Alexandria gazette & daily advertiser. [volume] (Alexandria [Va.]) 1817-1822, 1818-07-29
ALEXANDRIA,:
WEDNESDAY MORNING, JULY go.
Nv. cANro OF cHILDE HAROLD.
(Continued.1

led to take glance at the United States,
between the conduct of which and France
in them respective revolutionary struggles,
he draws a contrast no less favorable to
our country than creditable to his own
candor.
Scan tyrants but by tyrants conquered be,
And freedom find no champion and no
child,
Such as Columbia saw arise when she :.
Sprung forth Pallas, armed and undehled
Or must such mind be nourished IN The
wild,
Deep in the unpruned forest, midst the roar
OF cataracts, where nursing nature smiled
On infant Washington? Has earth no more
Such seeds within her breast, or Europe
no such shore
But France got drunk with blood 10 vomlt
crime,
And fatal have her saturnalia been,
To freedoms cause, in every age and cline;
Because the deadly days which we have
seen,
And vile ambition, that built up between
Man and his hopes an adamantine wall,
And the base pageant last upon the scene,
Are grown the pretext for the eternal thrall,
Which nips life's tree, and dooms mans
worst-his second fall.
"Yet freedom! yet thy banner torn, but
flying,
Streams like the thunderstorm against the
wind,
Thy trumpet voice, though broken now
and dying,
The loudest still the tempest leaves behind;
Thy tree hath lost its blossoms, and the
rind,
Chopp'd by the axe, looks rough and little
worth,
But the sap iasts-snd still the seed we find
Sown deep, even in the bosom OF the north;
So shall a better spring less bitter fruit
bring forth.
The sublime ruins, and beautiful remains
of ancient architecture in Rome, derive
from the poetry of lord Byron that lustre
and glow of coloring which genius of the
highest kind alone has the competence TO
bestow upon the objects it pourtrays. Ad-
verting to the circus where the games were
once celebrated, and the gladiators fought,
he says:
"But here, where murder breathed her
bloody steam,
And here where buzzing nations choked
the ways,
And roar'd or murmur'd like a mountain
stream,
Dashing or winding as its torrent strays;
Here, where the Roman millions blame or
Was death or life--the play things Of a
crowd,
Nv voice sounds much-and fall the stars
faint rays
On the Arena yoid-seats crush'd.-walls
bow'd--
And galleries, where my steps seem echoes
strangely loud.
i" A ruin-yet what ruin from its mass,
Walls, palaces, half-cities have been rear'd;
Yet oft The enormous skeleton ye pass,
And marvel where the spoil could have APP
peared.
Hath it been pundered, or but cleared?
Alas, developed, opens The decay,
When the colossal fabrics form is neared:
II will not bear the brightness OF the day,
Which streams loo much on all years, man
have rett away.
&" But when the rising moon begins to climb
Its topmost arch, and gently pauses there
When the stars twinkle through the loops
OF time,
And the low night-breeze waves along the
air,
The garland forest, which the grey walls
wear,
Like laurels on the bold first Casar's head;
When the light shines serene, but doth not
glare,
Then in this magic circle raise the dead:
Heroes have trod this spot-'tis on their
dust you tread.
/" While stands the Coliseum, Rome shall
Hhen falls the Coliseum, Rome shall fall;
And sShen Rome fails-the 1rorid.* From
our own land,
Thus spake the pilgrims DER this mighty
wall
In Saxon times, which we are want 10 call
Ancient; and these three mortal things are
still
On their foundations, and unaltered all [;
Rome and her ruin past redemplion's skill,
The world the same wide den-of thieves,
or what We will.
" Simple, erect, severe, austere, sublime
Shrine of all saints, and temple of all Gods,
From Jove TO JEsUs-spared and blest by
time;
Looking tranquility, while falls or mods
Arch, empire, each thing round thee, and
man plods
His way through thorns and ashes-glorious