POETRY. 959 



There all his lofty tones Lucretius gave, 

 And epic transports burst on Mincio's ware, 

 While rov'd the Matin bee o'er sweetest flowers, 

 And all Hymettusbloom'd in Tibur's bowers. 

 Oh, could some God have rent the veil away, 

 And join'd in one the masters of the lay ! 

 Illustrious names! though breath'd the mutual tone 

 In distant climes, unknowing and unknown, 

 Yet haply, by a viewless touch impell'd. 

 Your choral symphonies responsive swell'd. 

 And some spher'd seraph, with the song beguil'd, 

 Lean'd from his rolling orb to hear, and smil'd. 



How swift, O India, fled those happy years! 

 How soon thy palmy glories sunk in tears 1 

 What Muse, unwarm'd, their early bloom can eye. 

 Or sing their alter'd fates without a sigh ? 

 Such thy sad trophies. War ! by thee dismay'd, 

 The classic Graces lly their cherish'd shade. 

 Peace still they love, the moonlight hour serene, 

 Th' unwitness'd musings of some tranquil scene, 

 Where all is calm and joy, within, around, 

 No care to ruflle, and no grief to wound. 

 Oft their bi*ight train, ere yet the war arise, 

 E'en from its distant rumour shrinks and llies : 

 So, ere it touch the steel, the solar ray 

 Plays off fro,m the keen edge, and glides away. 

 But' not alone the trumpet's madding roar 

 Expell'd the weeping Arts from Ganges' shore ; 

 Lo ! nurs'din Superstition's gloomy bower, 

 Vice* wings with added speed the fatal hour; 

 Thick and more thick her blighting breath she sheds, 

 And Learning sickens as the mildew spreads. 

 For still this sovereign principle we find, 

 True in the individual as the kind. 

 Strong links and mutual sympathies connect 

 The moral powers, and powers of intellect 5 

 Still these on those depend by union fine. 

 Bloom as they bloom, and as they fade, decline- 

 Talents, 'tis true, gay, quick, and bright, has God 

 To virtue oft denied, on vice bestow'd ; 

 Just as fond Nature lovelier colours brings 

 To paint the insect's than the eagle's wings. 

 But of our souls the high-born loftier part, 

 Th' ethcrial energies that touch the heart, 



* The inevitable tendency of vice to degrade the fitculties o€. the soul is most 

 «l(jquently insisted on by Longinus, in the last section of his celebrated treatise. 



Conceptions 



