Part II: Greece

Thus spoke the Goddess of the fearless eye,
And at her voice renewed the vision rose:
'First, in the dawn of time, with eastern swains
In woods, and tents, and cottages I lived;
While on from plain to plain they led their flocks
In search of clearer spring and fresher field.
These, as increasing families disclosed
The tender state, I taught an equal sway.
Few were offences, properties, and laws.
Beneath the rural portal, palm-o'erspread,
The father senate met. There justice dealt,
With reason then and equity the same,
Free as the common air her prompt decree;
Nor yet had stained her sword with subjects' blood.
The simpler arts were all their simple wants
Had urged to light. But instant, these supplied,
Another set of fonder wants arose,
And other arts with them of finer aim;
Till, from refining want to want impelled,
The mind by thinking pushed her latent powers,
And life began to glow and arts to shine.
'At first, on brutes alone the rustic war
Launched the rude spear; swift, as he glared along,
On the grim lion, or the robber wolf.
For then young sportive life was void of toil,
Demanding little, and with little pleased.
But, when to manhood grown, and endless joys,
Led on by equal toils, the bosom fired —
Lewd lazy rapine broke primeval peace,
And, hid in caves and idle forests drear,
From the lone pilgrim and the wandering swain
Seized what he durst not earn. Then brother's blood
First horrid smoked on the polluted skies.
Awful in justice, then the burning youth.
Led by their tempered sires, on lawless men.
The last worst monsters of the shaggy wood.
Turned the keen arrow, and the sharpened spear.
Then war grew glorious. Heroes then arose,
Who, scorning coward self, for others hved.
Toiled for their ease, and for their safety bled.
West with the living day to Greece I came:
Earth smiled beneath my beam: the muse before
Sonorous flew — that low till then in woods
Had tuned the reed, and sighed the shepherd's pain.
But now, to sing heroic deeds, she swelled
A nobler note, and bade the banquet burn.
'For Greece my sons of Egypt I forsook —
A boastful race! that in the vain abyss
Of fabling ages loved to lose their source,
And with their river traced it from the skies.
While there my laws alone despotic reigned,
And king, as well as people, proud obeyed.
I taught them science, virtue, wisdom, arts.
By poets, sages, legislators sought;
The school of polished life, and human kind.
But, when mysterious superstition came,
And, with her civil sister leagued, involved
In studied darkness the desponding mind —
Then tyrant power the righteous scourge unloosed:
For yielded reason speaks the soul a slave.
Instead of useful works, like nature's great,
Enormous cruel wonders crushed the land;
And round a tyrant's tomb, who none deserved,
For one vile carcass perished countless Uves.
Then the great dragon couched amid his floods.
Swelled his fierce heart, and cried, " This flood is mine,
'Tis I that bid it flow." But, undeceived.
His frenzy soon the proud blasphemer felt;
Felt that, without my fertilizing power.
Suns lost their force, and Niles o'erflowed in vain.
Nought could retard me: nor the frugal state
Of rising Persia, sober in extreme
Beyond the pitch of man, and thence reversed
Into luxurious waste; nor yet the ports
Of old Phoenicia, first for letters famed,
That paint the voice, and silent speak to sight,
Of arts prime source, and guardian! by fair stars
First tempted out into the lonely deep.
To whom I first disclosed mechanic arts
The winds to conquer, to subdue the waves,
With all the peaceful power of ruling trade,
Earnest of Britain; nor by these retained.
Nor by the neighbouring land whose palmy shore
The silver Jordan laves. Before me lay
The promised land of arts, and urged my flight.
'Hail, nature's utmost boast! unrivalled Greece!
My fairest reign! where every power benign
Conspired to blow the flower of human kind,
And lavished all that genius can inspire.
Clear sunny climates, by the breezy main,
Ionian or Aegean, tempered kind:
Light, airy soils: a country rich and gay,
Broke into hills with balmy odours crowned,
And, bright with purple harvest, joyous vales:
Mountains and streams where verse spontaneous flowed,
Whence deemed by wondering men the seat of gods,
And still the mountains and the streams of song:
All that boon nature could luxuriant pour
Of high materials, and my restless arts
Frame into finished life. How many states,
And clustering towns, and monuments of fame,
And scenes of glorious deeds in little bounds!
