth rise, Deceived by its gigantic elegance; Vastness which grows-but grows to harmoniseAll musical in its immensities; Rich marbles-richer painting-shrines where flame The lamps of gold-and haughty dome, which vies In air with Earth's chief structures, though their frame Sits on the firm-set ground-and this the clouds must claim. CLVII. Thou seest not all; but piecemeal thou must break, Thy thoughts until thy mind hath got by heart CLVIII. Not by its fault-but thine: our outward sense Is but of gradual grasp—and as it is Till, growing with its growth, we thus dilate Our spirits to the size of that they contemplate. Europe, see the pavement of St. Peter's, and the Classical Tour through Italy, vol. ii p. 125, et seq. chap. iv. (1) "I remember very well," says Sir Joshua Reynolds, "my own disappointment when I first visited the Vatican; but on confessing my feelings to a brother student, of whose ingenuousness I had a high opinion, he acknowledged that the works of Raphael had the same effect on him, or rather that they did not produce the effect which he expected. This was a great relief to my mind; and, on inquiring further of other students, I found that those persons only who, from natural imbecility, appeared to be incapable of relishing those divine performances, made pretensions to instantaneous raptures on first beholding them. In justice to myself, however, I must add, that though disappointed and CLIX. Then pause, and be enlighten'd; there is more Of wonder pleased, or awe which would adore . Its depth, and thence may draw the mind of man Its golden sands, and learn what great conceptions can. CLX. Or, turning to the Vatican, go see Laocoon's torture dignifying painA father's love and mortal's agony With an immortal's patience blending:-vain The struggle; vain, against the coiling strain And gripe, and deepening of the dragon's grasp, The old man's clench; the long envenom'd chain Rivets the living links,-the enormous asp Enforces pang on pang, and stifles gasp on gasp. CLXI. Or view the Lord of the unerring bow, The God of life, and poesy, and light--The Sun in human limbs array'd, and brow All radiant from his triumph in the fight; The shaft hath just been shot-the arrow bright With an immortal's vengeance; in his eye And nostril beautiful disdain, and might And majesty, flash their full lightnings by, Developing in that one glance the Deity. CLXII. But in his delicate form-a dream of Love, Shaped by some solitary nymph, whose breast Long'd for a deathless lover from above, And madden'd in that vision—are exprest All that ideal beauty ever bless'd The mind with in its most unearthly mood, When each conception was a heavenly guestA ray of immortality-and stood, Starlike, around, until they gather'd to a god! CLXIII. And if it be Prometheus stole from heaven The fire which we endure, it was repaid By him to whom the energy was given Which this poetic marble hath array'd With an eternal glory—which, if made By human hands, is not of human thought; And Time himself hath hallow'd it, nor laid One ringlet in the dust-nor hath it caught A tinge of years, but breathes the flame with which 't was wrought. mortified at not finding myself enraptured with the works of this great master, I did not for a moment conceive or suppose that the name of Raphael, and those admirable paintings in particular, owed their reputation to the ignorance and prejudice of mankind; on the contrary, my not relishing them, as I was conscious I ought to have done, was one of the most humiliating circumstances that ever happened to me; I found myself in the midst of works executed upon principles with which I was unacquainted: felt my ignorance, and stood abashed. All the indigested notions of painting which I had brought with me from England, where the art was in the lowest state it had ever been in (it could not, indeed, be lower), were to be totally done away and eradicated from my mind. It was neces A melancholy halo scarce allow'd To hover on the verge of darkness; rays CLXIX. Peasants bring forth in safety. Can it be, O thou that wert so happy, so adored! Those who weep not for kings shall weep for thee, And Freedom's heart, grown heavy, cease to hoard Her many griefs for ONE: for she had pour'd Her orisons for thee, and o'er thy head Beheld her Iris.-Thou, too, lonely lord, And desolate consort-vainly wert thou wed! The husband of a year! the father of the dead! CLXX. Of sackcloth was thy wedding garment made; Sadder than saddest night, for they distract the gaze, Like stars to shepherds' eyes:-'t was but a meteor sary, as it is expressed on a very solemn occasion, that I should become as a little child. Notwithstanding my disappointment, I proceeded to copy some of those excellent works. I viewed them again and again; I even affected to feel their merit and admire them more than I really did. in a short time, a new taste and a new perception began is dawn upon me, and I was convinced that I had origin. ally formed a false opinion of the perfection of the art, and that this great painter was well entitled to the high rank which he holds in the admiration of the world. The truth is, that if these works had really been what I had expected, they would have contained beauties superficial and alluring, but by no means such as would have entitled them to the great reputation which they have borne so long, and so justly obtained."-L. E. beam'd. CLXXI. Woe unto us, not her; (1) for she sleeps well: The fickle reek of popular breath, the tongue Of hollow counsel, the false oracle, Which from the birth of monarchy hath rung Its knell in princely ears, till the o'erstung Nations have arm'd in madness, the strange fate (2) Which tumbles mightiest sovereigns, and hath flung Against their blind omnipotence a weight Within the opposing scale, which crushes soon or late,— CLXXII: These might have been her destiny; but no, Our hearts deny it: and so young, so fair, Good without effort, great without a foe; But now a bride and mother-and now there! How many ties did that stern moment tear! From thy sire's to his humblest subject's breast Is link'd the electric chain of that despair, Whose shock was as an earthquake's, and opprest The land which loved thee so that none could love thee best. CLXXIII. Lo, Nemi! (3) navell'd in the woody hills And, calm as cherish'd hate, its surface wears (1) "The death of the Princess Charlotte has been a shock even here (Venice), and must have been an earthquake at bome. The fate of this poor girl is melancholy in every respect; dying at twenty or so, in childbed-of a boy too, a present princess and a future queen, and just as she be gan to be happy, and to enjoy herself, and the hopes which she inspired. I feel sorry in every respect." B. Letters. -L. E. (2) Mary died on the scaffold; Elizabeth of a broken heart; Charles V. a hermit; Louis XIV. a bankrupt in means and glory; Cromwell of anxiety; and, "the greatest is behind," Napoleon lives a prisoner. To these sovereigns a long but superfluous list might be added of names equally illustrious and unhappy. (3) The village of Nemi was near the Arician retreat of |