705

710

"As now another, dash'd against the rock, 66 Drops lifeless down! O! deemest thou indeed "No kind endearment here by Nature giv'n "To mutual terror and Compassion's tears? "No sweetly melting softness, which attracts, "O'er all that edge of pain, the social pow'rs "To this their proper action and their end? "Ask thy own heart, when at the midnight hour "Slow thro' that studious gloom thy pausing eye, "Led by the glimm'ring taper, moves around "The sacred volumes of the dead, the songs "Of Grecian bards, and records writ by Fame "For Grecian heroes, where the present pow'r "Of heav'n and earth surveys th' immortal page, "E'en as a father blessing while he reads

715

"The praises of his son, if then thy soul,

720

"Spurning the yoke of these inglorious days, "Mix in their deeds and kindle with their flame? "Say, when the prospect blackens on thy views,

"When rooted from the base, heroic states "Mourn in the dust, and tremble at the frown "Of curst Ambition; when the pious band "Of youths who fought for freedom, and their sires, "Lie side by side in gore; when ruffian Pride "Usurps the throne of Justice, turns the pomp

"Of public pow'r, the majesty of rule,

730

"The sword, the laurel, and the purple robe,
"To slavish empty pageants, to adorn
"A tyrant's walk, and glitter in the eyes
"Of such as bow the knee, when honour'd urns
"Of patriots and of chiefs, the awful bust
"And story'd arch, to glut the coward rage
"Of regal envy, strew the public way

735

"With hallow'd ruins; when the Muses' haunt, "The marble Porch, where Wisdom, wont to talk "With Socrates or Tully, hears no more,

740

"Save the hoarse jargon of contentious monks, "Or female Superstition's midnight pray'r ; "When ruthless Rapine from the hand of Time "Tears the destroying sithe, with surer blow "To sweep the works of glory from their base, 745 "Till Desolation o'er the grass-grown street

"Expands his raven wings, and up the wall, "Where senates once the price of monarchs doom'd, “Hisses the gliding snake thro' hoary weeds "That clasp the mould'ring column: thus defac'd, "Thus widely mournful when the prospect thrills 751 "Thy beating bosom, when the patriot's tear "Starts from thine eye, and thy extended arm "In fancy hurls the thunderbolt of Jove "To fire the impious wreath on Philip's brow, " Or dash Octavius from the trophy'd car,

L. 755. Philip.] The Macedonian.

755

"Say, does thy secret soul repine to taste

"The big distress? or wouldst thou then exchange "Those heart-ennobling sorrows for the lot "Of him who sits amid the gaudy herd

760

"Of mute Barbarians bending to his nod,

"And bears aloft his gold-invested front,

"And says within himself, "I am a king;

"And wherefore should the clam'rous voice of Woe

"Intrude upon mine ear?"—The baleful dregs
"Of these late ages, this inglorious draught
"Of servitude and folly, have not yet,
"Blest be th' Eternal Ruler of the world!
"Defil'd to such a depth of sordid shame
“The native honours of the human soul,
"Nor so effac'd the image of its Sire.”

765

771

THE

PLEASURES OF IMAGINATION.

BOOK III.

THE ARGUMENT.

PLEASURE in observing the tempers and manners of men, even where vicious or absurd. The origin of vice, from false representations of the fancy, producing false opinions concerning good and evil. Inquiry into ridicule. The Final cause of the sense of ridicule. The resemblance of certain aspects of inanimate things to the sensations and properties of the mind. The operations of the mind in the production of the works of imagination described. The secondary Pleasure from imitation. The benevolent order of the world illustrated in the arbitrary connection of these Pleasures with the objects which excite them. The nature and conduct of taste. Concluding with an account of the natural advantages resulting from a sensible and well formed Imagination.