From the rough tract of bending mountains, beat
By Adria's here, there by Aegean waves,
To where the deep-adorning Cyclad Isles
In shining prospect rise, and on the shore
Of farthest Crete resounds the Libyan main!
'O'er all two rival cities reared the brow.
And balanced all. Spread on Eurotas' bank.
Amid a circle of soft-rising hills,
The patient Sparta one: the sober, hard.
And man-subduing city, which no shape
Of pain could conquer, nor of pleasure charm.
Lycurgus there built, on the solid base
Of equal life, so well a tempered state.
Where mixed each government in such just poise.
Each power so checking and supporting each,
That firm for ages and unmoved it stood,
The fort of Greece! without one giddy hour,
One shock of faction or of party rage.
For, drained the springs of wealth, corruption there
Lay withered at the root. Thrice happy land!
Had not neglected art, with weedy vice
Confounded, sunk. But, if Athenian arts
Loved not the soil, yet there the calm abode
Of wisdom, virtue, philosophic ease,
Of manly sense and wit, in frugal phrase
Confined, and pressed into Laconic force.
There too, by rooting thence still treacherous self,
The public and the private grew the same.
The children of the nursing public all,
And at its table fed — for that they toiled.
For that they lived entire, and even for that
The tender mother urged her son to die.
'Of softer genius, but not less intense
To seize the palm of empire, Athens strove.
Where, with bright marbles big and future pomp,
Hymettus spread, amid the scented sky.
His thymy treasures to the labouring bee.
And to botanic hand the stores of health;
Wrapt in a soul-attenuating clime.
Between Ilissus and Cephissus glowed
This hive of science, shedding sweets divine
Of active arts and animated arms.
There, passionate for me, an easy-moved,
A quick, refined, a delicate, humane,
Enlightened people reigned. Oft on the brink
Of ruin, hurried by the charm of speech
Enforcing hasty counsel immature.
Tottered the rash democracy — unpoised,
And by the rage devoured that ever tears
A populace unequal, part too rich
And part or fierce with want or abject grown.
Solon at last, their mild restorer, rose.
Allayed the tempest, to the calm of laws
Reduced the settling whole, and, with the weight
Which the two senates to the public lent.
As with an anchor fixed the driving state.
'Nor was my forming care to these confined.
For emulation through the whole I poured,
Noble contention! who should most excel
In government well poised, adjusted best
To public weal; in countries cultured high;
In ornamented towns, where order reigns.
Free social life, and polished manners fair;
In exercise, and arms — arms only drawn
For common Greece to quell the Persian pride;
In moral science and in graceful arts.
Hence, as for glory peacefully they strove,
The prize grew greater, and the prize of all.
By contest brightened, hence the radiant youth
Poured every beam, by generous pride inflamed
Felt every ardour burn — their great reward
The verdant wreath which sounding Pisa gave.
'Hence flourished Greece; and hence a race of men,
As gods by conscious future times adored,
In whom each virtue wore a smiling air,
Each science shed o'er life a friendly light,
Each art was nature. Spartan valour hence.
At the famed pass, firm as an isthmus stood;
And the whole eastern ocean, waving far
As eye could dart its vision, nobly checked;
While in extended battle, at the field
Of Marathon, my keen Athenians drove
Before their ardent band an host of slaves.
'Hence through the continent ten thousand Greeks
Urged a retreat, whose glory not the prime
Of victories can reach. Deserts in vain
Opposed their course, and hostile lands unknown,
And deep rapacious floods, dire banked with death,
And mountains in whose jaws destruction grinned,
Hunger and toil, Armenian snows and storms,
And circling myriads still of barbarous foes.
Greece in their view, and glory yet untouched,
Their steady column pierced the scattering herds
Which a whole empire poured; and held its way
Triumphant, by the sage-exalted chief
Fired and sustained. Oh light and force of mind.
Almost almighty in severe extremes!
