Fable XVII. the Roman and Barbarian

When ROME was in her height of glory, So find we in historic story; Struck with her universal fame, A travelling BARBARIAN came, Who wish'd in all her parts to see That boasted seat of liberty.

A CITIZEN engag'd to show The stranger all he wish'd to know; O'er all her sev'n proud hills they stray'd, And various observations made; The ROMAN pointing to his guest, Those prospects which he fancied best.

There view our CAPITOL, he cries, Stupendous subject of surprize! Where sits our SENATE framing law, To keep the conquer'd world in awe.

Examine with punctilious care, This spacious AMPHITHEATRE; Where thronging nations may find room— Such is its large, capacious womb.

Behold, with reverence profound! Our vast PANTHEON'S sacred round! Where, wisely suited to the place, Our imag'd Gods give hallow'd grace!

Behold this Column tow'ring high, Which seems to emulate the sky; Those BATHS superb!—see—curious sight! Are fram'd for profit and delight.

View hence the sun his lustre beam, To gild majestic TYBER'S stream; By which our plenteous city gains The produce of unnumber'd plains.

Look round, in short, on ev'ry part, Then freely speak, and from your heart, If Art and Nature so combin'd, With elegance and grandeur join'd, E'er struck your ravish'd eyes before Your footsteps trod the ROMAN shore.

Here the BARBARIAN (for that name Those proud monopolists of Fame, The ROMANS, gave with partial sneer, To all beyond their native sphere;) Admitted, on a curious view, The sev'ral observations true; Yet seem'd to say that solid sense Ne'er doated on magnificence.

Did all, says he, this grandeur come By lawful means, to lordly ROME? For why should many nations groan, To deck a city not their own? Were she by emulative trade, In wealth, and pow'r, superior made; Did she not gain her boasted charms, By rapine, and the force of arms; Could all her pompous marks of state, Avert th' unerring shafts of fate; (For, once she must her ruin mourn, Like other empires in her turn;) Could pow'r and grandeur time defy, Nor ROMANS like BARBARIANS die; Could they procure a better lot, In future worlds, when here forgot; Could they, on life's precarious stage, But add one scene to failing age; Could they from sickness take its pains, Or harmonize disorder'd brains; Could they with kind instructive art, Inform the head, and mend the heart; Could they the hours mispent recal, And shed Divine Content on all; The world might then with justice come, And worship your unrival'd ROME.

But as it is—(excuse a truth, Not the less certain, tho' uncouth; Since sure it cannot be denied) They only serve to pamper pride.