Again his waves in milder tints unfold As thus within the walls of Pattas' fane I mark'd the beauties of the land and main, Hours roll'd along, and Dian's orb on high Had gain'd the centre of her softest sky, And yet unwearied still my footsteps trod O'er the vain shrine of many a vanish'd god : But chiefly, Pallas! thine: when Hecate's glare Check'd by the columns, fell more sadly fair O'er the chill marble, where the startling tread Thrills the lone heart, like echoes from the dead, Long had I mused and treasured every trace The wreck of Greece recorded of her race, When lo! a giant-form before me strode, And PALLAS hail'd me in her own abode. Yes-'twas MINERVA's self-but ah! how changed Since o'er the Dardan field in arms she ranged! Not such as erst by her divine command, Her form appear'd from PHIDIAS' plastic hand. Her helm was deep indented, and her lance And ah! though still the brightest of the sky, shame Proclaims thee Briton-once a noble name First of the mighty, foremost of the free, Now honour'd less by all, but least by me; I saw successive tyrannies expire; 'Scaped from the ravage of the Turk and Goth, Thy country sends a spoiler worse than both. Survey this vacant violated fane, Recount the relics torn that yet remain ; These CECROPS placed-this PERICLES adorn'dThat HADRIAN rear'd when drooping Science mourn’d. What more I owe, let gratitude attest. Know, ALARIC and ELGIN did the rest.— Next prowls the wolf, the filthy jackal last; Yet still the Gods are just, and crimes are crost: *It is related by a late oriental traveller that when the wholesale spoliator visited Athens, he caused his own name, with that of his wife, to be inscribed on a pillar of one of the principal temples: this inscription was executed in a very conspicuous manner, and deeply engraved in the marble, at a very considerable elevation. Notwithstanding which precautions, some person (doubtless inspired by the patron goddess) has been at the pains to get himself raised up to the requisite height, and has obliterated the name of the laird, but left that of the lady untouched. The traveller in question accompanied this story by a remark, that it must have cost some labour and contrivance to get at the place, and could only have been effected by much zeal and determination. The portrait of sir Wm. D'Avenant illustrates this line. She ceased awhile, and thus I dared reply, To soothe the vengeance kindling in her eye :— "Daughter of JOVE! in Britain's injured name, A true-born Briton may the deed disclaim. Frown not on England-England owns him not:Athena? no-the plunderer was a Scot.f Ask'st thou the difference? from fair Phile's towers Survey Boeotia :-Caledonia's ours— And well I know within that murky land Each breeze from foggy mount and marshy plain The plaster wall on the west side of the temple of Minerva-polias bears the following inscription, cut in very deep characters :"Quod non fecerunt Goti, Hoc fecerunt Scoti."-- Hobhouse's Travels in Greece, &c. p. 345. And thus accursed be the day and year “Mortal! (the blue-eyed maid resumed once more) Be all his sons as senseless as their sire: Still with his hireling artists let him prate, "Nor will this conduct [the sacrilegious plunder of ancient edifices] appear wonderful in men, either by birth, or by habits and grovelling passions, barbarians, (i. e. Goths) when in our own times, and almost before our own eyes, persons of rank and education have not hesitated to disfigure the most ancient and the most venerable monu |