The sea at last from Colchian mountains seen,
Kind-hearted transport round their captains threw
The soldiers' fond embrace; o'erflowed their eyes
With tender floods, and loosed the general voice
To cries resounding loud — " The sea! the sea! "
'In Attic bounds hence heroes, sages, wits.
Shone thick as stars, the milky way of Greece!
And, though gay wit and pleasing grace was theirs,
All the soft modes of elegance and ease.
Yet was not courage less, the patient touch
Of toiling art, and disquisition deep.
'My spirit pours a vigour through the soul,
The unfettered thought with energy inspires,
Invincible in arts, in the bright field
Of nobler science as in that of arms.
Athenians thus not less intrepid burst
The bonds of tyrant darkness than they spurned
The Persian chains: while through the city, full
Of mirthful quarrel and of witty war.
Incessant struggled taste, refining taste.
And friendly free discussion, calling forth
From the fair jewel, truth, its latent ray.
O'er all shone out the great Athenian sage,
And father of philosophy — the sun,
From whose white blaze emerged each various sect
Took various tints, but with diminished beam.
Tutor of Athens! he in every street
Dealt priceless treasure — goodness his delight,
Wisdom his wealth, and glory his reward.
Deep through the human heart with playful art
His simple question stole, as into truth
And serious deeds he smiled the laughing race.
Taught moral happy life, whate'er can bless
Or grace mankind; and what he taught he was.
Compounded high, though plain, his doctrine broke
In different schools — the bold poetic phrase
Of figured Plato; Xenophon's pure strain.
Like the clear brook that steals along the vale;
Dissecting truth, the Stagyrite's keen eye;
The exalted Stoic pride; the Cynic sneer;
The slow-consenting Academic doubt;
And, joining bliss to virtue, the glad ease
Of Epicurus, seldom understood.
They, ever candid, reason still opposed
To reason; and, since virtue was their aim,
Each by sure practice tried to prove his way
The best. Then stood untouched the solid base
Of Liberty, the liberty of mind;
For systems yet, and soul-enslaving creeds,
Slept with the monsters of succeeding times.
From priestly darkness sprung the enlightening arts
Of fire, and sword, and rage, and horrid names.
'O Greece! thou sapient nurse of finer arts
Which to bright science blooming fancy bore!
Be this thy praise, that thou, and thou alone,
In these hast led the way, in these excelled,
Crowned with the laurel of assenting time.
'In thy full language, speaking mighty things.
Like a clear torrent close, or else diffused
A broad majestic stream, and rolling on
Through all the winding harmony of sound —
In it the power of eloquence at large
Breathed the persuasive or pathetic soul,
Stilled by degrees the democratic storm,
Or bade it threatening rise, and tyrants shook
Flushed at the head of their victorious troops.
In it the muse, her fury never quenched
By mean unyielding phrase or jarring sound,
Her unconfined divinity displayed,
And still harmonious formed it to her will —
Or soft depressed it to the shepherd's moan
Or raised it swelling to the tongue of gods.
'Heroic song was thine; the fountain-bard.
Whence each poetic stream derives its course!
Thine the dread moral scene, thy chief delight!
Where idle fancy durst not mix her voice
When reason spoke august, the fervent heart
Or plained or stormed, and in the impassioned man.
Concealing art with art, the poet sunk.
This potent school of manners, but when left
To loose neglect a land-corrupting plague,
Was not unworthy deemed of public care
And boundless cost by thee — whose every son,
Even last mechanic, the true taste possessed
Of what had flavour to the nourished soul.
'The sweet enforcer of the poet's strain.
Thine was the meaning music of the heart.
Not the vain trill, that, void of passion, runs
In giddy mazes, tickling idle ears;
But that deep-searching voice, and artful hand,
To which respondent shakes the varied soul.
'Thy fair ideas, thy delightful forms.
By love imagined, and the graces touched.
The boast of well pleased nature! Sculpture seized,
And bade them ever smile in Parian stone.
Selecting beauty's choice, and that again
Exalting, blending in a perfect whole,
Thy workmen left even nature's self behind.
From those far different whose prolific hand
Peoples a nation, they for years on years,
By the cool touches of judicious toil,
Their rapid genius curbing, poured it all
Through the live features of one breathing stone.
