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THE CURSE OF MINERVA

Pallas te hoc vulnere, Pallas Immolat, et pœnam scelerato ex sanguine sumit. Eneid xii. [948, 949].

ATHENS: CAPUCHIN CONVENT, March 17, 1811. SLOW sinks, more lovely ere his race be run, Along Morea's hills the setting sun; Not, as in northern climes, obscurely bright, But one unclouded blaze of living light! O'er the hush'd deep the yellow beam he throws,

Gilds the green wave that trembles as it glows.

On old gina's rock and Hydra's isle
The god of gladness sheds his parting smile;
O'er his own regions lingering loves to
shine,

Though there his altars are no more divine. Descending fast, the mountain-shadows kiss

II

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Then thousand schemes of petulance and pride

Despatch her scheming children far and wide:

Some east, some west, some every where but north,

150

In quest of lawless gain, they issue forth.
And thus-accursed be the day and year!-
She sent a Pict to play the felon here.
Yet Caledonia claims some native worth,
As dull Bœotia gave a Pindar birth;
So may her few, the letter'd and the brave,
Bound to no clime and victors of the grave,
Shake off the sordid dust of such a land,
And shine like children of a happier strand;
As once of yore in some obnoxious place,
Ten names (if found) had saved a wretched

race.'

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Without one spark of intellectual fire,
Be all the sons as senseless as the sire:
If one with wit the parent brood disgrace,
Believe him bastard of a brighter race. 168
Still with his hireling artists let him prate,
And Folly's praise repay for Wisdom's hate;
Long of their patron's gusto let them tell,
Whose noblest, native gusto is — to sell:
To sell, and make — may Shame record the
day!-

The state receiver of his pilfer'd prey.
Meantime, the flattering, feeble dotard,
West,

Europe's worst dauber, and poor Britain's best,

With palsied hand shall turn each model o'er
And own himself an infant of fourscore.
Be all the bruisers cull'd from all St.
Giles'

That art and nature may compare their styles;

180

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