For Fame, impatient of extremes, decays These ever new, nor subject to decays, Spread, and grow brighter, with the length of days. So Zembla's rocks (the beauteous work of frost) Rise white in air, and glitter o'er the coast; Pale suns, unfelt, at distance roll away, And on th' impassive ice the lightnings play ; Till the bright mountains prop th' incumbent sky; The gather'd winter of a thousand years. On this foundation FAME's high Temple stands; Stupendous pile! not rear'd by mortal hands. Whate'er proud Rome or artful Grecce be held, Or elder Babylon, its frame excell'd. Heroes in animated marble frown, And Legislators seem to think in stone. Westward, a sumptuous frontispiece appear'd, On Doric pillars of white marble rear'd, Crown'd with an architrave of antique mold, And sculpture rising on the roughen'd gold. In shaggy spoils here THESEUS was beheld, And PERSEUS dreadful with Minerva's shield: There great ALCIDES, stooping with his toil, Rests on his club, and holds th' Hesperian spoil : Here ORPHEUS sings; trees, moving to the sound, Strikes, and beholds a sudden Thebes aspire! And half the mountain rolls into a wall: There might you see the length'ning spires ascend, The domes swell up, the widening arches bend, The Eastern front was glorious to behold, With di'mond flaming, and Barbaric gold. fame, And the great founder of the Persian name : The sage CHALDEANS rob'd in white appear'd; To midnight banquets in the glimmʼring glades; But, on the South, a long majestic race Of EGYPT'S Priests the gilded niches grace, Who measur'd earth, describ'd the starry spheres, And trac'd the long records of lunar years. High on his car SESOSTRIS struck my view, Whom sceptred slaves in golden harness drew: His hand a bow and pointed javelin hold; His giant limbs are arm'd in scales of gold. Between the statues obelisks were plac'd, And the learn'd walls with hieroglyphics grac'd.. Of Gothic structure was the Northern side, O'erwrought with ornaments of barb'rous pride: There huge Colosses rose, with trophies crown'd; And Runic characters were grav'd around. There sat ZAMOLXIS with erected eyes; And ODIN here in mimic trances dies. There on rude iron columns, smear'd with blood, The horrid forms of Scythian Heroes stood, Druids and Bards (their once loud harps un strung), And youths that died to be by poets sung. The Temple shakes, the sounding gates unfold; Wide vaults appear, and roofs of fretted gold, |