There, beaming full, it shone, expressing gods —
Jove's awful brow, Apollo's air divine,
The fierce atrocious frown of sinewed Mars,
Or the sly graces of the Cyprian queen.
Minutely perfect all! Each dimple sunk.
And every muscle swelled, as nature taught.
In tresses, braided gay, the marble waved;
Flowed in loose robes, or thin transparent veils;
Sprung into motion; softened into flesh;
Was fired to passion, or refined to soul.
'Nor less thy pencil with creative touch
Shed mimic life, when all thy brightest dames
Assembled Zeuxis in his Helen mixed;
And when Apelles, who peculiar knew
To give a grace that more than mortal smiled,
The soul of beauty! called the queen of love
Fresh from the billows blushing orient charms.
Even such enchantment then thy pencil poured
That cruel-thoughted war the impatient torch
Dashed to the ground, and, rather than destroy
The patriot picture, let the city 'scape.
'First, elder Sculpture taught her sister art
Correct design; where great ideas shone.
And in the secret trace expression spoke;
Taught her the graceful attitude, the turn
And beauteous airs of head; the native act,
Or bold or easy; and, cast free behind,
The swelling mantle's well adjusted flow.
Then the bright muse, their eldest sister, came,
And bade her follow where she led the way —
Bade earth, and sea, and air in colours rise,
And copious action on the canvas glow:
Gave her gay fable; spread invention's store;
Enlarged her view; taught composition high,
And just arrangement, circling round one point
That starts to sight, binds and commands the whole.
Caught from the heavenly muse a nobler aim,
And scorning the soft trade of mere delight,
O'er all thy temples, porticos, and schools.
Heroic deeds she traced, and warm displayed
Each moral beauty to the ravished eye.
There, as the imagined presence of the god
Aroused the mind, or vacant hours induced
Calm contemplation, or assembled youth
Burned in ambitious circle round the sage,
The living lesson stole into the heart
With more prevailing force than dwells in words.
These rouse to glory; while to rural life
The softer canvas oft reposed the soul.
There gaily broke the sun-illumined cloud;
The lessening prospect, and the mountain blue
Vanished in air; the precipice frowned dire;
White down the rock the rushing torrent dashed;
The sun shone trembling o'er the distant main;
The tempest foamed immense; the driving storm
Saddened the skies, and, from the doubling gloom.
On the scathed oak the ragged lightning fell;
In closing shades, and where the current strays,
With peace and love and innocence around.
Piped the lone shepherd to his feeding flock;
Round happy parents smiled their younger selves;
And friends conversed, by death divided long.
'To public virtue thus the smiling arts,
Unblemished handmaids, served; the graces they
To dress this fairest Venus. Thus revered,
And placed beyond the reach of sordid care,
The high awarders of immortal fame,
Alone for glory thy great masters strove;
Courted by kings, and by contending states
Assumed the boasted honour of their birth.
'In architecture too thy rank supreme!
That art where most magnificent appears
The Uttle builder man; by thee refined,
And, smiling high, to full perfection brought.
Such thy sure rules that Goths of every age.
Who scorned their aid, have only loaded earth
With laboured heavy monuments of shame.
Not those gay domes that o'er thy splendid shore
Shot, all proportion, up. First, unadorned
And nobly plain, the manly Doric rose;
The Ionic then, with decent matron grace,
Her airy pillar heaved; luxuriant, last.
The rich Corinthian spread her wanton wreath.
The whole so measured true, so lessened off
By fine proportion, that the marble pile,
Formed to repel the still or stormy waste
Of rolling ages, light as fabrics looked
That from the magic wand aerial rise.
'These were the wonders that illumined Greece,
From end to end' Here interrupting warm,
'Where are they now? (I cried) say, goddess, where?
And what the land, thy darling thus of old? '
'Sunk! (she resumed), deep in the kindred gloom
Of superstition and of slavery sunk!
No glory now can touch their hearts, benumbed
By loose dejected sloth and servile fear;
No science pierce the darkness of their minds;
No nobler art the quick ambitious soul
Of imitation in their breast awake.
