Turns on the neighbouring hill, once more to see So, when the daring sons of Science drew1 The mild Tupio's firm yet fond adieu, To all his soul best lov'd, such tears he shed, While each soft scene of summer-beauty fled: Long o'er the wave a wistful look he cast, Long watch'd the streaming signal from the mast; Till twilight's dewy tints deceiv'd his eye, And fairy forests fring'd the evening sky. So Scotia's Queen, as slowly dawnd the day, Rose on her couch, and gaz’d her soul away. Her eyes had bless'd the beacon's glimmering height That faintly tipt the feathery surge with light; But now the morn with orient hues pourtray'd Each castled cliff, and brown monastic shade; All touch'd the talisman's resistless spring, As kindred objects kindred thoughts excite, These, with magnetic virtue, soon unite. And hence this spot gives back the joys of youth, Warm as the life, and with the mirror's truth. Hence home-felt pleasure prompts the patriot's sigh; This makes him wish to live, and dare to die. For this Foscari, whose relentless fate 4 Venice should blush to hear the muse relate, When exile wore his blooming years away, -To sorrow's long soliloquies a prey, When reason, justice, vainly urg'd his cause, For this he rous'd her sanguinary laws; Glad to return, though hope could grant no more, And chains and torture hail'd him to the shore. And hence the charm historic scenes impart: Hence Tiber awes, and Avon melts the heart. Aerial forms, in Tempe's classic vale, Glance through the gloom, and whisper in the gale; In wild Vaucluse with love and Laurą dwell, And watch and weep in Eloisa's cell.6 'Twas ever thus. As now at Virgil's tomb, & 8 And hence that calm delight the portrait gives : What though the iron school of war erase The intrepid Swiss, that guards a foreign shore, Condemn’d to climb his mountain-cliffs no more, If chance he hears the song so sweetly wildo Which on those cliffs his infant hours beguild, Melts at the long-lost scenes that round him-rise, And sinks a martyr to repentant sighs. 11 Ask not if courts or camps dissolve the charm: Say why Vespasian lov'd his Sabine farm, 10 Why great Navarre, when France and Freedom bled, 1 Sought the lone limits of a forest-shed. When Diocletian's self-corrected mind 12 The imperial fasces of a world resign’d, Say why we trace the labours of his spade, In calm Salona's philosophic shade. Say when ambitious Charles renounc'd a throne, 1 3 To muse with monks unletter'd and unknown, What from his soul the parting tribute drew? Undamp'd by time, the generous instinct glows Far as Angola's sands, as Zembla's snows; Glows in the tiger's den, the serpent's nest, On every form of varied life imprest. The social tribes its choicest influence hail : And, when the drum beats briskly in the gale, The war-worn courser charges at the sound, And with young vigour wheels the pasture round. Oft has the aged tenant of the vale Lean'd on his staff to lengthen out the tale ; Oft have his lips the grateful tribute breath’d, From sire to son with pious zeal bequeath’d. When o'er the blasted heath the day declin’d, And on the scath'd oak warr'd the wintry wind; When not a distant taper's twinkling ray Gleam'd o'er the furze to light him on his way; When not a sheep-bell sooth'd his listening eat, And the big rain-drops told the tempest near ; |