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No more are heard the precepts of her sage;
Nor treads Euripides his moral stage;

Her orators, her heroes, all are fled!

Nor hurl their vengeance on a Philip's head.
The moon, the empress of the gloomy night,
Looks down with terror on the tragic sight;
While mournful wandering her eccentric way
She lights the ruins with her trembling ray, 290
The bird of night espies her grateful beam,
And from some crevice flings his hollow scream.
Imperial Rome, then claim'd the Muses' sway,

Who bade her Virgil rival Homer's lay;
Who bade her Tully, by his finish'd art,
More than Demosthenes controul the heart;
Who bade her Horace sweep his polish'd lyre,
And youthful Lucan burn with raging fire;
Who bade her Livy mark the passing age,
And Sallust form his fascinating page.

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When Rome had fall'n, then Gothic darkness

spread,

And Genius slumber'd with her mighty dead, Then mad Oppression rais'd his scourge on high,

And Superstition flash'd her ghastly eye;

Then Ignorance crept, and hugg'd his iron chains.....
Fell Fury stalk'd, blood bursting from his veins....
Then the proud chieftain of each petty clan,
In dread subjection held his fellow man....

And the poor vassal, with a servile awe,
Submissive bow'd to his tyrannic law;
With suppliant knee kiss'd his vindictive rod,
Sunk his high nature, and dishonour'd God.*

310.

At length from Florence breaks a joyous ray, Which changes darkness to the light of day.

The great Lorenzot, in one common store,
Collects the mouldering rolls of ancient lore,

See Robertson's account of the feudal system in his first volume of his history of Charles V.....and see Gib. bon's decline and fall of the Roman empire.

See the elegant and entertaining history of Lorenzo De Medicis, by Roscoe :

That work, which no one can read without delight, presents to our view the dawn of literature after the long Gothic night. It disperses the clouds from a period the most important and interesting. It unfolds, in its hero Lorenzo, a magnificence which was princely, and a patronage of learning which we cannot estimate too much. To him the whole literary world is indebted. He collected around him, and cherished, and rewarded the geniuses of the day, and by their exertions snatched from the cells of

With princely hand bestows the glittering prize, And bids Philosophy, once more, arise!

Awakes the powers of harmony and love,

And leads the Muses to his peaceful grove. 320

Those worlds which move thro' Nature's boundless

space,

With optic tube see Gallileo trace,

To science give a new and better rule,

And brand with falshood Aristotle's school*....

the monks, and from the ruins of monasteries, where they had long lain mouldering, the precious works of antiquity. It is remarkable that the design of writing the history of Florence under the house of Medicis was formed by Gibbon; but that design he relinquished to trace the decline and fall of the Roman empire.

[See Gibbon's miscellaneous works, vol. i. p. 109.

• To Gallileo the sciences are principally indebted for their illumination and progress. He was the natural son of a Florentine nobleman. The system of Copernicus which so well explains all the phenomena by the motion of the earth round the sun, deserved to have him as a defender. About the end of the 16th century, an accidental discovery was made, of the effects of a concave and a convex glass, adjusted at the ends of a tube; but Gallileo did not hear of this until 1609, when he immediately perceived the advantages that might result from such an instrument, if brought to perfection. He meditated, he made repeated

See then, where England's whiten'd cliffs ascend,

The Arts, with Genius in their course, descend! There close their wings.....there make their lasting home,

And bid their London vie with ancient Rome.

What airy visions rise!

What music floats around!

What rapture bursts upon mine eyes!

What trembling heaves the ground!

The Genius of our seat

Descends, on wings of air;

Soft zephyrs kiss her twinkling feet,
And wave her golden hair

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trials, and soon constructed a telescope which shewed objects three times larger than they were in nature. By still improving his discovery, he at last procured one that magnified three and thirty times. In a word he discovered the mountains of the Moon, the satellites of Jupiter, the phases of Venus, the spots and rotation of the Sun. But enlightening mankind was exposing himself to dreadful misfortunes. The persecutions which he met with in Italy, were as cruel as they are memorable.....He was sentenced to imprison

She casts her view around

Her scientific throng;

She bids the voice of Music sound,

And Echo waft the song.

Sons of Columbus! on whose distant land,

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Peace pours her blessings from her bounteous hand; Whose sail of Commerce, spreads where Ocean

roars,

And brings the tribute of a thousand shores.
O hear my voice!....my warning words attend!
The sceptre own of an immortal friend!
O! what is Virtue cherish and pursue,

Nor lose this darling object from your view;
Your love, your soul, your whole affections, give
To him who died that rebel man might live;
O! banish hence that dark and civil rage,

350

The scourge and curse of this degenerate age;
Let every breast with social virtue move,
Let every bosom own a brother's love.

ment, and constrained solemnly to renounce his discoveries as absurdities and heresies.....He died blind, in 1642, at the age of seventy-eight.

ABBE MILLOT.

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