Even to supply the needful arts of life
Mechanic toil denies the hopeless hand.
Scarce any trace remaining, vestige grey,
Or nodding column on the desert shore
To point where Corinth or where Athens stood.
A faithless land of violence, and death!
Where commerce parleys dubious on the shore;
And his wild impulse curious search restrains,
Afraid to trust the inhospitable clime.
Neglected nature fails; in sordid want
Sunk and debased, their beauty beams no more.
The sun himself seems, angry, to regard
Of light unworthy the degenerate race,
And fires them oft with pestilential rays —
While earth, blue poison steaming on the skies,
Indignant shakes them from her troubled sides.
But as from man to man, fate's first decree.
Impartial death the tide of riches rolls.
So states must die and Liberty go round.
'Fierce was the stand ere virtue, valour, arts.
And the soul fired by me (that often, stung
With thoughts of better times and old renown,
From hydra-tyrants tried to clear the land)
Lay quite extinct in Greece, their works effaced,
And gross o'er all unfeeling bondage spread.
Sooner I moved my much reluctant flight.
Poised on the doubtful wing, when Greece with Greece,
Embroiled in foul contention, fought no more
For common glory and for common weal,
But, false to Freedom, sought to quell the free;
Broke the firm band of peace and sacred love,
That lent the whole irrefragable force,
And, as around the partial trophy blushed,
Prepared the way for total overthrow.
Then to the Persian power, whose pride they scorned,
When Xerxes poured his millions o'er the land,
Sparta, by turns, and Athens vilely sued;
Sued to be venal parricides, to spill
Their country's bravest blood, and on themselves
To turn their matchless mercenary arms.
Peaceful in Susa, then, sat the great king;
And by the trick of treaties, the still waste
Of sly corruption and barbaric gold.
Effected what his steel could ne'er perform.
Profuse he gave them the luxurious draught,
Inflaming all the land — unbalanced wide
Their tottering states; their wild assemblies ruled,
As the winds turn at every blast the seas —
And by their listed orators, whose breath
Still with a factious storm infested Greece,
Roused them to civil war, or dashed them down
To sordid peace — peace! that, when Sparta shook
Astonished Artaxerxes on his throne.
Gave up, fair-spread o'er Asia's sunny shore.
Their kindred cities to perpetual chains.
What could so base, so infamous a thought
In Spartan hearts inspire? Jealous they saw
Respiring Athens rear again her walls:
And the pale fury fired them once again
To crush this rival city to the dust.
For now no more the noble social soul
Of Liberty my families combined;
But by short views and selfish passions broke,
Dire as when friends are rankled into foes
They mixed severe, and waged eternal war:
Nor felt they furious their exhausted force;
Nor, with false glory, discord, madness blind.
Saw how the blackening storm from Thracia came.
Long years rolled on, by many a battle stained,
The blush and boast of fame! where courage, art,
And military glory shone supreme:
But let detesting ages from the scene
Of Greece self-mangled turn the sickening eye.
At last, when bleeding from a thousand wounds
She felt her spirits fail, and in the dust
Her latest heroes, Nicias, Conon, lay,
Agesilaus, and the Theban friends —
The Macedonian vulture marked his time,
By the dire scent of Cheronaea lured,
And, fierce descending, seized his hapless prey.
'Thus tame submitted to the victor's yoke
Greece, once the gay, the turbulent, the bold;
For every grace, and muse, and science born;
With arts of war, of government elate;
To tyrants dreadful, dreadful to the best;
Whom I myself could scarcely rule: and thus
The Persian fetters, that enthralled the mind,
Were turned to formal and apparent chains.
'Unless corruption first deject the pride
And guardian vigour of the free-born soul.
All crude attempts of violence are vain;
For, firm within, and while at heart untouched.
Ne'er yet by force was freedom overcome.
But, soon as Independence stoops the head,
To vice enslaved and vice-created wants,
Then to some foul corrupting hand, whose waste
These heightened wants with fatal bounty feeds —
From man to man the slackening ruin runs,
Till the whole state unnerved in slavery sinks.'